This one, "Dogfish" was actually brought to my attention by Sister no.3 a while ago, who was concerned it was a bit too much like my "Fish Don't Play Ball" book for her liking. Although I can see there are obvious parallels (like a dog, a fish and a boy), it's not all that similar in storyline. There are no original ideas, after all!
I love the retro-yet-modern feel of this one, (written by Gillian Shields and illustrated by Dan Taylor) and I particularly like the way the backgrounds are just suggested. I rarely put backgrounds into my work these days, and when I do I find it difficult. I'm definitely inspired by the simple blocks in the one above that just say "New York" (or similar) without being too obvious or detailed or distracting from the characters.
This one I picked up just for its sense of fun. This is "Hattie The Bad" written by Jane Devlin and illustrated by Joe Berger.
I often get a bit bogged down by making sure arms and legs are positioned in a realistic way, but what I like here is that you read the limbs as limbs without them being too anatomically correct. I love the one above where she's flashing her knickers. I know I'd freak out about how to show the position of her head here, but the way Joe has done it is great. Simple yet effective! That should be my mantra. Nice typography, too.
Well, that's it for now. I come across great picture books all the time - perk o'the job - so I'm sure I will be putting more up here as soon as I find them.
Now I suppose I ought to create some new work of my own to put up as I've been a little lax lately. I have a session booked for next Tuesday at the print studio where I'm going to print up "Wicked Witch" and "Unicorn". They tell me that they are running lots of courses there over the summer, so I might not be able to go back for a while after that. I shall have to work on setting up my own print studio at home....
2 comments:
I like that both have moonlight trough window effects. :)
So they do! How did I not notice that?!
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