User:Thijshijsijsjss/PTMoMNBM/2024-04-28 Pen Plotted Illustration Book

What is it?

An illustration book telling a story in about 12 spreads, handbound and all pen plotted.

Why make it?

I find illutration books to (try to be) be intimated experiences. However, their mass production and particular materiality often creates a distance for me that inhibits me from fully experiencing this intimacy. Glossy pages, hard covers. The illutration book becomes a pristine object that cannot and should not be damaged. Should not be interacted with in playful ways. All the while, often the the stories they portray allow for a sense of curiosity and wonder that text-based books sometimes lack. There is a dissonance between the playful attitude of the content, and the static pompousness of the format.

A pen plotted illustration book can provide a more harmonic outcome. While there is cooperation with machine, there is still a handmade quality to pen plots. And due to the quirks of plotting, every plot is unique. As a method, it embraces playfulness (and seamfulness). 

Finally, such a book could highlights many techniques of pen plotting, and in that way also serve as a nice overview for someone interested in this practise.

Workflow

1. Make the story
   1.1 Create a narrative
   1.2 Create concept art for characters and environments
   1.3 Create a storyboard 
2. Make some decisions
   2.1 Decide on the method(s) of illustration
       -> For example, multicolor crosshatches, stippling, vector outlines, ...
   2.2 Decide on the binding technique
       -> For example, stapled, thread sewn, glue binded, ...
   2.3 Decide on the issue size
3. Illustration files must be made
   -> This can include drawing and coloring by hand, and converting this to pen plottable illustrations.
4. Pen plotting
5. Binding
6. Distributing

Timetable

Previous practice and Rapid prototypes

I have a previous practise both in pen plotting and in storyboarding for illustration-based stories. I will pull from this to provide this proposal with prototypes.

This project is supported by three prototypes:
1. A storyboard prototype. This storyboard I made in October 2022 and might serve as a basis for this illustration book.
2. A pen plotting prototype, to see what some of the pages might look like. For exampes for one specitic technique, see for  examnple this page.
3. A binding prototype. For this, I don't have a prototype currently.

Storyboard for an illustrationbook featuring a snowperson and a scarecrow

Relation to a wider context

This projects relate to the wider practise of pen plotting, and the multiplicity of methods and results they invite. There are few pen plotted publications, and a publication for pen plotted illustrations is, to my knowledge, novel.

Additionally, we live in a society of fast paced consumption. In some ways, this behaviour is already being taught at a young age. Projects that cater to children should be aware of this.

Choices made

- story or 'fragmental'?
- with or without text?
- aimed at children, or not specifically?