Practical Development

The Practical.
After choosing to create a publication based on alternative endings to fairy tales I thought that I would start with Snow White as she was my example in my essay, and think that she is a good example of how fairy tales make children think that they have to be 'the fairest of them all' to end up happy in life, be successful and find love. I started by going through the top ten different Disney Princesses, thinking about the alternative endings that I can give them.

I think that making all of the Princesses die would be too much and too far fetched. I think that it would also be stepping a bit far out of the fairy tales, and going more towards the original Brothers Grim tales. The publication will be called 'Happily Never After' playing on the words that are always used at the end of a fairy tale.

Target Audience.
The target audience for my publication is children ages 8 - 14. I think that this will be appropriate for this age range because it is the age where children start to think about what they are doing and what they look like. Although it is past the age where they first hear/watch the fairy tales, it is an appropriate age so that they learn that the world doesn't always work the same way as the fairy tales. When writing for the book I need to consider my target audience, so that it is enough for them to read, but not being too much, or too hard so that they feel they can't read it.

Snow White - The Prince would find the evil side to the Queen attractive, and ask for her hand in marriage, which leave Snow White in a deep 'sleep'.

Sleeping Beauty - When she pricked her finger she fell into a deep sleep and was to only be awakened by the Prince's kiss. Although when the Prince tries to get to the Princess, he cuts his had on a thorn in the dark forest and decides its not worth it and goes home.

Cinderella - She goes to the ball because of the fairy godmother, and as the clock hits 12 she runs home leaving her glass slipper behind. The Prince vows he will find the girl in the glass slipper and marry her. When visiting peoples houses trying to find a foot that it fits on, Cinerella is cleaning downstairs whilst the fairy godmother tries on the slipper and its a perfect fit, so he marries her.

Beauty and the Beast - The beast eats Belle because she says no to his marriage proposal so many times, and when she finally says yes its because she found out he is really a handsome Prince, and if she marries him he will turn back into the Prince. The beast thinks she is too shallow and decided that she would make a better meal instead.

Jasmin - Aladdin rescued Jasmin from her arranged marriage, although on the way out of the wedding Jasmin falls off the magic carpet and loses her memory of Aladdin, so marries the other guy who she doesn't love.

Tiana - Tiana is looking for an easy way to get more money, so she started to kiss different frogs thinking that one of them would turn into a Prince. Although really the Prince was watching her do this and found it hilarious and very unattractive.

The Little Mermaid - Ariel was able to exchange her voice for legs so she could see the Prince that she loves, although when it hits midnight she gets her voice back and the Prince realised he loves her. Although as this happens she gets her tail back. Prince Eric is allergic to fish, so no matter how much they want to be together, they can't.

The Binding.
I have found through research that children find books that they can interact with more interesting, therefore I want to make a book where you can change the order or the stories which will make my target audience interact more with it. The pages will be inter-changeable, so that each night the children can have a different page order and see it as a different book. When being sold, the book could also come with more pages so that there are many different ones to chose from so each night the book will be very different. (Binding choice can be found here)

Development.

Red is usually seen as a colour to represent love and danger, this would be a good colour to use, as this is exactly what this illustration is about.

Purple is one of the main colours for the evil witch or nemesis in fairy tales, so this would also be a good colour to use. 

Trying to include both colours doesn't work very well. Although I do want the illustrations to have a background, this will put them in context and show how the scene would actually go if it was a film. It will also help to stimulate the children's minds, so that when they are reading this they will be able to imagine what it happening.

I think that using thunder wold work well, it shows the dark and evil side to the evil Queen. It also add more dimension to the illustration and the page. I decided to have Snow White outside in the forest near the cottage where she lives, looking peaceful as if she is waiting for the Prince to come and save her, little does she know that he won't be turning up at all.

Cinderella would be cleaning the floors as she is a maid as the Prince finds the fairy godmother and asked her to run away with him and live happily ever after.

Making the background appear mystical and magical will allow the children to see that it ends happily for someone somewhere. Even the fairy godmother will find love and she isn't a Princess or the fairest of them all.

Putting an opacity on the background makes it less intense and not as blue.

I think having a mixture of really dark endings for the Princesses and some lighter more humorous endings to fairy tales will be a good range for the publication. I think that this one works really well with the evil witches face in the sky in the background, as if she is showing that she is always watching.

