As a group project we were briefed on designing the poetry book: 'Cautionary Tales for Children' by Hilaire Belloc, for an adult audience. I was tasked with book illustration of the 'Matilda' poem, about a young girl making repeated fake calls to the fire department, who nobody believes when a real fire lights up her home.
For this book, I wanted to focus on strong compositions with a character that really conveys Matilda's personality. As a group, we chose Gothic Victorian horror and traditional printing inspirations for our book, using noise texture, linework and a limited colour scheme to represent this.
Character Sheet: Matilda
Character Sheet: Auntie
Victorian Prop Sketches
Layout Sketches
Working from antique references, I developed sketches for Victorian props and costumes to emphasise the time and space this story was taking place in. The final drawings were made using Procreate and composited in InDesign.
Matilda Poem: Page Two & Three
Matilda Poem: Page Four & Five
Group Work:
-Bardia Zandbaf: Art director, InDesign technician, typography
-Helen Ma: Typography, layout, compositor
-Miya Liu Simmons: Illustrator, colour scheme
-Romie Munro: Illustrator, colour scheme
-Katie Thompson: Illustrator, research, colour scheme