Context/Content
The children’s book I am focusing on is ‘Lion vs Rabbit’ by Alex Latimer, who is the author & illustrator. The title of the book links directly to the content, as it is about about a lion and a rabbit who compete with each other in order for the lion to stop bullying other animals. One of the overarching themes of the book was bullying, as the characters’ main aim is to stop it from happening. Another is competition, with many different contests being overtook between the lion and the rabbit. It is obvious the work has been influenced by contextual matters such as the importance of technology, with one of the animals in the book using the internet to place an advert for someone to come and stop the lion from bullying other animals. This suggests that at an early age children are aware of what the internet is and how much of an impact technology can have on their everyday lives. The book is an adaptation of one of Aesop’s fables called Raynard the Fox, which is about a small animal who outwits a large one. This enables morals to be taught to the children whilst still entertaining them by creating a scenario that will keep them eager to read on. The work may have been created in order to transmit these morals or to simply interest the children with the storyline. The book uses an anonymous narrative structure from a multiple character point of view, and with the use of a narrative arc it is straightforward for children to understand and be able to keep up with. It conforms to the majority narrative conventions such as following the story in a chronological order, having a plot twist at the end and using speech/dialogue.
Form
The book uses a very vibrant & natural colour palette, with lots of blues, greens, oranges and reds. The most dominating out of these are the blues and greens, which is most likely due to the fact that the book is based on animals in the African Savannah, so they’re used for the sky and the terrain. There is a continuous hand drawn style to much of the book, with the line on the illustrations looking as if they have been done with pen but have more than likely been created digitally. Also, the texture of the pages change from one to another, with some created with a uniform fill while others have what seems the finish of paper with a few marks on them. There is a traditional use of perspective within the book, and the use of shadows and some isometrically drawn objects helps to add depth to the illustrations. Space is used to enable the reader, particularly as the book is for young children, to focus on the key elements. There is evidence of control throughout the book, with everything structured and simple, again catering to the specific audience. The composition of the book varies from page to page. Some pages are complete scenes, with characters, backgrounds and other parts to it, which take up the whole page, then there are pages with a lot of unused space and a simple illustration in the middle. There are also a number of pages which take on a comic book style, with the use of panels to aid the narrative. This diversity maintains an edge to the book and makes sure that it doesn’t become mundane and dull for the reader. In regards to typography it is kept simple, with one sans-serif, informal font being used continuously throughout. This simplicity may be to keep the pages balanced, allowing the illustrations to show more character than the typeface, whilst also being easy for the reader to understand and clearly see on the page. On the back page of the book there is some institutional information in the form of a barcode, website and the price of the book.
Process
The book has most likely been created using illustrator and photoshop. The initial thumbnails will have been created first to get an idea of what the book will look like, then paginated to decide what goes where. The drawings will then have been drawn by hand, inked and scanned into photoshop/illustrator, where the colour will be adjusted to suit the style of the illustrator/author. This means the artist has to be able to use these modern techniques, with the digital programmes requiring a time and patience to gain the skills on how to ues them. There is evidence of the use of these programmes, for example the use of uniform fill and how clear cut the lines are.
Personal Response
What drew me to the book was the use of vibrant colour and how the use of dark lines were used on the elements the artist wanted to highlight. Another part that I was drawn to was how the pages are composed in a variety of ways. I like elements in particular as they are distinctive and not something you find in many books, and I would have definitely loved something like this when I was younger.
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