Book Project Thumbnails

Using last weeks ideas based around our 'Anything Else' topic we split of individually to thumbnail and brainstorm our own ideas for a page in the book. 

I took into consideration, the size when it came to composition, the fact that I will include one colour and the ideas our group came up with. From the thumbnails I designed I chose 4 to enlarge more so I could analyse compositions and ideas further.

I think I will choose 2 of these designs which I can draw up in a more refined manor and see which works best. I can then test out what colour is going to work and how contrasted I was the black and white element to be. 

I've found that thumbnailing and planning out my ideas to be a successful process to use and one which I can apply to other work I will do.

Group Book Project

Working in small groups, this week we began a 5 week project to produce a book. Splitting off into small groups within the class we were assigned different subjects to focus on to do with being an illustrator for example, finance, social, legal. My group got 'Anything Else'. 

The brief was as follows;

- 1 page each, 200mm x 200mm and a 5mm bleed

- Black and white or a greyscale

- 1 colour to be used alongside

-Spot/ hand colour the small coloured section

- Riso print the final illustrations

- Hand stick and trim the final books

- 15th January hand in final illustrations

Our schedule was as follows;

-4th December, group work on initial ideas for subject

-11th December, present thumbnails of your own idea based on initial ideas

-8th December, present refined thumbnail idea with clearer sketches and colour indication

-15th January, Hand in final illustrations

-29th January, Hand colour you own pages with chosen colour

4th February, Fold, sew, trim and pack all final books

After the group brain stormed ideas for our 'anything else' subject we decided to keep it light hearted and fun as all the other subjects that other groups has were perhaps more serious. We decided to a typical day of an illlustrator following along the lines of things that 'true' illustrators do all the time.

Initial ideas were things like keeping themselves cooped away in their studios, making lots of cups of tea, doodles on every available surface (your arm, a wall, tables), getting their best ideas from the doodles and a general procrastination. Within our group we will be splitting off individually to create thumbnails based around our ideas.

Working in a group wasn't something I am used to doing so it was interesting see everyones different ideas based on this quite broad subject we had. 

Finance

This weeks lecture was all about the financial side to selling a book. After having this lecture it has been brought to my attention that it is more complicated than I had initially anticipated. I was able to gather some information around the subject from Fumio Obata but I want to further my research in the future.

When a publisher is interested in selling your book then an advance is given to be able to make the book. For example, and advance of £3000 could be given. I could then receive 10% royalty on each book sold. Therefore if each book was £10 then 3000 books would need to be sold before I would receive any of the 10% royalty. A profit needs to be made for me to be able to earn money from the book. If the book is not a good seller then I would not receive and royalty cheques and the publishing company would have a loss. 

Having a agent make make the financial process easier as they would be able to deal with this kind of thing in a more knowledgeable way. I will however, be doing further research as I will still need to know about this topic and about getting an agent. 

Publishers give you a tim from for completing the work you've presented. It can be quite along process with 9 months between receiving work and publishing. Agents would be able to negotiate time frames for you to help the process however it would more than likely be best to stick to what has already been given. 

Even though a book proposal and acceptance may be in place there is still no guarantee that this book will make a profit for you. It would therefore be wise to be still keeping mind that exposing my work is a key part to becoming more successful. Alongside the book work, exposure of other things will be done too. This could interfere with the book time scale which could be why negotiations will be made.

Once again I will be furthering my knowledge on the subject with some more research. I think it's an important topic to know about as producing books is something I am interested in pursuing.