Group Tutorial

We had a group tutorial today where I presented my work for my book so far. the feedback was that the concept and story for the book is strong. The group though the story was funny and entertaining which is important is it needs to appeal to both children and parents. I want the story to tackle the idea of identity and belonging but it was printed out to me that it is important for that to be subtle and be a product of the story rather than the emphasis of the book. The book should entertain the child first then open up an opportunity for dialogue between the parent and child about the themes in the story. From what I could tell the group thought my story managed this well but I will have to keep these ideas in mind when making the book. There are some issues with my first digital character tests like the nose of the dog being too overpowering and seeming separate from the dog, I could try changing the scale or adding some texture to match the rest of the dog. I have a good plan of what I need to do next and some decisions I will have to make. I need to

- Work on scenery and composition (already started with more detailed storyboarding)

- Start to experiment with colour

- Decide how much text to include in the book and how it will work with the illustrations

- MAKE SURE THE CHARACTERS SHOW MOVEMENT!!!! (I have already talked about this on my blog and the idea was reinforced to me today)

- Try out new ways of shape making (I want to make the environments more detailed that my last book but still work with shape and make sure the characters are the focal point, could use colour and environment to highlight the characters)

- Think about the title and cover (don't give away too much about the story)

So far I like my most recent compositions for the majority of the pages that I think will only needed some minor tweaking to get right but there are a few that need to be experimented with more to highlight the movement or emotion of the story.