My Pitch

As part of our project, we had to produce a presentation to pitch our FMP ideas.

Notes of feedback was about the detail of my book: like the story, characters, etc. At this point in time I wanted a 'blank' character that all children could relate to. One note made was the gender of the character. Would it be obvious? I had decided my character to be a girl, but be simplistic. An additional note was how were boys going to relate or like the character?

It made me think about a lot, but I decided not to change the character, but give her a name and identity that isn't classed as too 'girly'. Instead, I also made sure the colour scheme was simple, and Ruri (my character) didn't dress up in too much pink or purple.

Another bit of feedback was timing. At that point, I had no illustrations or words written for this book. However, I had Easter holiday to come and no other priorities. This helped a lot, and I found days where I would just try out new styles and character concepts. By the end of the holidays, I had all the illustrations I needed, and a couple of stories.

My project and any changes

During the Easter holidays I really struggled with the style of illustrations of my book. I wanted a Shaun Tan type of style with my book, but I grew tired of the illustrations I tried to draft. I wanted more of a simplistic look for it. After stressing a lot over it, I came across with a book I bought last year - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It's a book that was aimed at children, but is also a huge hit with adults. I love the simplistic effect of the illustrations, and how they interact with the page. I wanted to have a similar idea with my book.

So, I drew up the illustrations (which I don't hate, whoop), and started to put it in InDesign.

I yet have to adjust the layout and possibly colouring of the book, based on feedback I'll receive tomorrow, which will be super helpful. Based on this feedback, I could keep going with my original Tan idea, or the new adjusted target audience with a Saint-Exupery inspiration.

Who knows?

I will. Tomorrow. And I'll update you.