A couple of weeks ago now we had our first Create A Book For A Child exhibition opening and it was a great success.
We held it in the beautiful location of Härlanda Kyrka here in Gothenburg. This location was perfect, it is a beautiful space with lots of space and light and candles.
6 of my students had 2 of their illustrations framed and displayed. We set up a table where people could come and read the entire books and speak to the authors.
The day was a lot of fun as you can see from the photos below.
Find more photos like this on Create A Book For A Child!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Drawing people.
Some of my students really want to get proportion right when they are drawing, they want to draw 'realistically'. Other students are happy to play and for their pictures to be technically imperfect but full of expression.
However you want your illustrations to look is ok. In my book there is no right or wrong, just do what makes you feel happiest when creating a personal book. If you look at professionally published children's books you will see many different styles are used by many different illustrators.
I love abstract and cartoon like images as much as 'realistic' images.
Anyway, one comment I hear over and over is "I can't draw people" or "I don't know how to draw people".
If you are one of these people I have found a couple of videos that instruct you on how to draw people and 'characters' (not always a person).
To watch these videos click on the following links:
How to measure proportion for drawing people
Tips on how to draw people
However you want your illustrations to look is ok. In my book there is no right or wrong, just do what makes you feel happiest when creating a personal book. If you look at professionally published children's books you will see many different styles are used by many different illustrators.
I love abstract and cartoon like images as much as 'realistic' images.
Anyway, one comment I hear over and over is "I can't draw people" or "I don't know how to draw people".
If you are one of these people I have found a couple of videos that instruct you on how to draw people and 'characters' (not always a person).
To watch these videos click on the following links:
How to measure proportion for drawing people
Tips on how to draw people
Friday, December 11, 2009
Spaghetti pictures!
I read somewhere on the internet (and I am embarrassed to say I can't for the life of me remember where I read it) about a craft exercise to do with small children and spaghetti It sounded fun so I decided to give it a try.
Very simply all the exercise involves is boiling up some spaghetti and when it is soft give it to your children to make pictures out of. You can then add paint to your creations.
I made my own spaghetti picture while the kids were making theirs. I really loved working with a different material, it led me to creating a picture in a new kind of style.
When the pictures dried the paper went all crinkly so I don't think these types of pictures would really work as illustrations in a book. However, the pictures that result from the exercise could be taken and used as inspiration for illustrations in a storybook.
The first picture you see here,of a cat, is mine. The second is by my 4 year old daughter and is a spider and different letters of the alphabet. The third picture is an artwork done by my 2 year old son who became very inspired by the whole process.
Very simply all the exercise involves is boiling up some spaghetti and when it is soft give it to your children to make pictures out of. You can then add paint to your creations.
I made my own spaghetti picture while the kids were making theirs. I really loved working with a different material, it led me to creating a picture in a new kind of style.
When the pictures dried the paper went all crinkly so I don't think these types of pictures would really work as illustrations in a book. However, the pictures that result from the exercise could be taken and used as inspiration for illustrations in a storybook.
The first picture you see here,of a cat, is mine. The second is by my 4 year old daughter and is a spider and different letters of the alphabet. The third picture is an artwork done by my 2 year old son who became very inspired by the whole process.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
'Doodle' illustration exercise
Today I thought I'd share with you a 'doodle' illustration exercise.
I have been having a 1:1 Create A Book For A Child class in my home. Today we played around with different creative exercises. The purpose of doing these exercises is to get the creative juices flowing and let go of needing to be right.
Here is a simple but effective doodle illustration exercise.
Step 1:
Take a piece of plain paper and put a couple of haphazard lines on it.
Step 2:
Create a picture out of the lines.
Below you can see photos of my student's (Hanna) and my doodle exercises.
This exercise is really fun and only takes a few minutes. Why not try it out yourself?
Warmly,
Nina
www.createabookforachild.com
I have been having a 1:1 Create A Book For A Child class in my home. Today we played around with different creative exercises. The purpose of doing these exercises is to get the creative juices flowing and let go of needing to be right.
Here is a simple but effective doodle illustration exercise.
Step 1:
Take a piece of plain paper and put a couple of haphazard lines on it.
Step 2:
Create a picture out of the lines.
Below you can see photos of my student's (Hanna) and my doodle exercises.
This exercise is really fun and only takes a few minutes. Why not try it out yourself?
Warmly,
Nina
www.createabookforachild.com
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Why not doodle your illustrations?
Have you ever thought about doodling your illustrations into being?
If you are not sure what I am talking about check out these inspired videos below. I found them on a wonderful website called Milliande Creativity Club.
