IDEA

So I was watching this show where people were showing you around their amazing homes, and one of them was particularly odd. A man had built himself an island out of recycled bottles and rubbish he collected from land. He then inflated the bottles and straps the under his island to keep it afloat. He grows plants on the island and their roots help keep it all together. I really loved this idea and it brings up my two favourite things to draw; plant life and gross things (rubbish in this case). I've decided to base my story off of this. I think i'm going to make my audience 6-8 year olds because before when i was aiming for 9-12 I think i underestimated how intelligent the writing would have to be. I don't want to end up creating a story that is patronising for it's audience so I have lowered my audience age. The story will have morals of recycling and sharing.



So far all I've come up with is a small character will decided to make his own island and will go out asking people if he can have their rubbish and in exchange once he is set up he shall give them some of the plants he grows.
I think i'm going to include a 'bad guy' which will be a magpie because they are known for stealing shiny objects and that seems like the kind of trouble my little character will run into while building his island.

For the style I have decided to use this opportunity to do my colour and line work separately. I don't want to colour digitally because it never quite works out the way i want and I always think my work looks worse once coloured. So i'm going back to analogue, I'm thinking either using watercolour or brusho inks to create the colour. And then I will use a light box to do the outlines and the texture. I think if there is any digital changes I make it will just be to make some of the lines complimentary to the colour they are atop.

I was considering different names for my little character, I want it to be genderless so that it is relatable to any child. My main contenders for a name was Root, Soil or Sprig. But when I asked others for their opinion it was almost unanimously Sprig. I think it is a word that isn't used too often. And maybe then I can use an introductory page to say how it got it's name and what a sprig is. So that there are educational elements in the story.

This is one all coloured in. Im not sure about the body colour here though. I need to do a character sheet where I play with the colour and shapes till i've investigated it enough to know I have the best result.