buy ma book!

http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/6960058/efea8b8e5ad87ac437d9247cbb831a67e6063ae2

FINISHED BOOK ARRIVED!

I ordered 13 books from 'Blurb' and two from LULU, to see the different quality of print. I've got the 13 from Blurb today, however the other two have yet to get here. I will wait and see what they look like when the arrive. I was also right about the quality of the front cover - it is like a sturdy magazine, and not quite softback, but it looks so lovely I don't think that even matters!

I Love it! I feel it would look better with a matt cover, (not a shiny one) the front cover design could have been better quality (it needs to have more solid lines around the characters, and Ben's face is a little dark) But Otherwise it's lovely! Its thinner - which is good because it will be less daunting for kids than having a huge bible slammed down in front of them.

It is bound well, the writing isn't cut off, the colours aren't too dark ( I feel like I could have given a slightly more variation in colour in bipolar's cave though) The spine feels nice, there is even the name on the spine! Its flexible, sits well in your hands and looks impressive. I'm so impressed that I've achieved this. I would redraw it all much better if I had to do a final copy: as I've said countless times before. The aim of this project was the create a finished dummy book with consistent characters and consistent story-line, and I feel I've really achieved that. I look forward to showing the tutors this next week in my proposal. It also has an official ISB that Blurb put on.


THE LULU BOOKS ARRIVE AND I HATE THEM!!!Never ordering from them again - the colours are too dark, and I had to wait about a month for them to arrive. really not happy. The front cover (right) Is far darker than the ones from blurb (left)  and, even though the cover feels slightly thicker - the spine is black which stands out too much - and the font cover has been double printed - its inside the book on the first page, as well as on the outside.

Also, while filling out my details - I had a bit of trouble because my computer kept deleting them. So I button mashed any old letters - NOT KNOWING THEY WOULD PRINT IT ON MY BOOK.



On the more positive side, however, £50 more has been donated to my gofundme page, so I corrected all the spelling mistakes I found ( which I should have really done before sending off for 15 of them) and sent off for two more from Blurb - the final copy for me to exhibit at the degree show, and another for the tutors to remember me by haha. So it will arrive on the 10th May. Looking forward to it!

Finally finished and sent it off! EVALUATION

After five months of working - over 1000 drawings and three drafts later, I have finally completed the book! I have created a PDF of it and can confidently say I have become a lot more versed in using InDesign.  I have sent a PDF of it off to print 15 copies , from publishing websites Lulu and Blurb. I chose 2 softbacks from Lulu and then 13 other books from Blurb. The only issue is that when I uploaded the PDF, Blurb said it was 'magazine' format  so I'm worried it will arrive and look like a cheap magazine. But for the price I'm paying I'm hoping that won't be the case.  It wouldn't let me change it to softcover or hardcover at all so I don't know what It will look like when it arrives. It will take 7-11 days to arrive so I'm hoping it will be printed and in the post by the end of the week, so It gets here in time for the deadline. I will definitely have it completed for the degree show. 15 people want a copy - I'm making sure the people who donated to my GOFUNDME page get one each, as well as friends who want one, and social services, who are trying to follow up a lead and get it somewhere. Also sending one off to the red Dragon centre in Wales (they already have the black and white copy so I'll send them the colour copy)

I went over it a good four or five times before sending it off- tweaking bits and making sure the writing wasn't near the edge of the page.

There's not much else to say- again IT IS A DRAFT and if it gets anywhere with social services or the dragon centre, I would redo it. But the story is sweet enough, even if the artwork could be improved more.


Overall, I feel This has taught me a lot about the process story-makers go through:  It'd nowhere near as simple as I thought it would be. And I'm not even near finished to a final completed copy. It's made me re-evaluate how I work: not to rush through things - or go with my first idea. What I've learnt is that doing thumbnails is quite important and working progressively is the best way to go. I also noticed that I've stopped rushing so much. There was many times during this book where I wanted to stop doing it - or cut corners, and I made sure I didn't: and my work's much better for it! Yes there's a page in the book that I'm aware is blurry - but I tried sharpening the image, resizing it - everything and it's not helping at all.  If I were to redo It - I would also change the colour of Ben's dressing gown, as it may send subtle 'autistic vibes' which I do not wish to come from Ben. Charlie's the autistic one - not Ben, so I don't want people linking the red to him having autism.

