Exercise: Working for children

It is good to prepare for this exercise just at the time of Rupert Bear turning 100 !

Here is the detail from the BBC webpage November 2020:-

A little bear is celebrating a very big birthday: Rupert has turned 100. To commemorate the milestone, the anthropomorphic adventurer has been honoured by the Royal Mail in a set of eight stamps.

Rupert first appeared in the Daily Express on 8 November 1920, as Little Lost Bear – the work of illustrator Mary Tourtel.

The character, whose famous red jumper was originally blue, was part of the newspaper’s push to attract new readers.

Alfred Bestall took over from Tourtel in 1935 as Rupert’s illustrator, remaining with him until the early 1970s, and it’s his distinctive style that appears in the new stamps.

The Rupert Bear Annual has been published ahead of Christmas every year since 1936.

Stuart Trotter is today’s annual illustrator

Stuart, from County Durham, has illustrated the annual’s cover and created a story for it since 2008. It’s a process that can take up to six months”.

Stuart goes on to explain:-

“I lived in Ferryhill, it was a mining town, everything was very black and white – the TV was black and white, the newspaper was black and white, and then on Christmas Day I got my first annual and there was this amazing blaze of colour and imaginative stories, and I was just hooked from then on,” says Stuart, who has also illustrated Postman Pat and Kipper the Dog.

“The Rupert I remember was illustrated by Alfred Bestall. I just loved his style of artwork and Rupert is an iconic character; he’s very much in his time, and so there’s no mobile phones, there are no computers – I did introduce a television in one story, but it was a Bakelite television”

So after wishing Rupert Bear Happy Birthday I am returning to OCA exercise. In the description above other well-known children’s characters are mentioned – Thomas the Tank Engine, Postman Pat, – additional ones may be Pepper Pig, usually these have been then adapted for television or even customised especially for TV eg. teletubies, clangers etc. However in this exercise I intend to concentrate on the original comic and book illustrations.

So an example of imagery for children of each for certain age groups:-

Pre-reader:-

Ladybird books

Ladybird have been producing learning to read books for many years: eg. Puppies & Kittens by M.E.Gagg:- (A ladybird learning to read book). Illustrated by H.Woolley

The pictures are delightful accompanied by short text:-

Inside the cover it explains “This book has been specially designed to help with the beginnings of reading. Through careful choice of words, frequent repetition and thoughtful matching of text with pictures, children can almost teach themselves to read the simple sentences in this book”.

The very hungry caterpillar is an example of a book to help children start reading . Eric Carle (born June 25, 1929) is an American designer, illustrator, and writer of children’s books.:-

You can see the simple colour, repeated shapes, mainly ovals to represent a caterpillar.

Pre-school (3-5):-

And plenty more:-

The imagery is of bright colours. And the style is relatively simple – an almost square block dress for Pepper Pig, an oval for a face and two arches for the ears. This helps children identify and name items. The idea is that additional details can be brought to their attention once they are able to recognise the initial form.

Early-Reader (5-7):-

Here the detail in the illustrations starts to be included. The shapes are less basic and there is more patterning and variety of colour.

Winnie the Pooh remains for ever popular:-

“Now we are Six” consists of rhymes, the matching tones of rhyming helps children. This is demonstrated well in Julia Donaldson’s books (Gruffalo, The Whale and the Snail), illustrated by Alex Scheffler:-

Judith Kerr – wrote and illustrated “The Tiger who came for Tea” and books about “Mog the Cat”

Another cat – “The Cat in the Hat ” by Dr Seuss. The Cat in the Hat is a 1957 children’s book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss. The story centers on a tall anthropomorphic cat who wears a red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. The Cat shows up at the house of Sally and her brother one rainy day when their mother is away.

Established reader and older age groups:-

Books by Roald Dahl illustrated by Quenin Blake. Now children are at the age to have acquired knowledge of their environment and identify subjects, the imagery can undergo some distortion and further characterisation.

The moment the peach is born:

Books written and illustrated by Chis Riddell:-

Other well-known children’s illustrators include Beatrice Potter (animal stories) & Rev. Awdry (Thomas the Tank Engine & others in this railway series)

Hilda Boswell was a British illustrator and writer of children’s books. She was born in London in 1903, the daughter of an architect, and studied at Hornsey School of Art and Regent Street Polytechnic. Her preferred medium was watercolour, and she admired the work of Beatrix Potter, Kate Greenaway and Arthur Rackham.

Today there are a whole variety of illustrated books and stories for children to choose from:-

So the books above give just a few examples of the resources available and I now feel ready to complete my response to the OCA exercise by producing two children’s illustrations around the word “Journey”.

One for pre-school (3-5) – chosen animal – frog

One for established reader – chosen animal – cat

Here is the spider diagram for the frog imagery:-

And a mood board of a frog, pond/pond life and greenery:-

However during the process of creating the mood board, I change my mind about choosing a frog as the main character and decide on the bee instead, flying through the air. I think is it OK to reform an idea generated through the spider diagram/mood board process – after all that is the purpose of these tools to help in the decision making. Rather than thumbnails I do sketches inspired by the mood board:-

The aim is to keep the shapes simple – ovals for the bee, and simple imagery.

Finally a line visual. The flower petals are now more triangular to add just a little variety from ovals. And additional detail of the bee’s legs. Although everything is simplified I am surprised that it is proving quite a thoughtful process :-

And here is the final picture in acrylics for pre-school children with bright colours and simple outlines;-

If I were to repeat this, I would make the flower larger and have it more settled so you can see where it grows from the ground rather then cutting off the stem at the edge of the page. The bee’s wings were not that straight forward to depict and I did consider placing the two lower ones further back at one point. The trail behind the bee was originally going to be done in clear lines however the brush strokes give a sense of movement in what otherwise would be a rather static design.

Here is the spider diagram for the cat imagery:-

And a mood board of cats on roofs, posts and pathways:-

For an older child there can be some distortion of imagery as they are now able to recognise animals and environments. More detail can be added together with distance and perspective, rather than just flat colour and shape. So here is a cat hitching a lift to the shops may be, while another one looks on and waves.

And now just clarifying some of the line work as a clearer visual as a pencil drawing:-

And now in black ink – I decide I would like “scratchy ” marking with free wash work – in the style of Quentin Blake;-

Finally the finished piece for older established readers. By this time they know what cats look like in general so the imagery although distorted will be understood.

Overall this exercise has been very absorbing and actually more difficult than it looks.

I feel more satisfied with the cats than with the bee even though the bee is a more simplified image. The cats tell more of a story.