Halloween Children's Book

_{Download Size: 5100 x 3000}

So this guy was actually my least favorite project from this year. You'd think I would love to write and illustrate a
children's book, but quite frankly we were moving at such a fast pace that I didn't have the luxury of coming up
with a) an interesting plot, or b) creating really good illustrations. It was at the beginning of the semester and I
was super busy trying to figure out how to balance all of my classes with being an RA, so I didn't have a lot of
time to devote to this first project. Needless to say, it was done pretty quickly and without a lot of thought. XD

Our professor asked us not only to write and illustrate a children's board book, but to physically produce it as
well. A lot of us had no idea what we were doing or how to assemble it, really. I ended up printing all of the
pages and then using rubber cement to paste them onto mat board. Using an industrial strength hole puncher
(which was by far the most awesome thing to come out of this project), I made holes for the binding and then
stitched everything together myself. The boards have been scored so that they fold more easily, which is good
because I stitched the spine together so well that it's basically inflexible without it… meaning you can barely open it, lol.

As for the contents of the book, I had a little bit of fun and decided to make it Halloween-themed. Since it was
going to be a kid's book, I wanted to make them cute and friendly. The color scheme is, well, noticeably bright
and features a lot of neon-ish colors that I rarely use. That green was particularly hard to look at for long periods
of time, as I'm sure you can imagine. Even the type was annoying since none of it would kern or align properly.

The one thing that kept me going was the funny, sardonic twist at the end. I noticed that a lot of children's books
actually had a few bits specifically designed to amuse the parents since the humor would have gone right over the
kids' heads. I think what I ended up with is abrupt and sort of grim but altogether amusing. It got some giggles
from my classmates and from other people I showed it to. The back cover still cracks me up, I love his little face. ^^

Anyway, probably not my best work, but I did enjoy drawing the little werewolf fellow. You know me. My professor
was concerned that the dying candy corn would be too sad for kids, but I honestly think I read way worse things
growing up. Most of the fairytales I used to read actually had a lot of really shady stuff in them. I thought this
looked pretty tame by comparison, but you'll have to let me know what you think. Also, who would you be?

<sub>Designed in Illustrator CS5. Constructed September 20, 2012.

Typeface(s): GoodDog (modified)</sub>