I will supply photos of the books when they arrive, and evaluations of their printing. Until then - I'm pretty much finished with this.  My aim was to create a children's book/ graphic novel aimed at mental health awareness - autism in particular, and teaching tolerance and respect for those with mental health illness's.  I feel I met this challenge absolutely and it is backed up by my last project's research into mental health and coping strategies. I am very happy I chose this project: although it's been a big challenge (I was advised to pick only part of a book and not a whole book) but I persevered and feel I exceeded my expectations that I had at the start of this project.  I am so excited to see it all together at the degree show and see what the books look like!!!

I am also very pleased that my characters have become actual memorable characters  - they stick with you because of their charm - they're not just generic any old characters whom you forget straight away.  I am sad that their design has gotten simpler over the project - they were quite impressive and regal at the start, whereas now they're more child friendly and 'cute'. If I did this again- there is a strong possibility that I would keep their original design (not that I don't like them now - it's just I feel they had more of a 'wow' factor when they were designed more impressively.)

http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/6938712/2c8f6d61050f2cff9204c1ad09c312e309c93025

2nd Draft

2nd draft improvements

Here's what I've basically done for this book: of course I have improved every single page but can't show it all on here.

IMPROVING SENTENCE STRUCTURE AND PLACEMENT

TIDYING UP IMAGES BY REDRAWING THEM

CHANGING UP PERSPECTIVES AND ANGLES

MAKING CHARACTERS HAVE MORE EXPRESSION,MOVEMENT AND PERSONALITY.

TRYING OUT DIFFERENT FONTS

TRYING OUT DIFFERENT BINDING METHOD.

1st Draft

Fumio has finished evaluating and annotating my draft book and I will start looking in it for improvements next week. 

Plans for the future weeks

11 weeks have pased since the start of FMP (excluding xmas break)
14 weeks left until 8th may hand in.

FMP HEADERS/CONTENT

• storyboard
• character design
• draft book
• annotate the draft book for improvement
• splash pages in colour
• stick into draft book
• improve on annotations in book - redo some scenes
• keep improving everything 
• tidy everything up
• make several hand-bound books and perhaps pay for hardback?

The mood of my writing:

Fun, informative, yet entertaining, My challenge is to create a book thats fun to make and read, but reflects on important mental health issues and has a motto of tolerance.

HOW TO HELP THE DRAGONS?

DEPRESSED DRAGON

(1)you can help depressed people by tidying their house - when they feel their life is spirling out of control they tend to not tidy and not care anymore. Have Ben tidy away some clutter? Have the cave full of old bits and peices.

(1)Make them some food? Perhaps Ben could pull out a half eaten chocolate bar and offer it?

(1) Make them go outside - perhaps there could be a skylight in the cave, that is letting a tiny bit of light through. The dragon could look up happily as the sun beams across its face, after Ben lets it know that he doesn't have to hide all the time? Sunlight can boost your mood.

(1)hug them

(1) tell them a joke to make them laugh

(1) make them feel like they're worth somthing. show how much they mean to you and that you love them. - Ben can offer to be the depressed dragon's friend.




ANXIETY

References:


(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IDZ3AChlcM

• Hug them
• Gain trust  -trust exercises?
•  walk with them to next cave?
• Chat and listen to problems?

ADHD

• Establish structure - make a list of things he can do a day to keep him focused
• slow him down to listen and chat
• Help him make a track for him to run around and burn energy?
• Give him a challenge that will help him use all his energy?

BIPOLAR

• Find common ground with the two heads? something they have in common to stop them arguing?
• Game of chess? A competitive yet friendly game?
• Remind them of why two heads are better than one?
• Make friends with both heads - jokes and chatting?

