Here are a few pages from my EMP final piece, a children's nature book...

Business Card Design

Ergh I am far too young to have a business card...

Promotional Postcard

I've been catching up on a bit of the Professional Practise Unit over the last few days. Thought it would be nice for people coming to view the exhibitions to take a little sample of my work away with them. Do I like the info on the the side of the postcard though? Hmm... not sure.



 

I took a trip to about 8 different London gardens, parks, and nature reserves. I went in search of ideas for the content of my book (such as how to best make use of small outdoor areas, how to attract wildlife, what to look out for, how to spot things and so on.) I also wanted to gather some imagery which I could base my illustrations upon, people enjoying the outdoor spaces, the way things were constructed etc. My main aim was to really build a sound and thorough understanding of 'urban nature'.

Above left: a photo from Camley Street Nature Reserve. To one side of the park was Regent's Canal and this industrial-looking building and to the other was Kings Cross St. Pancras. Seemed such an unlikely place to have such a peaceful space. Probably the most built  up area but the most natural park of all of my visits. Above right: Some bird boxes at Abney Park.

Above left and below: I am really interested in the juxtaposition between the natural and the urban in these images. The images capture what I want to demonstrate within my book: that  these two opposites can in fact live in harmony with one another.

I want to look more closely at different angles and viewpoints within my illustrations for this project and this image may perhaps be a starting point for this.



A very encouraging clip:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/audioslideshow/2011/mar/22/best-new-illustrators-awards-audio-slideshow

Thanks for finding this Hannah : )

Also thanks to Emily for finding this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/mar/25/british-summer-time-strengthen-nature

Below is a family portrait of the final characters I have chosen to base my EMP book around; Nana, Grampy, Olive and Willem. I wanted to create an image which each character is included within, to make sure that they work together, in terms of colours, appearence, size etc, which I think they do! Yipee!

A few of my fellow AUCB illustrators and myself made an alternative 'recipe book', take a look by clicking on the link below...

http://issuu.com/obrotheridge/docs/arecipefor...

Useful Blogs

There are so many blogs that I have used as research for this project. These blogs have given me such encouragement, by proving to me that so many people care about the subject of children and nature. The creators and followers of these blogs share my passion and interest in the topic and have inspired my efforts to try and encourage change.

So for any of you who share my interests in the topic, here are the links to these websites:

http://loveoutdoorplay.net/

http://www.childrenandnature.org/blog/

http://natureforkids.net/

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/

I wanted to explore other artists who have used characters within their work. I love this simple, understated stlyle, it proves how powerful such simple designs can be.


                       

                      

Beginning to Put the Characters into Situe

I have started to put the more completed and finished characters into different situations. I have explored the different 'to do's' and activities that I might use within the final book and I intend on continuing my exploration until I build a vast 'bank' of activities, guides and tasks that are worthy of including in the final piece.

Making bird cakes with Evie : )

I have encouraged my niece to join me in doing the activities I might choose to incorporate within the final book. I want to continue to use her as my model, so that I will have visuals to work from when putting the characters into different positions etc.