My favourite version of Gonzo

I found that one day, when I took a different sketching approach, I hit upon a Gonzo drawing that I LOVED! I shut down everything I had been previously looking at for character inspiration and just sat with a pen and paper and let it flow naturally.

I ended up with a very messy character that had a very odd shape and then began to experiment on illustrator with different lines, colours and facial features to find one that I felt best suited him. I spent 2 full days getting this character to the exact way I wanted him to be on Illustrator. I realised after this that time management is something I needed to work on in Phase 2 as allocating 2 days to one design under the time bracket I was under, could of been a little silly. However, Gonzo is my main character and creating him exactly how I wanted is very important to me.

I actually only realised afterwards that I may of sought subconscious inspiration for Gonzo from the ‘Chow Chow’. The size of this dog was always  on my mind.

What makes a good Children’s book?

I came across a couple of lovely websites that I thought I should blog about! One of the articles was called ‘What makes a good children’s book? It was a short and sweet write up that helped me to really think of the important factors in this process! I have included part of the article below.

What exactly makes a good children’s book?

So what’s the difference between a mediocre children’s book and a great one? As a bestselling children’s book author, here are the three criteria for a good children’s book.

1. Strong characters who evoke strong emotion

Good children’s books, no matter how simple or complex, offer a sense of joy.  They can make us laugh or cry by giving us a character we want to care about.

Think Curious George, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Berenstein Bears, Winnie the Pooh or even Fancy Nancy.

Even if a kid’s book doesn’t have that central character, the language itself needs to connect on an emotional level like Dr. Seuss’s fanciful texts.

2. A Story that Teaches

Good stories can teach simple concepts about numbers, letters or colors — OR they can teach about diversity, love, manners, and acceptance.

3. Mind-expanding illustrations, vocabulary or concepts

Great children’s book can tell just as much story through the artwork and offer an author the opportunity to expand young minds through interesting poetic language, fun alliteration, advanced vocabulary, etc.

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I also came across another EXCELLENT article that I enjoyed reading so much! I have attached the link to the site below for my own personal record also.

http://www.meghan-mccarthy.com/illustratorsguide.html

Facial Expressions

Every good character has a distinctive face. If we look at any well known cartoon throughout the years, we can tell their faces straight off.

I enjoy drawing different googly eyes and funny mouths. I obviously had to take into account that I am drawing for animals, so I took faces like Mickey Mouse and Scooby Doo as inspiration! I have attached some rough facial ideation below.

I then circled some of the expressions that I favoured the most and drew some rough designs on Adobe Illustrator!

 

Gonzo as a German Shepard

A german shepherd is definitely the most common type of guard dog that I’ve came across so I am strongly considering using the dog as my character. I took inspiration for this rough illustration from a few different photographs that I gathered online. It really is a beautiful dog and I enjoyed drawing it. However, I found it difficult to make the dog look happy, as its features are quite strong. I can always try different ways in the future.

Gonzo looking worried : 

 

Story – Draft 2

Gonzo the Guard Dog

 

Gonzo is the biggest dog you ever will see,

he’s tall and he’s large and very scary.

 

When people see Gonzo they get a big fright,

his owners think he will protect them at night.

 

What people don’t know is that Gonzo is fearful,

when he hears a loud noise, he starts getting tearful.

 

Spiders, mice and creatures with wings,

Gonzo is scared of all kinds of things.

 

However, Gonzo’s not scared of ruby the robin,

She has always been there when he’s had a problem.

 

Ruby can tell when gonzo’s distressed,

She is the one, who knows him the best.

 

One cold and rainy night in December,

Gonzo saw something he’d always remember.

 

Late at night in the garden at home,

Gonzo felt frightened, scared and alone.

 

All of a sudden, his ears pricked up,

with a sweep of his tail, he knocked over his cup.

 

The skin on his back began to crawl,

A cat was climbing over the garden wall.