Drawing the characters and illustrations.

I have used images from the films to find out what the characters look like. I so that I can have a reference when I am illustrating them. I thought that if I found an image that could work with the scene I am drawing, it will be easier to get the drawings accurate. Drawing out the basic shapes first meant that I could go back later and add as much detail as I feel is necessary.

Having all of this detail makes the characters look more real. I decided to make shapes to show the shadowed areas of the character and the lighter areas, this gives the character more dimension, I did this for all of my illustrations to keep them consistent throughout.

Even the smaller characters are just as detailed so each of the fairy tales look more real and less flat and two dimensional.

A couple of the illustrations were of the Princesses on a floor. I decided to make a normal floor, the warp it in a shell, this meant that I could get this effect, where is looks a bit over the top and dramatic, not too flat and boring. This works really well with the illustrations.

When creating the illustrations, I made them so that there is a range of layouts so that some are at the of the page and some are at the bottom. I wanted to leave enough room so that I would be able to fit the story in the space.

I thought that for the posters I would use the the same layout, but instead of having a white background I would have a light grey back ground, so that the colours aren't so harsh on the white, although I think that it will work well in the publication, I think that the posters should have a background colour. Instead of placing the story in the space I place 'Happily Never After' in a font called 'Beyond Wonderland', I think that this works really well. It shows the whimsical and traditional theme of fairy tales and keeps it fun and interesting.

I have chosen the theme green throughout the Princess and the Frog, this is because frogs are green, it is also the colour of Tiana's Princess dress at the end of the film, therefore I think it will work well. This illustration is colourful and vibrant and think it is very relevant for the story.

As the story about Jasmin isn't actually about her, it is about the boy called Aladdin. Fort his publication because I am focusing on Disney Princesses therefore I will be creating the story of Aladdin from Jasmin's point of view, as if it is her story rather than Aladdin's.

The Story.
For the publication I wanted the text to be short but sweet. Enough for a child aged 8 - 14 years old to read. I think that it should be written well without using too big of words, but keeping it short so that it keeps to attention of the younger audience. For the Introduction page I think that keeping it simple will work better for this publication, as the rest of the pages are so detailed, I think that it would be too much if I had big illustrations on it. Also even though the binding method I will be using is different so that the children can organise the pages that they want them, I thin that I should still not include anything on the left hand page.

Once upon a time there were many princesses. Princesses in need of being rescued from their terrible troubles, by their Prince charming. The Prince looked for the fairest of them all before he found his Princess, anything else just wouldn’t be enough. Life isn’t always like fairy tales, and not all stories end in a Prince riding in on his trusty stead to save the day. Sometimes the Princess doesn’t get the Prince, sometimes the Prince wants more than just beauty. Sometimes...the Princess lives happily never after.

Once upon a time Snow White lived with seven dwarfs in a cottage. She was known as the fairest of them all, and was envied by women everywhere. Knowing this the evil Queen poisoned Snow White with an apple putting her in a deep sleep and could only be awakened by her Prince. The Prince sees this happen and finds the dark side of the evil Queen attractive. He instantly falls in love with the evil Queen, and asks for her hand in marriage. With this she says yes, and gives him her heart. Meanwhile Snow White remains in her deep sleep and lives happily never after.

Once upon a time a beautiful women named Cinderella was trapped working as a maid for her evil stepmother. Along came Cinderella’s fairy godmother giving her a way to go to the Prince’s ball so she can try and escape from the life she leads. The Prince was enchanted by the beauty of Cinderella and after she ran out of the ball leaving her glass slipper behind, the Prince vowed he would find the girl in the glass slippers and marry her. True to his word he found the girl who fit the slipper. The slipper fit the fairy godmother perfectly so he asked her to marry him there and then. While Cinderella continued being a servant to her stepmother and lived happily never after.

Once upon a time a beauty named Belle was a servant in a castle owned by the beast. As she was repaying her fathers debts. Belle was to dine with the beast and accept lavish clothes and jewellery. Every night he asked her to marry him and she said ‘no’. The Prince informs her that long ago a fairy turned him into a hideous beast after he refused to let her in from the rain, and that only by finding true love, despite his ugliness, could the curse be broken. Knowing this Belle changed her mind and wanted to marry the beast, but by this point the beast found her shallow. He ate her whole and Belle lived inside him happily never after.