If you are not sure what I am talking about check out these inspired videos below. I found them on a wonderful website called Milliande Creativity Club.
Monday, November 23, 2009
A creating a book for a toddler class at home!
Today I held my first ever 1:1 storybook class at home. At least it was kind of 1:1, the woman I was teaching had her lovely toddler with her.
The class worked really well, we played with creating a storybook and the little boy Neo played with my children's toys. Everyone was happy.
When I teach people how to create storybooks the first lesson is always spent looking at storybooks, brainstorming storybook ideas, choosing an idea and a story structure and then we get going writing the story!
I usually recommend the book is no more than 13 pages long (other wise it is easy to feel bogged down if you are not used to illustrating) and for toddlers I recommend you simply have one sentence on each page and write the story with the child as the main character. This makes writing the story relatively easy! Maximum 13 sentences!
If you know the child you are writing for well a simple description of how they start their day or what happens when they visit Grandma are examples of easy and effective topics. Your child will love being the main character of the story and having his or her own experiences celebrated.
Here is a peek at our 'work space'.
The class worked really well, we played with creating a storybook and the little boy Neo played with my children's toys. Everyone was happy.
When I teach people how to create storybooks the first lesson is always spent looking at storybooks, brainstorming storybook ideas, choosing an idea and a story structure and then we get going writing the story!
I usually recommend the book is no more than 13 pages long (other wise it is easy to feel bogged down if you are not used to illustrating) and for toddlers I recommend you simply have one sentence on each page and write the story with the child as the main character. This makes writing the story relatively easy! Maximum 13 sentences!
If you know the child you are writing for well a simple description of how they start their day or what happens when they visit Grandma are examples of easy and effective topics. Your child will love being the main character of the story and having his or her own experiences celebrated.
Here is a peek at our 'work space'.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Collage illustrations experiments
Today I want to share with you my collage illustrating tips and to offer you the chance to take part in my online Create A Book For A Child course for a very tiny amount of the usual cost. I need some guinea-pigs so you would be helping me out.
But first I'm going to chat about making collage illustrations...
The other day I went with my family to the City Museum here in Gothenburg. The museum was holding a creative day for children and provided the children and their parents with pens, paper, glitter, glue etc... to use our imaginations and get creative.
I jumped at the opportunity to do something I have been meaning to do for ages, play with making collage illustrations.
Below you can see what I came up with.
Here I simply drew the shape of a car on some patterned wrapping paper I liked and then cut out the car shape. I wanted to have different colored wheels so I drew two circles about the right size on some yellow paper and cut them out. I then simply glued the shapes to a piece of blue paper!
I used the same technique with the image of this boy (my son Joel by the way). I drew a very simple boy shape first on some yellow paper, I then cut out the head, then the body, the legs, the feet and the hand shapes. I wanted this boy to be colorful so I took the cut out body shape and traced around it onto the patterned wrapping paper I liked and proceeded to cut out the body shape from the patterned paper. I repeated this with all the different shapes using different colored pieces of paper. When I was done I glued them onto my page to make up the shape of the complete boy once more.
I had a flash of inspiration with the fish in water collage. I simply cut out strips of silver paper and stuck them in a messy fashion to my page. I then drew very simple fish shapes (with the help of my daughter), colored them in, cut them out and then stuck them to the page so they 'swam' between the silver strips. I really like this one and so does my daughter!
But first I'm going to chat about making collage illustrations...
The other day I went with my family to the City Museum here in Gothenburg. The museum was holding a creative day for children and provided the children and their parents with pens, paper, glitter, glue etc... to use our imaginations and get creative.
I jumped at the opportunity to do something I have been meaning to do for ages, play with making collage illustrations.
Below you can see what I came up with.
Here I simply drew the shape of a car on some patterned wrapping paper I liked and then cut out the car shape. I wanted to have different colored wheels so I drew two circles about the right size on some yellow paper and cut them out. I then simply glued the shapes to a piece of blue paper!
I used the same technique with the image of this boy (my son Joel by the way). I drew a very simple boy shape first on some yellow paper, I then cut out the head, then the body, the legs, the feet and the hand shapes. I wanted this boy to be colorful so I took the cut out body shape and traced around it onto the patterned wrapping paper I liked and proceeded to cut out the body shape from the patterned paper. I repeated this with all the different shapes using different colored pieces of paper. When I was done I glued them onto my page to make up the shape of the complete boy once more.
I had a flash of inspiration with the fish in water collage. I simply cut out strips of silver paper and stuck them in a messy fashion to my page. I then drew very simple fish shapes (with the help of my daughter), colored them in, cut them out and then stuck them to the page so they 'swam' between the silver strips. I really like this one and so does my daughter!
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