Project four: The BFG
Initial thumbnails
After reading through the book I jotted down my thoughts and parts of the story that stood out to me. Some parts that stood out was when Sophie first saw the BFG, when the BFG was being thrown around by the other giants, the Queen meeting with the BFG and Sophie and The BFG and Sophie surrounded by the trees in Hyde Park.
Developments
I then selected my favourite thumbnails for each piece that I was going to make, I thought that having the BFG and Sophie as the cover standing amongst the tree tops would be an interesting concept. The covers and spine would be a wrap around so the back-cover would be them from the back. I decided that one double spread page should be the street that Sophie and the BFG first met. The other would be the BFGs shelves of dreams. I had an idea to make a spit illustration of the Queen, the BFG and Sophie.
Design and aesthetic
My idea for this project was to tell it from an adult Sophie's perspective, I imagined that this was told from her childhood memories. In the book it mentions that she had lived in London before which is how she knew how to get to Buckingham palace. I decided that the story was set in the South of England in the early 1980s, I imagined however that when she meets the BFG the story would be set in Devon.
Characters
When designing Sophie I decided early on that i wanted to illustrate a non white character, this is for many reasons. One being that poc characters are often background characters or not there and two being the immigration of Asians to Britain in the nineteen eighties, which is when i wanted to set this rendition. I wanted to specify that in this illustration project that Sophie was Sri-Lankan, i felt that this ethnic group is often left out in favour of Eastern Asia. Sophie meets the BFG in the middle of the night so I decided to research 80s fashion for reference. I found against the warm undertone of the skin a pale purple complimented her. I opted for square glasses as its mentioned that Sophie wears them and I thought bunny slippers helped emphasize her age.
For the BFGs design I wanted to portray a sort of country bumpkin, handmade sort of look. He isnt supposed to look well kept or normal. So to contrast Sophie's sort of regular look I made him appear sunburned and a little raggedy.
In colour
My idea for the cover, spine and back cover was to illustrate it to look like a wrap around sleeve of the BFG and Sophie in Hyde Park. I wanted to illustrate the book as a landscape book this time which meant it felt less cramped. The backdrop was inspired by the vivid colours seen in sunrises in London, while the trees are starting to fade in their green colouring. For the two full bleeds I wanted one of them to be when Sophie first met the BFG so could experiment with perspective. For the other I was intrigued by how the BFG captures the dreams he uses.
Final- Front cover and backcover
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For the front cover design I wanted to illustrate The BFG and Sophie together. A good idea that I thought of is when The BFG and Sophie are hiding in Hyde park, before going to Buckingham Palace. I think having them surrounded by only the heads of the tree's silently explains just how high up they are.
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For the back cover I just flipped The BFG and Sophie to show their backs. I wanted the cover to wrap around the interior pages. and this was a simple concept.
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Finals- Full bleeds
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For the first full bleed I illustrated the shelves of The BFGs cave where he stores the jars of the dreams he sprinkles over children. The book was supposed to be a landscape orientation and this only added to this idea as I was able to add more jars. I used a glaze of paynes grey to set this illustration in the dark cave, with only the simgle beam of light coming in.
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For this full bleed I illustrated the time that Sophie and the BFG meet for the first time. I illustrated a mirrored street at night having the only light source be from Sophies bedroom window. This references her character watching the BFG as he sprinkles dreams on her neighbors across the street.
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Mock-ups
Boom the end, all I can say is I too am a giant Im just not very friendly nor do I like children.