How to Ignite an Idea for a Foldable Picture Book
How to kickstart a foldable book project and what you will need to bring it to life
Roger Ycaza (@rogerycaza) is an award-winning illustrator, author, and musician from Ecuador, specializing in children’s books. One of his favorite formats is the foldable book, given that it allows illustration to take center stage and requires the author to explore unique ways to connect their visual language with the story being told through text.
Here, Roger takes us through his process for coming up with an initial idea that ignites a new book, as well as showing us some different foldable formats and the materials he recommends using to bring them to life.
Ignite!
When you set out to create your first foldable book, the first step is to ignite your project. In Roger’s book, “Vueltas por el universo” (Trips Around the Universe)–a tribute to music–he is able to identify two images that lit the fuse and kickstarted the rest of the project.
One is a page filled with black keys, which was inspired by the name of one of his favorite music groups, The Black Keys. The other is a drawing of two chemists smiling and experimenting, which is a visual representation of The Chemical Brothers. From these two images, he began to draw more and groups and, before he knew it, he had drawn a series made up of around 70 images. These sketches were transformed into the content that fills the pages of his book, which is a type of graphic novel that falls into the humor category.
Take out your sketchbooks
When looking for inspiration to ignite a project, Roger takes out an older sketchbook, full of ideas, notes, sketches, the processes of projects he has worked on in the past. In his sketchbook, he discovers images charged with the potential to be the seed for a new story or concept.
He also takes out a brand new notebook or sketchbook, which will serve as a diary for his new project. He opens up the sketchbook and thinks of a film, book, album, phrase, etc that he really likes. He writes down the name. What is it about? Right, now, he must forget what he knows and create a new story just from the name.
Roger takes the film, "Rocky". Now it’s no longer about a boxer living in a poor neighborhood in Philadelphia. Instead, he draws an image of a dog called Rocky, who wears a collar with an “R”. He is lost in the woods. Now his challenge is to see where he can take this new character, Rocky. Who left him in the woods? Why? This is what he is going to discover in his new story.
Choosing your foldable format
Before choosing a foldable book format, it helps to look at some different examples. Here Roger shares three foldable books he has published or really likes.
“Una Carta” (A Letter) by Roger Ycaza
This is a much small-format book, published by Comoyoko. The front cover has been screen-printed using two colors, while the inside uses three colors. To create this publication, Roger had the challenge of telling his story in very few pages. On the back, you can see the number of the edition in the limited print run. When you open up the entire book, you discover the story’s ending in the format of an A3 poster. This format is easy to make yourself.
“Migrar” (Migrating) by José Manuel Mateo and Javier Martínez Pedro
This foldable book was published by Tecolote in Mexico and tells the story of an indigenous boy who sets out on a journey with his family to look for his father who has gone north. This foldable book is printed in a horizontal format with the text on the left and a detailed continuous image on the right. When you open up the book you can see the structure–it is accordion-like and is only printed on one side.
“Quito” by Roger Ycaza
This book forms part of a collection of illustrated maps. It’s published by Pato Lógico in Portugal and Deidayvuelta in Ecuador. This story takes you on a journey through the city, Quito. When you open up the book fully, you discover an illustrated map of the city.
Once he has chosen his format, Roger uses his sketchbook to work out the measurements and the folds he will use. He makes the most of the sheet of card he will use, using every inch of it to try out ideas and experiment with color and create multiple versions of the book.
Materials
These are the materials that Roger recommends using for your first foldable book:
–sketchbook or notebook
–acrylic paintbrushes in various sizes
–acrylic paint (Roger recommends the brand Winsor & Newton)
–nib pen
–marker pen
–ruler
–a small pot for water
–paper towels
–mixing palette
–pencil
–utility knife or Stanley knife
–a sheet of card (Roger recommends a weight of around 250g to 300g)
If you are interested in learning more Roger and discover more tips for creating foldable illustrated books, sign up to his course, Creation of an Illustrated Foldable Book. You’ll work towards creating a book using music as a starting point.
0 comments