Children's Book Illustration

I heard a great story on NPR about a team of divers saving a whale. I decided to retell it to the class with great detail and emotion, of course, and then asked them to consider the possibility of transforming it into a children's book. The student's made some wonderful sketches so I decided to focus this week on the art of Children's book illustrators. I selected some of my favorite illustrators to highlight. We looked at their work and discussed everything from first impressions to more in depth analysis of the samples and then ended with a video of Eric Carle.

The students will be taking the ideas that they've sketched and turning them into finished works of art, so before taking that on I wanted to explore some new techniques. One aspect that makes Eric Carle's work so appealing is the way he uses texture and color. I mixed up some paste for the students using cornstarch and watercolor and demonstrated a fun and simple way to create some interesting textures.
I then asked the students to use a harmonious, analogical color scheme (3 colors next to each other on the color wheel) to create a decorative piece of paper and then create a texture on top of it with the paste. Along with this technique students are creating virtual textures through the process of press printing.

Next week we will finish these things up and explore ways to incorporate these techniques into our finished illustrations.