Presentation

Talk about it!

As promised, here is our final post about how best to present our book.

If you are in primary school then that means you will have already recieved your cover and plasic wallets. All you have to do is put the coloured and white pages back to back and slot them into the wallets in the right order.

It will go like this:

Inside fount cover v white page verse one

Coloured verse 2 v white page

Coloured verse 3 v white page

Coloured verse 4 v white page

Coloured verse 5 v white page

Back page credits v Inside back cover

• A white page should always be back to back with a colour page, so follow the zig zag motion.

I hope that’s ok and that you understand it and are not too confused.

Fount Cover

I think it’s ok to leave the frount cover blank, as it is so colourful, and it makes the pictures and lovely detail inside the book more of a surprise.

Showing of your 3D artwork

If you chose to make your coloured pages 3D, then you might want to show that off, so that people don’t have to take the page out of it’s plastic wallet to touch and feel the raised texture.

• If you want to show your 3D artwork off then you will need to mark out a square on your plastic wallet.
• Imagine you were drawing a border around the edge of the wallet and then cut out the middle.
• This is a bit tricky so you will probably need a grown up to help.
• Keep the middle of the wallet with your other craft materials as scrap bits like this are useful for all sorts of things, including drawing on.
• You should be left with a plastic frame that will hold your work in place, but let people see and touch the raised bit of your drawing.

Well done!

This is the final post of The Big Draw 2008! You have finished your project!!

This lovely fellow, who you might recognise, would like to say ‘Goodbye!’

See you again next year….

Sometimes it is such good fun to do things with your friends…

We really should do it more often!

If you want to see what other children across the country have been doing for The Big Draw you can check here:

Thank you, it’s been brilliant! xxx

The White Pages – Illustrated with meaningfull objects

If you decided to put the text of the poem on the white pages, then you might not have room for a comic strip.

If this is you, then we are going to fill up the white border around the text with objects that are related to key words in the poem.

I have picked out the key words for you, as I felt some words lent themselves to illustration better than others.

Talk about it!

Remember we are only illustrating verses 2-5, on the white pages of our picturebook.

Verse 2:

• Magic
• It’s Halloween today so try and think of lots of magic things, witches and wizards and Harry Potter and pumpkins and spells and fairy’s and elves and broomsticks and wands and all sorts of other things to do with magic.
• You can make a spider diagram to help you think.
• When you have enough ideas, either draw the magic things yourself or find pictures from newspapers, magazines and the internet and cut them out and stick them in around the text.

Verse 3

• Electricity
• Cut out pictures of things that run on electricity; kettles and hairdryers and lawnmowers and motorbikes and anything else you can think of.
• Stick the pictures all around the text.

Verse 4

• Cross
• Try and find pictures of people looking cross. You can either do an image search on the internet and cut them out and stick them in, or you can put your new cartoon skills to use and draw lots of pictures yourself.
• If you are drawing pictures yourself then make sure the pictures all look different.
• We are trying to explore the theme of looking or being cross. We are not trying to draw one of our friends or family getting angry (although sometimes that is tempting.)

Verse 5

• Magic
• Because the poem repeats like a song, so does our theme.
• In verse five I want you to illustrate magic again, but this time chose a different type of magic.
• Look at the things around you in nature and creation and cut out pictures of things you think are magic.
• Some examples might be; the changing of the seasons, when all the leaves turn red and gold; the weather, thunder and lighting and so on; birds migrating; young animals being born…can you think of any more?
• Draw the pictures, or do an image search for the things you have chosen and cut them out and stick them on.

Doodle it!

Have fun, but remember not to stick things too close to the edge of the page, leave at least 3 cm of space all around as a border to leave room for your fingers turning the edge of the pages, and for the spine of the book.

Well Done!

You have taken part in ‘The Big Draw 2008′ and designed and illustrated a poetry picturebook!

You are officially awesome!

I expect that filling up The White Pages will take most of the weekend, but I will post again on Monday for some final advice on presentation, and putting your book together.

Big hugs!! xxx

The White Pages – Comic book style

What happens to the white pages is up to you. It is your chance to be creative and to shine – to make the book your own.

But I do have a few suggestions:

• Imagine a mini story for each verse and use stick men to act your story out on the white pages.
• You can use different colours for the different stickmen if you want to show who they are, or you could give them a meaningful accessory, like a hat, a hairbow, a distinctive hairstyle, a pair of glasses…
• Think carefully about the person you are trying to represent, and what makes them unique
• If they often wear an accessory or you associate them with a certain object, then use that on your stick man drawing.
• If you can’t think of anything then just draw them in a different colour and make sure it is the same colour all the way through, so your audience knows who they are.

 

• You can have five frames for each verse, to tell your story.
• If you are struggling with how to do this, you could tell your story over the five days of the school week, and label each frame Monday, Teusday, ect…
• Or three frames for each verse, to tell your story.
• If you are using three frames then you won’t have much time or space, so just think of a beggining, a middle and an end.
• You will probably need to use some text if you are using three frames to tell your story.

 

• You can arrange your frames going across the page, or up and down the page.
• Try and make all your frames the same size, you may need to measure them with a big ruler.
• Make each frame as BIG as possible.

 

Talk about it!

• Plan your story out on a peice of scrap paper before you draw it in your book.
• Ask your friend if it is clear what the story is from the pictures.
• If your friend is not sure, then you could consider writing in some text to make it clear what you are trying to tell people.
• Try to use as little text as possible.
• Most of the story telling should come from the pictures.

Adding text

• If you are going to add text to your comic you will need to plan where it is going to go before you draw your pictures.
• The pictures are the focus point of your story.
• You can add text to comics in three ways.

1. You can write in capital letters at the top or bottom of the page. this is like giving your story a narrator (someone who reads the story but does not play a charecter. Actors play different parts in a play or TV show, but story books are read out loud by a narrator)
2. You can add text in thought bubbles- this shows what the charecter is thinking, but we have already used this so I don’t want you to do this one.
3. You can add speach in speach bubbles- this shows a reader what the charecters are talking about, charecters say the text in their speach bubbles ‘out loud.’
4. Lastly, and this is a bit of a cheat, you can add text in sound effects.If you have ever seen the Batman comics they were great at this, and the even did the same thing in the Tv show: Pow! Zap! Bang! Wallop! You get the idea!!!!

• So try not to add too much text, as it may make your story look cluttered.
• Text in comic books is generally written in capital letters which are bigger than lower case letters and take up more room.
• Plan for the room that your text will take up in your story frame by drawing a straight line with your ruler and writing along it.
• You can try this on your draft drawing if you want an idea how long your line needs to be.

Doodle it!

Think of a mini story from your life for each verse of the poem ( verses 2-5) and get doodling!

Well Done!

This is a hard doodle, and you are being left almost completely on your own, but it should be lots of fun!!!!!