WHAT IS IN A NAME

I once heard a fellow story creator quote a small girl who asked “how do you make all the chaos of ideas in your head into such straight lines of text?” This is the true seed kernel of this blog. The first thing I have to share is that this project was not, in any stretch of the imagination, straightforward. It did not start with an idea and then smoothly transition into a final project. Like many project of such a wide scope there was an evolution of thought. To prove my point this book when it was in its infancy was Code Named The Rockwall Goblins and through many decisions, prototypes, and thrown out pieces of art the title now is The Rockwall. In the next couple of weeks I will unfold the development of how this book got it’s new title, how the style of the book had come about and creation of the monsters that inhabit this book.

But I am getting ahead of myself. First I should unveil the three challenges I set forth with this book.

First, I wanted to make a book unlike my other books. See the attached art pieces that display my other books.

ANTS: Another Nice Tasty Sweet was a more cartoon cell look with the backgrounds that were mimicking shallow focused photography.

The Tin Fairy was a more Oil Painted look.

Bo Peep's Lost Sheep was a combination of the two previous books. It was a juxtaposing of the real world represented in digital oil paints and the fairy tale world designed in a stylized cartoon look.

Secret Magics of Maine Uses a high finished painted look in its spot illustrations with usage of pencil sketched and some pen work for framing devices.

&
The Commute on the Sea-Line which was a combination of pen and ink and pastel.

Second challenge I set for myself was to tell this story with no text. It is an interesting challenge to make a story that is all visual. More on this later.

The third challenge was that I wanted to create a creature type to populate this book that would be scary and menacing but still fall well in the realm of a children’s book. I needed to make these creatures varied, mobile, versatile and well rounded. I will unveil more design needs for these creatures later in the upcoming sections.

The easy decisions of this book are I wanted to use a standard page size art falling on a page 8.5 by 11 bleed. And I wanted to use a standard page count [32], or at the very least use a multiple of [4]. Ok now that I have laid out the ground rules we can start discussing the idea but that will have to wait for the next section.

The next installment: THE IDEA

The Development of A Book.

I have decided to produce a blog that will discuss the development of a book. In the next couple of weeks you will see the designs, changes, and re-evolutions of the latest project that I am undertaking.

I first want to introduce you to a little about myself. My name is Matt Watier. I have been a professional illustrator and graphic designer for the last 12 years. I have a degree in illustration and design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Illustration and storytelling have been part of my life since I was in high school. My experiences are varied from being a graphic designer for packages and national collateral to being a co-play-write and set designer for a professional theater troop. I have worked on mastering children’s book production since for the last 6 years. I have finished 6 books and I have been honored to have first book published internationally and in two languages. Does this make me a master at what I do? No, but it gives a bit of perspective of the development of a children’s book from idea to print setup.

So without further ado this blog will fallow my design of The Rock Wall.