A Journey Through Birmingham City

By JENNY GAN

Illustrated © JENNY GAN 2011 by the author of this book. The book author retains sole copyright to his or her contri-butions to this book.

All right reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrievel system, without permis-sion in writting from the publishers.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

Contents~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction ----/---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 04-Why Birmingham

Story -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 05- A Walk Through Birmingham

Medium -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 06- Water Color & Color Pencils

Photo References -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 07- 08- Photoshoots and researches on buildings, street and scenery

Progress of Sketchings - Thumbnails --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 09 - Composition analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 10 - 11- Character Explorations ----------------------------------------------------------------------------> 12 - 14

Artists Comparative Studies { INTRODUCTION } --------------------------------------------> 15 - 16- Salvatore Rubbino- Miroslav Sasek- Charles Keeping

Explorations on Buidings and Streets -----------------------------------------------------------> 17 - 39- Supported Elements- Color Experiments

References & Bibliography--------------------------------------------------------------------------> 40

INTRODUCTION

I’ve decided to illustrate my story based on travelling as I’ve been to a few countries since I was young. But I’ve noticed as a child, it’s hard to remember what they have seen in the country afterwards so I would like to convey the vision of what I’ve seen to my readers. Birmingham is a new place for me- I have yet to set foot in the United Kingdom so this is a first among many, many surprises.

I would love to explore this city in great detail, and record my journeys and experiences into a book mainly by using the me-dium of watercolour and color pencils etc.

The story is about a little girl embarking on a short trip with her aunt through Birmingham. She passes through several land-marks in the city that leaves a lasting impression on her. How do people in Birmingham usually go on with their lives? Describ-ing the city centre would be a challenge for me to complete my story as it is a hugely populated place with plenty of things to see and hear.

Therefore, I will draw inspiration and ideas from photos and landmarks around Birmingham for this book.

I hope that through my journey in Birmingham, I will be able to learn more about this historic city, as well as acquaint myself with the culture and many destinations in the country. In short, I aspire to make the best out of my stay in Birmingham, albeit short, these memories will always remain in the form of a travelogue.

Basically I will begin my story with my characters step in the city centre-Bullring, and walking pass crowded streets and shops; through Victoria Square, through the Museum and Art Gallery; proceed to Centenary Square and etc. It will conclude at Brind-ley Place to the canal for a boat ride. The reason I chose to do the selection places at city centre is to let readers look at the environment surrounded by impressive and historical buildings of this city.

With all the exploring and analysis, I look to an iconic style as a starting point for my visual language.

04

~ A WALK ~

MANUSCRIPT

05

This the storyline that I will use for this project..

It begins with a girl who walks through town with her aunt and takes a boat ride through the canal at the end.

MEDIUM

06

The medium that I chose for my story is the traditional method of watercolor and color pencils. The watercolor’s watery effect suits the setting of my story perfectly.

03 04

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PHOTO REFERENCES

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I start by taking photos of various landmarks in the city of Birmingham. Through these pictures, I am able to pick up select destinations to illustrate for the locations in my story. It will also help with the story flow.

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For examples:Rotunda, Bull Ring, Mailbox, Brindlley Place, St Martin Church, Museum & Art Gallery, Victo-ria Square, Hall Of Memory. Birmingham Town Hall, Central Mosque, Selfridges Store, Bir-mingham Cathedral, Gas St Basin, Birmingham Wheel, Chamberlain Clock, etc...

SKETCHES

09

My initial rough thumbnails of my story for every single spread. This serves as a guide for me when working the project.

10

I began sketching out different compositions with various angles for further analysis.

These are sketches depicting the girl as she gets down from the bus.

And also sketches of the inner view of the Museum and Art Gallery and strret angles while the little girl and her auntie have lunch outisde the restau-rant.

11

I’ve also drawn some sketches that are for major scenes that will appear in my story and some rough thumbs for different spreads.

CHARACTER REFERENCES

12

These are some character styles that I prefer.Through these references I am able to learn from their limited color palette as well as character design.

Before I start to draw my character. I will do reseach on a few styles that relates to my target audience-children.

13

Initial rough sketches for the character design in different variations.

I selected one character and began working on the design.

14

Rough sketches about the street and traffic. Character studies in a distinctive style so they are instantly recog-nisable. Rough sketches on characters and the bull sculpture outside the Bull Ring.

ARTIST COMPARATIVES STUDIES

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~ SALVATORE RUBBINO ~

~ MIROSLAV SASEK ~

DescriptionAbout S. Rubbino

Salvatore grew up in the heart of London and still loves the excitement of living in a big city. He’s constantly inspired by city life, the endless cast of characters on the street, the changing architecture and by the thrill of not knowing what might be around the next corner.

He studied illustration at The Royal College of Art and in 2005 was short-listed for the Victoria and Albert Museum Illustration Awards for a series of paintings set in New York. This series was transformed into his first picture book, A Walk in New York, published to great acclaim. More recently Salvatore was judged one of the country’s top ten new illustrators in the Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award 2011. The final ten represent the best rising talent in the field of illustration today, who demonstrate remarkable creative flair, artistic skill and boundless imagination in their work.

Drawing and observation underpins the way he works and helps him to achieve a well-informed response to a project. He takes his sketchbook with him wherever he goes and has pages full of bumpy drawings made whilst on a train, pages stained by the rain when he’s been caught out without an umbrella and other pages containing conversations that he’s heard in passing and jotted down.

