Story of The Stolen Prince storybook was created during my Independent Research class. The objective of this class was to encourage student to choose their own project and work independently.
I chose to make a storybook based on a popular folklore in Indonesia, Timun Mas. The story adopted a character named Buto Ijo (or the Green Giant) to be the main antagonist. For the illustration style, it’s a combination of simple paper cutting technique and computer illustration. This was my first time doing the technique, therefore when I started, there were some experiments to do.
In this blog post, I want to share a little bit of the making process by giving an example from one of the page in the storybook. Enjoy!
The first thing that I did was of course, to pick the color from whats available in the paper store. There are also various types of paper, some are smooth, some are textured. I find it best to combine both type of those papers in one scene.
Just like any other design process, what I did first was the sketch.
Based on that sketch, I roughly draw lines on the paper and then cut it into shape. It doesn’t have to be very precise, because later I will edit them with Photoshop.
After the first shape, I continue with the second shape which are the hands. I used double sided foam tape so that each shapes have depth.
The reason why I stick the shapes right after I cut them is so that I know the ratio of next shapes.
After the paper illustration is finished, I took a picture of it with a good quality camera and move on to the editing process.
I always make sure that I have a RAW file so I can still edit the image with Adobe Lightroom. First thing first, I correct the overall shapes and edit the unwanted objects.
The next step is to add details like the hair, hands, feet. Almost like doing an illustration.
That’s all. If you are interested in the full process, you can watch it here: