year long project - 3rd year

Here are the final illusrations they were made using colouring pencils, and ink as i really like the look of that combination especially when scanned like this. Along with this there is a page created using watered down ink and a sponge to create a fog like texture and a page that includes collaged plastic using the ironing method to create a rubbish pile. My plan with these is to scan them in at high resolution and then edit them in photoshop to then easily move them around and create the layouts for the book. This will be must easier and allow for alot more freedom than creating each page by hand. Unedited scan example, this was scanned in at a resolution of 1200 dpi to allow for maximum image quality and flexability. The edited scan here, in an attempt to make the image look like it looks of paper originally I used adjustment layers to change the colour of both the illustrations and backgrounds until I was happy with it, the elements were then cut out and moved onto a master photosh...

 A few initial ideas, a bit of a brainstorm; The chosen questions for each page of the book; - Littering: You see some rubbish had been blown out of the bin but nobody has noticed or stopped to pick it up! What do you do? Answer: Ignore it as well, it's not your responsibility  Answer: Advise people passing that litter is bad for the environment and ends up in the ocean so we must be more careful Answer: Pick up the rubbish carefully full, as to avoid and injury (don't pick up glass) and put it in the bin yourself.  Revealed answer: You COULD, but if not you then who?.. Revealed answer: Go for it! But not everyone will listen or will want to hear it, sadly Revealed answer: Taking a stand and doing something about yourself rather than waiting to someone else to do it is a powerful thing! Whilst you can not do everything yourself, setting an example is always positive. - Travel:You normally get dropped off at school everyday in the car because your parents have to get to wo...

 After a lotttttttttt of development from the first dummy book, I have an updated one! Pretty much all the pages are figured out now, I'm just going to figure out the activity pages straight into the digital format because I'm just not sure how to do them but they will be fairly simple in construction; A few photos from the bound dummy book; (the order being completely wrong as usual!) I am well and truly starting to see this book coming together and it is such a relief!!! Some of the imagery just needed a bit more development, especially in terms of colours used and then... I constructed a list of all the illustrations I needed to do... exciting but absolutely terrifying times! I have now officially decided that I will be printing this book with the regular printers as the riso printer is both too time consuming but also too expensive! It's a shame because it would be better from a sustainability point of view but I just don't have the time to experiment with it to get...

 Following on from last times laser cutting experiments, which worked really well and were exactly what i wanted them to be. I have finished off the remaining designs are updated the previous to fit them to the desired size and fix any mistakes. I then had a little breakdown on the page over the wooden structure; After going back and forth with how the wooden structure would work, in terms of attaching the puzzle structures to the base, I decided that the better alternative would be to use book cloth and to essentially use as a wrap around this also allows for flexibility in whatever way the book is used. This definitely feels like the better way forward as it also removes the risk of splinters and sharp edges however it may make this less long lasting as the wood may fray the book cloth eventually but I think this would happen over a long period so isn't worth thinking about. A couple of screenshots from the digital construction of the puzzle documents as it was so longwinded that...

As mentioned before, it was quite challenging to start the puzzle development - it's not really something my mind naturally does but visually working out really does help! Turning each design into illustrator line work; Took a longgg time and a lot of work but it really came together in the end! I shan't bother including all the ethos files because it doesn’t seem overly necessary but here are a few videos from the laser cutter; The outcome; We have a slider puzzle! It didn't look like it was going to happen for a while but we have a mostly functioning slider puzzle! Needs a bit of work but overall it worked out! What a cute layout! It all worked so well and is actually legible which is kind of surprising in truth. Some rescaling needs to occur but all in all what a success! Now time to develop these further and the remaining puzzles!