Once upon a time a little mermaid named Ariel lived in the sea with her fish friends scuttle and flounder. She had always been curious about the human world, collecting artefacts in the sea. One day she sees Prince Eric and falls in love with him straight away as he fell in love with her voice. After trading her voice for legs with Ursula, Ariel realised that Prince Eric only recognised her through her voice. Fighting Ursula for her voice back, Prince Eric realised his true love, Ariel. As the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid, Prince Eric finds he is allergic to fish and couldn’t be with her and could only watch from a far. Leaving Ariel to return to the sea living happily never after.

Once upon a time a Princess named Araura had a curse put on her at birth by the evil Queen, Maleficent. On the eve of her 16th birthday she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and be put into a deep sleep. The only thing that could save the sleeping beauty was a kiss from a Prince. Many Prince’s tried to battle the dark forest and dragon guarding the tower the Princess is sleeping in but none prevail. Prince Philip is the best hope for saving the sleeping beauty. Although he cuts his hand on a thorn on the way there, so gave up and went home, leaving Araura in the tower and she lived happily never after.

Once upon a time a girl named Tiana was told stories by her mother, about a princess who kissed a frog and turned it into a Prince. As a waitress she was struggling for money and thought that she was going to loose her fathers mill. Trying to find a way to get some money she decided to try kissing frogs to see if she could find her Prince. Prince Naveen had always liked Tiana. After going to find her he sees her by the pond kissing many different frogs to try and get money. Although he found it very funny, he realised she would love him for the wrong reasons. Tiana continued trying to kiss frogs and lived happily never after.

Once upon a time a Princess called Jasmin was set to marry a man called Jafar in an arranged marriage. She doesn’t love Jafar, her true love is Aladdin, a boy who found a Genie’s lamp in a cave, giving him three wishes. Aladdin saves Jasmin from her arranged marriage by flying in on his magic carpet, using all three of their wishes they escaped to live a long life together. Although in the rush Jasmin wasn’t balanced on the magic carpet, and fell off. Jasmin didn’t die but lost her memory of Aladdin, she went back to her arranged marriage  with Jafar and lived happily never after.

The illustrations only go across a double page spread, this is so that they are restricted, this will make it easier for the children to organise the pages into their own personal way. this will work well for children, after they have put them in the order that they want them in, they have the option to stick the pages together so that it is more like a real book. Although this means that they wont be able to move them about. I think that it is good to have the option, I have designed the publication so that it is not to be stuck together, although if children want to it is easy to do so. Having a personalised book will interact with the target audience more, and make each publication feel unique to the owner. Especially if there were ore options for different fairy tales being sold with it, so each night they could have a different book to read.

The Publication.

I chose this binding so that the publication can not only be a normal book format but it can also stand on its own to show all the different pages. This means that the publication can be on display as well as being a book. I found that children wanted to chose what would go in their fairy tales, if I had more time I would create more spreads and illustrations for more fairy tales, so that they could also be bought separately so you can make your own book, with your favourite fairy tales inside.  This is something that I would just have to propose as I don't have time to actually create more illustrations.

Posters.

The posters look better in person as these images are quite dark, but I found that they printed out really well. I initially was just going to make a publication about happily never after. But I thought that I could print out posters to go along with it so that they are available with the publication, it also increases the size of the illustrations to see the detail.

Evaluation.
If I had more time I would have tried to create more illustrations of the princesses. I could have also tried to include other fairy tales without Princesses such as Hansel and Gretal, from the Brothers Grim collection. Although I purposely only had Princesses as I was trying to show that not all Princesses get the Prince. I really enjoyed creating this publication and the posters and I think that over the summer when I have time I will continue with the publication, making more Princesses, also looking directly at the Brothers Grim tales, as I think that they could be more of a range and diverse.

If I were to do this brief again, I would have tried to book more print slots as I found that there wasn't any available nearer the deadline, therefore I had to go to drop ins and consider external printers. This is something which delayed the printing process. I would have also done a spell check on the posters as I have found a spelling mistake on one of them. I didn't think to check them as there are very little words on them. 

Overall I am really please with my practical side of my essay, I think that they synthesize really well, and are suitable for the target audience. I am looking forward to extending the publication over the summer and exploring different fairy tales.