Polly Dunbar

Following on from my research into Eric Carle's work I thought I would look at artist Polly Dunbar as I enjoyed the process of collage in my previous experiments. Dunbar's work however is a different approach to collage than Carle's as it is layered digitally.

Analysis




All over Dunbar's book covers are relatively the same. Each book follows the same recipe and formula for design.
  1.  Coloured background (in muted tone)
  2. Central title, including the main characters name (which is larger and in bold)
  3. Author/illustrator underneath
  4. Slightly off-center artwork (typically, the main character)
This simple recipe is all you need for a children's book cover. A clear title and artwork which introduces us to the main character and the story inside. The colourful background is effective with children for a cover and children respond to colour and it would get it noticed on a shelf. This basic design is also approachable to children as they can read the title and make sense of the book themselves. There also is an associated link between her publications, giving returning readers a visual to look for not just by name.


Above is a double page spread I've chosen to look at (context: a vase has been knocked over, a little girl is getting the blame and her parents are discussing it)

There is no drawn background to this piece but instead the layering and placement of characters and use of shadows creates depth and perspective within what appears to be a blank canvas. The use of the colour blue (in the spilt water, fathers shoes and trousers, mothers tights) is a subtle link to the emotions on this spread, creating the feeling of saddness and worry the little girl is feeling for recieving the blame.


The horizontals in this piece create the depth to the artwork making up the foreground, middle and background. In this sense the placement of the artwork tells us the story chronologically. On the 1st horizontal we have the issue: the broken vase, the 2nd we have the action: the parents discussion, the 3rd we have the little girl and on the 4th we have the flowers: why. The placement as so effects how we read the image.


Depending on how you read the story (type/artwork) can change the way you read the image:
  1. In order of events taking place/placement of artwork. 
  2. The event.
  3. The discussion.
The design and placement of artwork on this spread has been thought out as it is just as important to telling the story, if not more, than the type. The text has been placed in really the only space given which to me tells me that the artwork was more important. It is there to tell you the story (or for parents to read the story) but what really tells a story to children, in children's books, is the illustrations, the visual communication. We get a better understanding of what is happening by seeing first the artwork.


The illustrations are made up of mixed media collage. The mixed media is a range of water colours, flat patterns and digital painting. Pencil lineart is layered on top. Flat patterns and texutres are used on manmade things such as clothing and the soft water colours make up the characters natural features, their skin and hair. The colour palette is muted tones of the primary and secondary colours, the soft colours compliment Dunbar's drawing style.

Experiments

I chose to do an experiment using my friend Celine as the subject. I felt Dunbar's work reflected best the personality of Celine: cute, kind, interesting, travelled. I was able to use patterns as Celine's wardrobe is very patterened and reflective of Dunbar's collages.


To start I created a line art drawing and a colour/pattern sheet, I used pastel colours as they seemed more in nature to Celine's character. I scanned both of these in and digitally collaged together my image. I collaged the pattern sheet I made underneath the pencil lineart in photoshop and created a bicycle using a collage of different patterns without lineart.


Having created both elements of my experiment I played around with placement and interaction between the two.



I took my experiment further after creating the artwork and looked into mock-ups of page layouts, type and creating a book cover in the style of her children's books.


The first experiment looked at breaking up each line of the text with an illustration, illustrating each line of the story. This is a fun way of laying out type and the illustrations become part of the text. They are in this sense ordered and looked at as you read the story line by line.

 

The second looked at type and separating it by putting the spoken text into a speech bubble. This experiment has the text become part of the artwork, by creating a visual bubble in which the characters spoken dialogue is coming out from it becomes artwork as well as narrative.


The next followed the type becoming part of the artwork again, this time moving with an image. In the example it follows the journey of the rocket and in mine the path of the bicycle. The text flows with the journey of the story.


Lastly, a much simpler design with just the text and artwork with no correlation between the two.

All the above experiments are based on page designs from the same book. There doesn't need to be a constant, repeated design in a children's book the placement of type works around the artwork and makes itself relevant to each different page and part of the story.



For the book cover I followed the recipe Dunbar used for hers. I picked out tones found in the characters dress and used these as a complimentary palette for the background and type. The title is eligible and tells us something about the character on the front cover.


I altered the colour of the cover's background and type to see how differently that would enhance the artwork.


The shades of blue and green I think complimented the artwork well, but the shades of pink made the characters face blend into the background and she was lost. They enhanced the bicycle nicely but the character is the most important part of the illustration so irrelevant if the character is lost.


Green hues work nicely against the pinks and purples of the character.



Having looked at some of Dunbar's designs and applied them to my artwork I thought I would experiment further with some of my own.

 

The first has the artwork on a muted background with text of a darker shade in the top left corner. I felt this looked flat and the coloured background instead of being a space instead is negative space.


By reducing the size of the character ever so slightly the page immediately gains some depth. It has a foreground and a background with a central character.


However, reducing the size of the character too much puts her too far into the background and the interaction between her and the bicycle is lost. She instead becomes part of the background and the bicycle then becomes the focus.

I also experimented with a different background to try and create more depth to the image in a different way. This background is a painted water colour wash instead of a digital coloured background, the gradient effect of the wash does create the feeling of depth in the image that you also achieved by reducing the size and positioning of characters.

Evaluation: Dunbar follows a simple formula to her book covers and it gives her books a uniform look. Inside the books however the design is different page-to-page depending on the subject matter, what is happening in the story. Whilst she doesn't use painted/full-drawn backgrounds she uses the coloured background and shadows as a gage for depth and creates the illusion of a background with the positioning of the artwork. This investigation has been useful to learn from and know that not all illustrations have to have objects or fully illustrated backgrounds to have depth to them.

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Bibliography

Artwork/books
  1. Dunbar, P. http://www.pollydunbar.com/. The Official Website.
  2. Dunbar, P. (2007). Penguin.
  3. Dunbar, P. (2009). Pretty Pru: A Tilly and Friends Book. Walker.
  4. Dunbar, P. (2013). Tilly and Friends.
  5. Dunbar, P. (2009). Where's Tumpty? A Tilly and Friends Book.