Anorak Brief Summary

Anorak is a company which creates children's magazines aged 6+ each issue has a different theme and celebrates the joys of childhood. For this brief we have to choose between ANTS or THINKING and create a 2 - 4 paged narrative based on chosen theme. We should think about the pace, narrative arch, environment and protagonists in our work.

For this project, I have decided to go with ANTS because I like to base a lot of my work on nature, and I find the way ants work together and have a society interesting.

Books:

Little Rabbit Runaway by Henry Horse

Little Lost Unicorn by Lorna Hussey

That Rabbit Belongs To Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

Daisy Eat Your Peas by Kes Grey and Nick Sharratt

You Choose by Nick Sharrat and Pippa Goodheart

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I realised a common theme of these books was the characters get lost, meet friends along the way and find a solution to their problems. I also noticed I enjoyed books with illustrations that explore the environment or bright and busy illustrations.

This story is about a Rabbit who after getting in trouble with her parents, decides to run away to build her own house. She meets a mouse and they work together to find things to use to live in. They decide to live together as the mouse also ran away. They get in an argument and little Rabbit leaves but gets caught in the rain. They hear a thump on the door and get scared only to discover it was their family come to take them home.

I like the style of illustrations in this book, the watercolour landscapes and how everything is quite sketched out. I think you can tell this especially on the pages which have larger illustrations. I also think that the general moral of the story is sweet.

This book is about a unicorn who decides to go venture off into the forest, all of a sudden he realises he is lost but he runs into a few different forest creatures and they have fun exploring together. He and his new friends were going across a river when the baby rabbit falls. However little unicorn rescues him! although little unicorn is upset that he was so careless. Little unicorns mum appears and says that she knows everything that has happened and reassures him that he is clever and brave.

I love the illustrations in this book, the pages are embossed which adds another element to it. Unicorns are also drawn into the background as the unicorns watching over everyone. Being able to spot unicorns hiding in the illustrations is something I used to love about this book. I also like the texture of the illustrations made by coloured pencil and cross hatching.

This book is about a mum trying to convince her daughter to eat her peas, everytime Daisy says no she adds more things she will allow Daisy to do or get Daisy if she just eats her peas. As it goes on these things get more and more ridiculous until Daisy says she will eat her Peas if her mum eats her sprouts!

The illustration style in the book is quite simple but I liked the repetition and how as you get further into the book the pages become busier and busier.

I used watercolour and gouache in quite warm toned berry colours to portray the ants. I played with creating texture from the lines on the ants body and also used small lines for the eyes.

I experimented especially with the eyes whether to have white behind the eyes or not. I am still undecided about this as I do like the look of it and it creates expression however I also like the simplicity of just the dots for eyes.

Queen Ant

• Bigger than the rest of the colony

• There's usually only 1 Queen in a colony however sometimes colonies can merge and create a massive nest

• The mother to all ants in the colony

With my designs, I like to give the creatures human qualities so I took inspiration from human royalty, what they wear etc and applied it to ants. In my world they make their clothes out of leaves, wood and other natural resources they find. This also helps create a smaller colour palette focusing on natural tones.

With these postcards it wasn't really about how they looked but what ideas they create for our project. As I got towards the end, I started to run out of ideas I zoomed out and zoomed in of the initial picture to start worldbuilding, which I think helped me. I am going to use my favourite ideas and work into them in more detail.

This book is about Emily Brown and her toy rabbit called Stanley, they go on adventures such as going to space, motorbiking, deep sea diving and climbing the rainforest. However, they keep getting interrupted by the queens men who want to take Stanley away from her! Emily keeps saying no until Stanley gets stolen. She goes to confront the queen and the moral of the story is it is important to spend time with loved ones and you can never buy the love of a friend.

I like how in some of these illustrations photography and linework are combined by collaging them together. I think it adds to the overall atmosphere of the book and makes it interesting to look at. I also like the texture created in the linework through the use of pencils etc

• There are different jobs within the worker category. Foragers, Looking after the young, Caring for the Queen, Maintaining the colony and defence.

• As worker ants age the job they are assigned to changes

• The oldest workers become Foragers

• Make up around 10% of the colony

I designed my worker ant to carry two baskets (to fill with food), a magnifying glass for inspection, a scarf to keep warm and goggles. I took inspiration from the typical explorers' outfit that you may think of.

• Scout the area

• Digging/Moving soil

• Creating the tunnels inside the nest

I designed my worker builder ant to have a hard hat with a light, (although ants do have good night vision) a bucket with some tools, and a tool belt.

Narrative

Jeremy the ant loves to make hats

He makes them all sorts of different shapes and sizes

Some BIG

Some small

Some super tall

Bored of life inside, one day Jeremy decides to leave the nest in hopes of sharing his creation with others. His family and friends waved goodbye as he set off on his adventure!

Along his walk, Jeremy comes across a bird struggling to collect sticks for her nest.

"Hello! would you like to use my hat as a basket?" said Jeremy

"Yes please, that would be a great help" replied the bird

Continuing along his journey, Jeremy bumps into a beetle contemplating what to do with all the flowers he has collected.

"Hello! would you like to use my hat as a plant pot?" enquired Jeremy

"What a wonderful idea! Yes please" Exclaimed the Beetle

Up ahead Jeremy spots a ladybird hesitating by the river.

"Is everything okay over there?" asked Jeremy

"I need to cross the river but have no way of doing so" the ladybird sighed

"Would you like to use my hat as a boat?" asked Jeremy

Relieved, the ladybird smiled and said "Thats very kind of you, thank you for the help!"