TOURETTES

• Calming procedures? If hes less stressed he'll shout less
• Listening to him rant - everyone feels better if someone listens
• Sing him to sleep?
• teach him things to think about when he feels he's about the have a tik, so it distracts him?

The Plot

I realize I have yet to explain what I'm doing and why. As we planned it out in pitch and planning I forgot to add it onto this blog, so I will now.

What am I making?

Originally it was going to be a children's book to raise awareness for autism as well as other mental health disorders, but now due to the length it is more of a graphic novel than a children's book. I did consider making multiple books to follow (so it was a series) but I would not have enough content in each book to really make it worthwhile.


Target audience?


Children ideally, but all ages as well. The aim of this book, is; say for instance you have a child who knows someone with autism and doesn't understand the way they act. You would read this book to them and they would start to understand. Its subtle awareness through entertainment.  Target audience for reading it themselves would be 7 up, but if you were reading it to younger kids, perhaps 5 and up?


Why am I making this?

I don't feel like I understand enough about mental health issues, which is why I'm sort of learning as I do it (so I'm teaching myself something) and  its to raise awareness for other family's. If this took off successfully I'm sure it would be developed into other books about other issues.

Plot:

Two young boys - Ben and Charlie. Ben is older and doesn't like his younger brother, who has Autism. He doesn't understand him - so the first bit of the story is laying the relationship between his brother and his mother. Even though the main character in the book is Ben, It's really about Charlie. Then one night Ben wakes up and sees a silhouette at the foot of his bed. Its a dragon. It leads him into his wardrobe and through some caves (when he's in the caves he sees they are bright and colourful. Also that the dragon he is following is red. He doesn't give him his name, so Ben simply refers to him as Red) Then the red dragon leads him to a cave - in which is a huge blue dragon. He is introduced as Depression, and Ben must help him before he can move to the next cave. There are six caves in total, and each have a different dragon in - (anxiety is a small pink one - ADHD is the size of ben and green, Bipolar is HUGE and has two heads and is purple - and Tourette's is a swimming dinosaur (Water dragon) with a muzzle on. He's blue.)  Each dragon has attributes or behaviours in its cave that link to it's individual disorder. For instance, Depression has a messy cave to show lack of control - so Ben helps tidy the cave for him to get his brain in order - anxiety has agoraphobia (anxiety of open spaces) so he encourages it to walk with him and show that things aren't as scary as they seem. ADHD is all over the place, and vibrates so fast when he's moving, it looks like there's multiple dragons in the cave, whereas there's only one. So Ben Helps make him a 'to do' list to help keep his mind focused. Tourette's is obviously distressed from his blurting out words, so Ben sings him to sleep to relax him to ease the ticks. All the while, Red is being very rude and blunt to the other dragons, and ben confronts him about it but Red doesn't give an explanation. Then when they get the last cave and its empty. The red dragon turns around and explains to Ben his name is Autism. He explains what that means and how he acts and how even though he doesn't mean it, it makes everyone dislike him. Ben makes the connection with his little brother and they agree to just sit and play for a bit, so the dragon feels like he does have a friend. The final scene is the exact same pose but instead of being in the cave, they're back in the bedroom and its Ben and Charlie (in a dragon onesie) playing together by torchlight.


I decided to relate dragons to mental illnesses, as people tend to not believe in mental illnesses if they can't 'see' them. Much as people nowadays don't believe in dragons. Also kids love dragons, so its interesting to them, and Its also to show the scale mental disorders can reach.

Tutorial with George

Today I had a chat with George and she advised me to finish my book first, and then start making at least three double page spreads (splash pages) to insert in throughout the book. Then I can colour them and use them as prints for my portfolio and planning.

She also preferred the scales idea for the end-pages - or the one of Charlie and Autism together, as they relate more to the style inside the book. She also said to maybe put one of my illustrations on the front of the book, as it'll show my style inside the book consistently, instead of just the red page.



So I need to:

Finish book

Redesign front cover

Choose suitable end-page

Make and add 3 splash pages

colour splash pages

make prints of splash pages


Here's an idea of what I've been doing:

end of book

start of book  -I do think the red theme scales relate more to my story