Russian Fairytale Adaptation

The Tale of Tsarevitch Ivan, The Fire Bird & The Grey Wolf

I began my research process by finding out about different adaptations of the tale and the origins of this Slavic tale.

Synopsis

The story begins when a Tsar realises that somebody is stealing the golden apples from his beloved apple tree. He is angry and asks his three sons to find out who the thief is. The first two sons fall asleep before the thief comes and both lie and say that they have seen no one, yet more apples are missing. The third son, Ivan, does not fall asleep and discovers that the thief is a fire bird. He tries to catch the bird, but only manages to bring loose a firey tale feather. Ivans father sends his sons to catch the firebird, the three set off riding horses taking three different paths. On the journey Ivan rests under a tree and while he sleeps a grey wolf eats his horse. On waking Ivan is distraught about his dead horse and the grey wolf, feeling badly, offers to help Ivan on his quest. They first go to steal the firebird, but Ivan does not heed the grey wolf warning and he touches the golden cage, causing an alarm to ring out and Ivan cannot escape. To appease the owner of the firebird, Ivan is ordered to steal the horse with the golden mane. Again Ivan does not heed the grey wolfs warning and he touches the golden bridle, causing an alarm to ring out across. To appease the Tsar of this kingdom Ivan is ordered to steal the beautiful princess Yelena, this time the wolf goes into the kingdom. The wolf steals the princess and carries her on his back, as well as Ivan and they travel a great distance to the next kingdom. however, when the time comes for Ivan to part with the princess he finds himself in love. Cunning as the wolf is he already has a plan, he transforms himself into yelena and enters the kingdom. Ivan and Yelena Take the horse and escape. Again Ivan does not want to part with the golden horse so the wolf again transforms himself and enters the kingdom. They take the Fire bird and its cage and run away, the wolf follows closely after. Now the time has come for Ivan and the wolf to part ways. Ivan and Yelena continue on their journey and come to rest under a tree, they fall asleep and are discovered by Ivans older brothers, both who are filled with rage and jealousy on seeing their brother who has everything. The brothers kill Ivan and take Yelena, the fire bird and the golden horse. The wolf discovers Ivans body and enlists a raven in helping him heal Ivan, the wolf kills ivans brothers and once he wakes he travels home with Yelena and the others to tell his father what has happened. Although his father is sad about the death of the brothers he is happy that Ivan has returned home with his future wife, The fire bird and the golden horse.

Planning

Research

I began my research by annotating the story and numbering sections of the text that I felt had the richest imagery. I will need to reduce the length of this text so as to fit it more comfortably within the confines of an illustrated picture book.

Reduced Text

I have managed to reduce the text by nearly half its original size, which will allow me to have an image dominated book rather than text dominated, as it is the quality of my illustration which is important.

Russian Folk Tale Art (Traditional & Modern)

Traditional Russian Attire

Character Reference

Personal Illustration Inspiration

Russian Illustrated Borders

The Work of Ivan Biblin

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (Russian: Ива́н Я́ковлевич Били́бин) was a 20th-century illustrator and stage designer who was inspired throughout his career by Slavic folklore.

Bilibin developed his own style based on carefully traced and detailed outlined drawing, tinted in water color. This style was named after him, and inspired many to follow and imitate him. Bilibin gained renown in 1899, when he released his illustrations of Russian fairy tales. In 1902–1904 he travelled in the Russian North, where he studied old wooden architecture and Russian folklore. He published his findings on the subject in the monograph "Folk Arts of the Russian North" in 1904. Another influence on his style was the traditional woodblock prints of Japan.

William Morris

After talking to Tony I also found out that Biblin was inspired by the work of kelmscott press.

Oskar Kokoschka

In 1907, Fritz Waerndorfer, the financial backer of the Wiener Werkstätte, the leading design workshop in Vienna, commissioned Oskar Kokoschka, still a student at Vienna's Kunstgewerbeschule (School of decorative arts), to make an illustrated fairy tale for his children.