Satisfied with the days events, Jeremy set off home to tell the tale of his adventure to his family over a bowl of freshly stewed leaves and nectar!

This story may change going forward.

• Cross-culture fables which were spread through word of mouth despite not interacting with each other there are fables with the same morals/events

• A lot of stories have an "evil" character could I include this? instead of it being a 100% happy story, the antagonist could be used to elevate the story

• The concept of Rain could be used as the antagonist

• Story Idea - The ant goes off to collect more materials to make hats out of, meets creatures in scenarios, it begins to rain, and he gets lost, one of these creatures comes together to guide him back to the Anthill

• Create different scenarios that the Ant bumps into - room for experimentation

• Character Pages with different expressions

• The Worm and the Bird by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Originally spread by word of mouth

Aesop's Fables

Aesop supposedly was the author of a collection of very famous greek fables. There is a debate as to whether he actually existed or not but he is believed to have been born around 620 BCE with the first collection of Aesops stories being made in the 4th century.

Examples of Aesop's Fables

• The Tortoise and the Hare - Slow and steady wins the race

• The Ant and the Grasshopper - Work hard today to get ready for tomorrow

• The Goose and the Golden Egg - greed destroys fortune

• The Boy who cried Wolf - Liars will not be believed even if they tell the truth

Folktales

• Robin Hood - Stealing from the rich and giving back to the poor

• King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the Sword in the Stone - Arthurian Legends, collections of stories about King Arthur and his Knights and Merlin the Wizard - a range of morals including Loyalty and Defence

• Jack and the Beanstalk - Bravery, taking opportunities, don't be underestimates

• Cinderella - Kindness will be rewarded

  
  

Grimm Brothers

• The Grimm brothers were German folklorists best known nowadays for their dark fairytales.

• Fairytales were not originally meant for children, which is why the Brothers Grimm collection of stories are so dark. Originally fairytales were used to pass the time while out working.

• The Grimm Brothers saved a lot of folklore tales by writing them down and putting them into collections

• Some famous Grimm Brothers tales are:

  The Little Mermaid

  Cinderella

  Rapunzel

  Little Red riding hood

  
  

  Disney

  Disney are known for their interpretations of classic fairy tales in a way that is child-friendly. A lot of Brother Grimm tales have been adapted.

• The Little Mermaid

• Cinderella

• Rapunzel

• Snow White

• Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

• Cinderella has over 500 versions alone in Europe

• Ye Xian, Chinese Fairytale

• Rhodophis, Greek Fairytale

• Cendrillon, French Fairytale

• Raisin coatie, Scottish Fairytale

Themes of stories/myths across cultures

Flood

Floods being sent down to earth by the Gods as an act of destruction has been used across cultures. Some examples of this are:

Noahs Arc - God saw how unkind and violent humans had become except Noah so he instructs Noah to build the Ark and how it must have 2 of every animal inside. God then flooded the earth for 6 weeks so much that the entire land was covered in water. After the land was dry, God promised not to create another flood as long as the world was repopulated with kind people.

Deucalion - When humans became mean and greedy towards the Gods Zeus set to destroy them only Deucalion and his wife Pyrrah was saved as they were considered the most righteous. They constructed an Ark. After seeing the destruction they begged for a wish, to create a new humankind. They had to throw the "bones of their mother" behind them meaning stones. Each stone they throw became a human therefore creating a new human race.

These are just a few examples. Common themes include:

• Theft of Fire from the Gods

• Visiting the Underworld

• Creation of the World

• Vampiric Creatures

• Spirits/Ghosts

• Giants

• Dragons

I liked the bright colours and shapes used in this toy

It fits into the fables and themes in myths I was researching

I liked how imaginative this image was, and how it is incorporating nature into the stories.

Its also something that I would have been drawn to as a child due to the magical elements.

The text underneath the image invokes imagination

This fits my work because:

Looking back now, I like how Paddington has human features and comes across problems and fixes them in his own way which is something to incorporate into my own work.

This fits my work because:

The bright colours used

The use of an animal as the main aspect of the game

This fits my work because:

It shows how children think and what they would like to see in their stories.

• the weather, hot days, snowy days, rainy/windy days as a focus for the story what problems does this weather cause?

• holiday specials xmas, halloween

• picnics

• camping

• everyday activities

• outdoor activities

• exploration

• a home with a community

• humour

• problem solving

• street fairs

• carnivals

  
  

For this task, I created a story which started off the same but at one point different decisions led the ant into different predicaments. Going one way would lead to him being blown away, the other he would get swept into the river. However these stories both end up with the same ending of his friends coming to rescue him.

• Think about the setting of the story

• Prefer the lighter coloured illustrations as they are easier to look at

• Well developed characters

• Shorten the story to make more space

• Keep the texture of physical watercolour sketches to my digital designs

• Reminds them of vintage bug cartoons from eastern europe

• Work could benefit from a slightly thicker lineart

  
  

• Love that I have gone for a fable inspired tale

• Love the message of the story

• Love the compositions and various perspectives

• The sketches are great

To Improve Upon:

• Cut down elements of the story (I will remove either the ladybird, the mouse character or both) this will focus the story and I will have more space on the page

• Watch that colours don't overpower the linework. (I will rework the colour palette to have lighter colours)

• Background experimentations

• Colour experimentations

• Reworking the story and adjusting the layout to suit the newer story

• Work in a looser style like my original sketches

• Backgrounds

• Lineart

• Layout Design

I also changed where the text will go, I made the background lighter so it is easier to read.