In my first illustration class we were introduced to our new brief which was to create a zine. We were allowed to choose from three separate themes, one of which was “a tiger in the house”. This particularly stood out to me because it was a challenging, yet interesting theme and I was already filled with ideas of what I could do. So, we started planning in our sketchbooks the different ideas we had, making a mind map for me was a very beneficial exercise because it let me lay all my ideas on a page and helped me choose the final one. After that I decided to map out quick thumbnails of what each page would be, I initially thought going with a traditional drawing but I then I thought it over and decided it was best to continue in a digital style since it is one of my weaker points and it would help me improve.
The next day we were tasked with making small drawings and references of our characters and other symbolic aspects in the drawings. Using the drawings, we would create collage is displaying the different scenes in the story book. this was an amazing experience because one of my collages ended up becoming one of the story books pages which meant that I had less work to do since I had figured out what I wanted to base it of. Although there were a few things that I needed to fix and change with these drawings, they were definitely not the final product.
I started drawing the pages in procreate on my tablet, I had to first scan in the photos of my drawings and then add them on procreate which meant I just have to trace the drawings over again and enhance the colours. This helped me I have my drawings as a reference and also be able to experiment without wasting time on correcting mistakes. I wanted to have a messy sort of style running through all the pages because I wanted it to seem like a child drew these pages to represent the innocence and playfulness behind the story. The story behind “the tiger in the house” is based off myself as a person, the tiger has problems with anger and he drops a plate, which then sends him into a rage and you can see behind him there are multiple other plates that have been smashed and put back together. This is supposed to represent that although we all do get angry, in the end we calm down realise our mistakes and fix them. If this was to be a book for a child I would want them to learn the importance of controlling anger and fixing it to make things right. My goal was to do that through this story that’s why at the end of the story the big spread piece is a girl asking herself if she was the tiger all along.
