Danette Byatt is currently studying our Illustrating Children’s books Follow on Course, however has taken some time out to enter into the Illustrate It Competition. Danette has written a little about how she came up with the ideas for her entry which you can see below. We wish Danette all the best in this competition along with anyone else who is entering!
—————————————————————————-
I’m currently working through the follow-on course to Children’s Illustration and took a short break from the coursework to complete an entry for the Illustrate It 2013 competition. It was a lot of fun and I’m happy with the result.
My dream is to illustrate a children’s book, and now I just need enough votes to get me in the top 3 to possibly make that dream become reality, then its up to the judges. I’d so very much appreciate it if you would share this for me to generate a bit of an awareness, and it might even get me a vote or two 🙂
The background on the competition is that Monsieur Odyssey wrote a children’s story called ‘The Lucky Book’ and he is looking to find an illustrator, and once complete he will then self-publish. Voting has commenced and the 3 with the most votes will be judged by Monsieur Odyssey, along with a judging panel.
To give you some idea about my concept, I view the story as having 3 distinct sections and I chose colour to differentiate Stanley’s “journey”. At first, Stanley feels unremarkable. In this part, its simply just black & white.
The middle ‘section’ his luck starts changing, and little pops of colour start to appear. I choose yellow, orange plus red / orange as fits well with his lucky book and I felt he simply just must have curly ginger hair! Finally, Stanley’s epiphany – and BAM! full bright, happy colours throughout.
This supports the story’s optimistic message and I love the retro feel it gives with the use of soft pencil crayons. If I were to win, I would finish the book by having the cover appear as if it’s the very same lucky book in the story giving the child hope s/he can also be ‘lucky’ and confident in what they set out to accomplish.
I also carried good underlying messages in the imagery – including all children wearing safety googles in science class and cake that wasn’t served in a school’s cafeteria – I wouldn’t want that unhealthy message going to a child (Jamie Oliver would approve!). For me, it’s the fine details in the illustration that pulls it all together and captures a child’s imagination while gently teaching good values.
The direct link to vote for my entry can be found here >> Please vote for me! Thank-you so very much in advance! I really appreciate it.
Danette Byatt
I voted and shared.
Love the illustrations.