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.

Boy Characters

After sitting with my two year old niece and going through my sketchbook, (thought this might be a useful task to guage what elements of an image interest children at this age) I realised that she said all of the little girl characters were her favourite - not the boys! So I thought perhaps a lot of children feel like this, that the characters which best represent them are the ones they tend to 'relate' to best. For this reason I have come to the conclusion that I need to incorporate a boy character and a girl character into the book - so that it appeals to both sexes.

Developing the boy character:

Sketchbook Pages and Character Development

Throughout my last project I found starting off by identifying and perfecting my characters was a helpful foundation for the rest of my work.

I will try and sort these out on Photoshop...if I can work out how  : / and replace them with some less scruffy versions.

More Researching

I found an article in The Times titled, 'How to Let Your Kids Off the Leash', it discussed a lot of the concerns I have about Nature Deficit Disorder. The text also introduced me to some new ideas that I am now willing to explore.

I want to ensure that I gain a really thorough knowledge of Nature Deficit Disorder and the topics which surround it. This will hopefully help to create a well-informed final piece which successfully achieves it's purpose. During this project I want to expand the breadth of my research, not only relying on secondary resources, but more direct primary resources too. By doing so I hope to generate some more innovative, complex and unusual ideas to help develop my work.

The article in The Times introduced me to a lot of new names in the world of child psychology, child development and nature experts. I contacted Professor Tanya Byron to try and gather more detailed information for my project, I was advised to contact leading childhood 'thinker'  Tim Gill. Tim gave answered all of my questions so thoroughly, he was so helpful! I gained a much better insight into those aspects of the subject that I am concerned with covering in my project.

Tanya and Tim were so kind to offer me so much help, here are their websites:

(www.professortanyabyron.com)

(www.rethinkingchildhood.com)