About M. Sasek M. Sasek was born in Prague in 1916 and died in Switzerzerland in 1980. He worked as a painter and illustrator for most of his life. Starting with This is Paris published in 1958, the books he wrote painted a delightful and evocative picture of some of the world’s great cities (and countries!). Having delighted children and adults for more than 50 years they are now being reissued.

So, these two artists would be my first priority on exploring my visual language on my deign in picture book.

Characters Studies of Salvatore Rubbino

Sketches

References

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18

A Remembrance Day is held on Sundays on an annual basis in the city centre . This would be an interesting scene for me to include in my story let readers learn more about the history of the city.

I took the references of Salvatore Rubbino as a studies of my characters in an iconic ways. On top are a few photos that I found to create the characters.

Color Studies of Buildings

19

Here are a few main buildings in Birming-ham. I’ve explored with different ways and color mood in the search for my own style.

I will continue developing with simple lines and limited color palettes to create my outcomes.

Below are the photos I’ve referred.

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I did some testing on buildings by exploring a few ways using water color and color pencils on water color paper. I tried using simple lines to show the building structure as well as with the negative space.

21

On top are a few steps of progress I’ve done by watercolor and color testing on the Musuem and Art of Gallery in Victoria Square.

On the top right of page 22 are the color palettes I’ve found and created as color references to explore my limited color experiments. With the photo references I got, I experimented on cold colors on the foundtain and left the white gap as the outline. From the color palettes that I painted in watarcolor paper, I chose to ex-plore on the flower stalls for an interesting and vibrant scene.

Color Palletes

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Supporting Elements

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There is a regular gaggle of geese that often lurks around the city. This is a good element for me to incorporate into my book as well.Another eye catching element you would see here is the bright red telephone booth. So, I’ve tried a simple composition with the telephone booth, with geese walking by.On the left side, I’ve chosen a few photos I took of separate elements (geese and phone booth) and com-bined them into a single drawing.

25

Street performance with an attempt at an iconic drawing style.

I experimented with watercolor here to produce textures around the drawing,namely the floor surface in my painting.

26

On the top left are street photos I took near the Birmingham Catheral and an interesting building that I found.

I ‘ve applied into a rough composition on street with the little girl and her auntie walking side by side using water color.

References

27

A full landscape drawing on top by Salvatore Rubbino and artline drawing of a town.

I’ve tried on sketching the upper view of Victoria Square by using brown artline pen and water color to get a rustic, historical feel.

Next, is a scene which is inside the museum and I’ve used black artline pen create outline and warm colors to lightly enhance the details of the inking.

References

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On top are a few paintings by artist John Glasham. I’m quite impressed with his way of creating the overall visual for the buildings with highly constrasting colors and lines. The paintings he did are non realistic, but the structure is retained with color painted on every building.I’ve used it to explore on composition experiments with color changes to create the visual efftect.

John Glasham

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References

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Beside are a few pieces of experiments I’ve done on water color paper using masking fluid on the vehicles such as the bus and taxi. I did these referred from the references below. I would like to see the effect of masking fluid on creating outlines on the bus to have some special outcomes after painted over in water-color.

Below are a some artworks done by artist Charles Keeping. The way he use the white gap on the buildings and vehicles stands out to me. The way he blended the color in the composition gives the background a highly fantastical effect, as if this is taking place in a dream.On the left page are some experiments I did with his style.

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From the photos that I used from page 32,I used watercolors, artline pen, and color pencils to paint on each of the buildings to see the differences and color outcomes which will let me bring it into my design.

32

I took a walk to the canals at Brind-ley Place to see the environment for myself. I have snapped some photos of locations that I found beautiful.

These are photos of some cafes by the canal: the Gas St Basin, old brick restaurant ‘The Malt House’ and Brindley Place.

33

M.Sasek

Bistro and Les Halles in Paris.

People walking up and down the streets are a crucial element of my project.. So, characters design of M.Sasek are my inspration of design as they are fairly simple and memorable.

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On the right hand side are the samples references I referred to, named “This is Paris “ by Miroslav Sasek. Both of them have a very distinctive design sense on illustrating buildings and people. I would love to study on their styles and color mood to help me in developing my works further.

So, I’ve tried on a non-perspective way of drawing the upper view of Victoria Square with artline pen and water colors.

Miroslav Sasek

References of Sacre-Coeur‘This is Paris.’

35

These is a historical building which is opposite Birmingham Town Hall. Beside these buildings there is a post office wedged in between. I found this an interesting and special building so I’ve compiled photos of it together with the references I found through the internet.On page 36, I’ve painted it using color pencils for the wall and watercolor on the windows. Next, I’ve painted the characters walking around in simple tones.

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M.Sasek

Character and vehicles design

These composition I painted focuses mainly on the character deisgn I’ve done. It also shows the combination of the design of buildings with iconic characters by using a photo as reference.

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Birmingahm Cathedral is one of the famous churches in Bimingham City. Because of the huge and historical structure of the building, I’ve tried a similar painting method to the one I used on page 36 to maintain a level of consistency in my work.

As the buildings are now detailed, I decided to simplify the people around it.

Biblography & References

http://www.walker.co.uk/contributors/Salvatore-Rubbino-7289.aspx

http://www.childrensbookillustration.com/view_artist.php?id=36

http://www.miroslavsasek.com/

http://www.childrensbookillustration.com/view_illustration.php?id=783

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A WALK IN LONDONby Salvatore RubbinoJacket Illustrations @ 2011

THIS IS PARISby Miroslav SasekSimon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

Inter- Cityby Charles Keeping

Worldby John GlashamPublished in 1991

http://www.england-360.co.uk/panoramic-tour-of-birmingham

http://photobobuk.co.uk/The%20City.html

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