Project Summary
My learning design project is Rising Up, an anti-capitalist children’s book about bread. It follows the lives of a small community of animals who visit a bakery as a way to find both food and care, and explores the possibility of mutual aid contained within small acts of solidarity. I think my project helps illuminate how many choices go into creating an emotionally resonant experience for the reader–colors, story, character, and image all blend together into a reading experience that will hopefully offer a chance to hope a little more actively.
Process
Let’s explore the process of creating a single page of this book, step by step!
Writing
I began by writing the full script of my book. For instance, I wrote this section about a businessman (ahem, a businessraven) who jumps at a financial opportunity to monetize a magical bread box that a baker named Tom happens upon.
The businessman, who had been listening to the conversation, jumped up from the table where he had been eating his dinner roll. His eyes gleamed. He looked as hungry as the people Tom saw outside the bakery.
“Let me help you!” he said. “I know all about production lines and economies of scale. You mean well, but you’re just a baker with a magic box of bread.”
Tom wasn’t sure. It was a very simple idea, giving away bread, but the businessman made it sound so complicated.
“You’ll need someone to repackage the bread into parcels, to market it to the public, and to file a patent,” the businessman continued. “Sleep on it.” With that, he stuffed his dinner roll into his pocket and hopped away.
Character Prototypes
Do ravens have sunglasses? What shape are they? How does someone with wings wear a suit, and what can body language communicate? I played around to figure out what style might make the most sense for me.
Storyboarding
I made some rapid sketches that helped me brainstorm what page layout might look like. These plans ended up getting mostly discarded during the illustration process–the story ended up pulling itself along!
Illustration and Digitization
I watercolored the art by hand, then digitized it in Adobe Illustrator so I could manipulate the layout and synthesize the illustrations with the text. Behold a completed page!
