26 October 2018
Boys in Years 3-5 were introduced to author and illustrator Gabriel Evans on Monday 22 October.
Gabriel led the boys through the process of illustrating a book, from initial sketches to development of detailed drawings, including negotiating with the publisher over the placement of text within illustrations. This process often places the illustrator under pressure due to time constraints, as well as having to change drawings due to publishers constantly modifying their requests.
When exploring ideas for a story, Gabriel challenged the boys to create characters from the most boring object in the room, a brick and a tissue box. The characters were further developed by asking the following questions What is the main problem this object faces? and What would this object like to able to do?.
The boys responses revealed that the brick’s problem was being surrounded by many other bricks….what if the other bricks were not very friendly? What if the other bricks were very heavy? The brick, as a character, wanted to fly, so what would it need for this to happen? A jet pack and rocket of course! These features were then added to the initial sketches of the brick.
The boys came away from Gabriel’s sessions enthusiastic to further create storylines for the brick, tissue box and the super hero llama by adding common and boring objects as other villainous characters and by brainstorming complications to their stories.
Sue Dansie
Junior School Teacher-Librarian