 

Gonzo crept out for a closer look,

One glance at the beast and gonzo was shook.

 

With his devilish claws, and sharp jagged teeth,

He lurked towards the tree, where ruby lay beneath.

 

Gonzo grew panicked as ruby was in danger,

He terribly feared this unwelcome stranger.

 

He decided to act, and held his head high,

Ran at the intruder, and leapt very high.

 

The cat grew surprised and jumped back from its prey,

Gonzo stood tall, as it scurried away.

 

Little Ruby stood up and applauded aloud,

Gonzo had never felt so proud.

 

When she went back to sleep, Gonzo sat there and thought,

“Look what good facing my fears has brought!”

Story Changes

I had to make a lot of changes to my story. I realised that the idea of a burglar coming over the back garden wall could indeed be to frightening for children, as this is a real issue. I focused on how to make this obstacle more fantasy based. I decided upon a cat as an alternative to the thief for various different reasons.

As I began this thinking process, parts of the storyline weren’t making sense with the incorporation of the cat. I had the thought that introducing another character solve this problem.

The images I’ve attached beneath are rough (and messy!) documents of my thinking process.

Stick Man

This was one of the first books that I have read by Julia Donaldson. I love how she has taken an everyday object of a stick and gave it an identity. The stick has been taken away from his loved ones through various different events that bring him far away from home. These events include getting thrown to a dog, forming part of a birds nest, becoming a flag mast on the top of a sand tower and many more.

The story ends with the stickman being brought home by Santa Claus, who finds him in the chimney. This story really appealed to me, especially considering the time of year coming up to Christmas!

I feel that the story would have the ability to captivate children’s imaginations from the very beginning as this is an object children play with in the park and all of a sudden it has a life of its own. Some inspiration that I took was the fact that some of the concepts in the story would need some explanation which would need to be explained to them by an parent or teacher. This only encourages imagination.

Axel Scheffler is the illustrator of Stick Man and who has worked on many of Julia Donaldson’s stories. His illustrations really bring the story to life in the details!

Julia Donaldson

I was advised last week during my meeting to look at Julia Donaldson books for inspiration. She has a very interesting history of singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television, before becoming an author of children’s books in 1993, when one of her songs, “A Squash and a Squeeze” was made into a book.

I was surprised to see that she has written 193 books. (92 of them can be bought in shops, and the other 101 are for schools.)

I have read a selected of her books this week that I could get my hands on online and in the library that I have written separate blog posts on. I have gathered a lot of inspiration from them.

 

Post-meeting thoughts

After my FYP meeting this week, I know now that I need to make some adjustments to my storyline.

The obstacle that my main character, Gonzo, faces in the story is a burglar who is climbing over the back garden wall with supposed intent to rob the house. After discussion today at my meeting, this now seems to be too scary an option for young children, especially in the age bracket that I am targeting, 4-7 years.

I now need to adjust the story in a way that the obstacle isn’t such a realistic problem like a robber or thief, to a more unrealistic obstacle such as introducing another character.

I also have set aside aims for the following week, that include developing my character of Gonzo more as well as developing my illustration style better. I plan to make some more trips to the library also to look at books which have various different layouts of the wording that I can seek inspiration from.

Storyline

After nulling over different options, I came to a decision.

I came up with the idea of using a guard dog as my character. I want the dog to be big and strong, but inside he is easily scared and afraid. This in a sense is his “defect”. His owners think that he will protect them and are not aware that he is so easily frightened.

Every story, no matter how small it is, needs it to have a turning point. I came up with the idea of the dog to be faced with something that puts his owners/family in danger, and he is forced to face his fears.

I want to write about a burglar attempting to get into their house, which would put the family in danger. The dog will be forced to face his fears in order to protect his owners.

I want to story to end with the realisation that he faced his fears and to acknowledge that his self-confidence has improved. This will subtly teach children to not be afraid and to have confidence in themselves.

I also recently decided on the name “Gonzo” for the dog!