| Abstract: | This PhD thesis comprises three sections: two picture books for children,
titled Little Bug and Chaotic and Little Bug and Freek, two short animated
ads, and the theoretical part discussing problems relating to picture books.
My stories are completely
original, because I wanted to create the storyline, dialogs and all
graphic elements by myself. Picture books mentioned above are designed
as first ones in the series of picture book dedicated to children aged 4 to 7. Picture books were created on the excuse of keywords, which led the
narratives. Selection of keywords was practically unlimited and satisfied my
need for multithreading. I used designata describing places and situations.
Since usually picture books help children understand the complexity of their
surroundings, stimulate imagination, develop sensitivity and abstract thinking,
help to tame the unknown, often dealing with difficult and uncomfortable
topics, I chose two keywords that are extremely important to me: chaos
and freedom. I set them against the background of daily landscape – city and
factory, visually fascinating, with their complexity and industrialization of
form. The main protagonist of the series is Little Bug, with whom children
may empathize. His figure is concise, schematic, without unnecessary details,
always at the distance, leaving space for imagination. He is accompanied
by the secondary character, little red cart, a silent companion, present
friend. The next step was choosing how to plot the narrative. I decided to
personify phenomena, situations, state of the spirit, such as freedom and
chaos, in order to facilitate their understanding in children. The whole plot
is based on travels of the main protagonist and his interactions with other
characters he meets – Chaotic in the first book, and Freek in the second.
Leaving the home at the beginning of the book, and returning home at the end, is an important psychological motive and the story bridge. The situation
symbolizes mental separation from parents, a kind of independence
that a child aged 4 to 7 enjoys, and child’s readiness for individual experience.
At the same time Little Bug’s return home at the end of the book is
a synonym of the feeling of security and parents’ acceptance of temporary
separation. I wove children’s vernacular related to travel, playtime and self-
-determination into dialogs, which role is to call upon specific situations and
presenting them from the perspective of a viewer and not participant.
I decided to keep the light tone of my picture books,
with elements of road story and sudden twists. I decided to draw from
the comic book convention, just as they did then, using dialogs in bubbles
and giving up descriptions. The graphic format I chose gives picture books
a uniform and consistent look, qualifying them to a common series. I used
colour linocut technique to illustrate places and linear drawings technique
to show characters, since those techniques are the most adequate for the
stage of visual perception developed by children in the selected age group.
That means contour and silhouette vision. The second important substantiation
for selection of the artwork used in illustrations was the willingness
to continue experiments with colour linocut technique. For my picture books I designed a set of glyphs, derived from handwriting,
so-called handwriting fonts, relating to the nature of illustrations
and suitable for use in short dialogs. I wanted them to be clear, legible and
strong. Hence the decision to create letters in the form of linocut, to play on
simplifications and deformations characteristic of this technique. Selected
set of glyphs was digitized and used in manual typesetting. I want to use
that set of glyphs as the base for development of the fully functional font.
Books on Little Bug are the summary of may artistic activities in picture
book for children area. |