Initially, this brief was quite challenging. Coming up with an idea of a children’s book did originally seem quite easy, as referenced in my transgender cat idea. However, once I actually got down to trying to sketch out a plot to go along with the actual idea that would be suitable for six to eight year olds, it became very difficult and it was quite a long time before the mouse idea became finalised.

The actual drawing and colouring of the pages as well as creating the book itself was the most fun part of the entire brief. I enjoyed myself immensely sketching out Meep the mouse and Eliza the elephant, and using different colour schemes to try and get the right feel of what I was after. The style that I used I feel like was quite relatable to Quentin Blake which is what I had wanted to happen the entire time. I am quite happy with how the brief has turned out, even though I wish I had done more pages to include Eliza the elephant in the actual book, as referenced in a previous post.

Overall, I really enjoyed this brief: it has been my favourite so far, and I hope this comes across in my work.

Here’s the final piece of my book. I’m quite happy with the final design of my book, because I feel like it is fairy consistent without despite using different hand drawings of the same characters. I also like the colour scheme because it attracts the eye and also ties in well with the theme that the two animals live in an African style plain and that they are surrounded by grass.

The only thing that I would do differently is that perhaps I would include more pictures and pages of Eliza in the actual book, as there aren’t any because I only did the first eight pages of the book before she appears. I would also possibly change the layout of the book because I think it might have worked better perhaps as an A4 portrait instead of a landscape. However, all in all, I have really enjoyed working on this piece and I really am quite proud of my design and my story.

Here is the link: Meep!

Once upon a time…

 

There was a mouse named Meep. He lived in a tree.
Meep was so afraid of everything that he would hide in his house all day long.

 

He was afraid of the grass, because it was so long and thick and he couldn’t see through it.

 

He was afraid of the river, because it ran so fast and he couldn’t swim.

 

He was afraid of the sky, in case a bird flew over and tried to eat him.

 

Meep was so afraid he had no friends. Nobody wanted to play with him because they said he was too scared.

 

So all he did all day was hide in his tree, too afraid to leave in case something happened to him.

 

One day, Meep woke up very very hungry. But when he went to his kitchen he saw he had no food.

 

This made Meep very scared. This meant that he would have to go outside.

 

Meep thought about staying inside and going to sleep instead. But his tummy was making funny noises and he wanted something to eat. So he tried to be brave and stepped outside.

 

Meep crept along the path. He was nearly at his favourite place: the berry bush. Meep loved berries the most. They were his favourite food.

 

He was eating his berries when suddenly there was a big BOOM BOOM BOOM and a BIG shadow fell on Meep.

 

He turned around and saw the BIGGEST animal he had ever SEEN. It was grey and leathery and it had a big long nose.

 

“Hello!” said the big thing.  “Are you eating berries? They’re yummy!”

 

And it reached down towards him with its big trunk.

 

Meep didn’t think twice. He ran.

 

He dropped all his berries and ran, ran back up the path, over the hill and straight into his house. Then he sat by himself and cried.

 

He wished he wasn’t so scared of everything. The big thing had seemed very friendly and he was so lonely.

 

The next day Meep decided to go back to the berry bush. Maybe the big thing would be there?

 

Sure enough, as Meep crept along, the big thing was right there. It looked sad as it ate its berries.

 

Meep took a deep breath. His tummy felt funny and his heart was running really fast.

 

“Hello,” he said.

 

The big thing turned around. As soon as it saw him it smiled. “Hello!” it said. “My name is Eliza. I’m an elephant. What’s your name?”

 

“My name is Meep,” said Meep. He felt a little bit better. “I’m a mouse.”

 

“That’s nice,” said Eliza. Then she looked sad again. “You ran away yesterday. Was it because of me?”

 

“Yes,” said Meep. “I get scared. You’re very big.”

 

“And you’re very small!” said Eliza. “But don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. Do you want some berries?”

 

“Yes please,” said Meep.

 

But there were no berries at the bottom of the hedge because Eliza had eaten them all and Meep was too small to reach the ones on top! He sat down, very sad.

 

“Oh dear!” said Eliza. “I’ll help you!”

 

And Meep watched as she used her big nose to reach the berries at the top of the tree.

 

“Here you go,” said Eliza and she gave him one. “Do you need any help with anything else?”

 

Meep took the berry. He felt much better.

 

“Yes,” he said. “I think I do.”

 

As it turns out, Eliza helped him with everything!

 

She trod on the grass so that it was flat so that Meep could see.

 

She carried him over the water so that he would be able to cross the river.

 

She held onto him with her trunk when any birds flew over them so they couldn’t hurt him.

 

And she always, always gave him the best juiciest berries from the top of the tree!  

 

Meep felt very safe when he was with Eliza. Even though she was big and he was small, he knew that she only wanted to help him.

 

And sometimes even when Meep got scared, Eliza would hold him with her trunk until he didn’t feel scared any more.

 

Because they were best friends. And that’s what best friends do.

 

The End.

This is my entire story. I’m not sure whether or not I entirely like it that much because I feel like it’s quite rushed at the end but unfortunately I was aware that there is only a limit on how many pages a children’s picture book can be and I already thought that there was too much text on it anyway. If I could re-do this again perhaps I would change the story so that it could include some other characters rather than just Meep and Eliza, because I feel like that would have given the story more depth rather than just focusing on two animals. However I do like the contrast between the beginning and the end of the story, in reference to the things that Meep is scared of and how Eliza helps him to conquer them.

I looked through several fonts to find the right one. I knew that I wanted the writing to look childlike, because Meep isn’t supposed to be very old and I wanted it to almost seem as if he had written the thing himself. I also thought that perhaps if the children could see that it had been written in a font similar to theirs that it might mean they could relate to it more, because it would familiar and it would be easy to read.

These are all the different fonts I tried out. The first couple I quite liked because of the crayon style that they have to them, but I feel like they are too thick and when I tried to make the text bigger the colour started to blur and it felt too messy. The fourth font which almost seems outline I tried against the background and it again felt too messy and dark. When I changed the font colour it just didn’t work, because the darkness of the font made it too murky.

Finally the last font is the one I went with. It is called DSNet Child Font, and I liked it the best because of the thinness of the text and the fact that despite this it does still look handwritten. I felt like it fitted the best and that it would be the easiest for the children to read from.

These are some more sketches I’ve done of several more pages of my book. I’m quite happy with these, though it was quite difficult to draw all of those pieces of grass and keep them similar size! I think that the consistency of style of my book has remained throughout all of my sketches and experiments. I do think that the top left image looks quite boring by itself, and so I think I’ll possibly combine the top left and the top right image to make it look as if Meep the mouse is looking at the eyes through the grass. This would give the illusion that he sees danger in every single corner of the world.