Nat's Design Blog

All you have to do is study design.

Over the last crazy week of changing jobs, two birthdays and having a relative in town, I somehow managed to begin some illustration work for my story. In the process, I have (as pictured) claimed the dining table and pretty much every other available surface I came across.

This is one of my early stages backgrounds. It’s a bit dodgy looking right now but I have plans to rescue it with some overlaying detail work and cut out illustrations. I’ll put up some more progress images when I finally get around to scanning them!

I’ve been playing with some colour palettes and fonts to go hand in hand, this is what I’m working with at the moment:

I’ve also had an idea to use sea salt in doing some watercolour illustrations to really emphasise aspects of the ocean. Would like to see how far I can take the illustrations. I also really want to dunk some writing in water and watch it run. I think it’d be really effective to use some kind of image/typography like this in my book!

Edit: OH okay here’s another idea- I paint with only water, speckle ink or paint into places and watch it run. This could be cool.

A binding moodboard helped to get me thinking!

A typeface moodboard. I think I’m heading in the direction of handwriting the font by myself, inspired by the images in the below board.

Whittling this great story of determination down to a mere eight pages is difficult.

Here it is in 300 words. The Old Man and The Sea in 300 Words

I’ve created this moodboard for illustration inspiration:

Early storyboard:

This has had me stumped all week. Browsing the web for more inspiration and researching the idea of “reconceptualising” I think I might have an idea…

Define reconceptualising: to form a concept or idea again; to come up with a new observation about a concept or idea.

The Old Man and the Sea is a story with underlying themes including determination, death, pride and defeat. So maybe I retell the story, summarise it into a suitable short story length but (with the aid of visuals) have the old man age rapidly for the entire time he does not catch a fish. His battle in trying to catch the fish is shown with his physical deterioration and he finally comes back to shore a much older man, who can hardly walk, who is sunburnt and dying. After returning home and sleeping deeply, he wakes up a younger man, with his youth and strength restored.

My initial issue with reconceptualising a story is that I didn’t want to take away from the real story. I didn’t want to make up anything and change the story- it wouldn’t be the same. So I figure this is a way of enhancing the story without actually altering it.

Project: This assessment task requires you to produce a storybook adaptation of an existing novel.

Chosen novel: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Themes: Determination, struggle, pride, death

Summary: It is a tale of an old fisherman who has not been able to catch a fish for 85 days, he has a young apprentice whose parents had told to join another fisherman with better luck. Although they no longer work together, the two continue a unique friendship. The fisherman goes out with high hopes on the 85th day and finds himself lucky. He catches his largest fish ever. The fish is so big that the old man is unable to bring it on his boat and fights with it for several days. As the fish tires, he is able to kill it and begins to row back to shore. Being so large, the fisherman rows back to shore with the fish in tow behind him. The dead fish attracts sharks who eat his marvellous catch before he can return home to sell it. Upon return, all that is left is a large skeleton. The man, disappointed and exhausted, goes home and sleeps. When he wakes, the town crowd the skeleton in awe and some mistake it for a shark. The young boy is relieved to see the old man back home and the two go back to fishing together.

Why this story? I found this story resonated with me as it represents honour and determination, the old man ever gives up although from the outset he is set up for defeat. I value the old man’s pride a great amount as well as the bond he has with his apprentice.