Russian superstition & Folklore

I loved finding out about some of the 'old wives tales' that would have been present in Russia at the same time of the impending impact that christianity would have on Fairytales. I think this research links well to my book and I have been inspired by some of the myths and think that they would work well as inspiration for my end pages.

Illustrated Book Research

Gender Swapped Fairy Tales - Karrie Fransman & Jonathan Plackett

I love this illustrations in this book, they're so vibrant and colourful. I also like the way that some of the illustrations have been incorporated with the text, which I think adds to the flow of the book and continues the visual communication throughout.

Celtic Tales - Kate Forrester

Something I love about all of these books is there use of end papers, they're so beautifully illustrated and add so much vibrancy to the book that I feel I'd be missing something if I didn't try to implement it within my own work. I also love the use of type and how a bold letter is used at the beginning of a chapter.

Russian Tales - Dinara Mirtalipova

This book links very obviously to my own project and even includes an illustration from the story of the Fire Bird. I really love the cover illustration on this book and the use of the gold foil lettering! I also like the reference to original Russian illustrations using the border to frame text, which is something I would like to consider adding to my own book.

The Barer of Gifts - Kenneth Steven & Lily Moon

Looking at the other books I was beginning to worry that a hardback cover wouldn't work on a book with minimal pages, but after looking at this book I felt much more confident about how it would look. Especially as this book only has 14 pages and I'm hoping that my book will contain at least 30 pages.

Kickstarters

From the very beginning of this project I knew I wanted to produce a Kickstarter and that it would be a project in itself. I am prepared for it to be an intense process, but I want to go into it with as much information as possible so I have researched two very successful and professional kickstarters, with the hope that if I use these as a guide I should hit the mark.

Tier Ideas

1. Printed PDF: £5.00
2. A copy of the book £20.00
3. Signed copy of the book £25.00
4. Signed copy of book and one print £30.00
5.Signed copy of book, two prints £35.00
6. A hard copy of the published book and four postcard-sized prints of illustrations from the book, as well as two larger, signed prints on quality print paper £50.00
7. A copy of the book, four postcard prints, 2 large prints and an exclusive limited edition T-shirt £100.00

Who is my Target Audience?

Before I begin making my book and creating illustrations it is important that I understand who I am illustrating for. It is my hope that this book would appeal to anyone who is interested in fairy tales, but it's is important that I narrow it down as much as possible.

What is your book about?: Adventure story
What is the main message of your book?: Hard work, listening to others, loyalty, recovering from mistakes.
Why do your readers have to buy your book? Why does your book matter to them?: Discover the richness of Russian storytelling and enjoy the illustrations alongside the text.
What emotions does your book evoke?: Overcoming hardship, being brave, righting wrong doings and treasuring friendship. Fear, hope, love.
How is your book different from all the others on the same shelf?: My book is different because they're aren't many illustrated adapted tales. Many fractured fairytales are written for an older demographic.

Demographic?

Gender: Female/Male
Age: 7-11
Education: End of Primary School

Who my book would sit next too on a shelf

For this part of my research journey I have tried to think about books that suit my own target audience and who my book would sit next too on a shelf. Looking at how text is presented along side image and the scale and size of the books.

A journey through greek myths - Marchella Ward & Sander Berg

Under the Water (Tales From the Hidden Valley Book 4) - Carles Porter

Print Planning

Mixam

The custom sizing for this quote was inspired by my copy of Russian Fairy Tales by Dinara Mirtalipova. A hard back portrait book with the sizing 230.5mm x 190.6 mm. The price difference between the first two quotes was simply whether a ribbon would be included. Although I like the idea of including a ribbon I am not actually sure that it would be a necessary edition as my book should ideally be read in one sitting and a ribbon is used as a place holder. The Third quote is the cost for 100 books (without a ribbon) instead of 50, the price goes up by around £240.

Inspired by the book "The barer of Gifts" I decided to look into a square formatting. Below is the price comparison between the standard 210mm x 210 mm and 220mm x 220mm. As you can see for the same amount of books but a 20mm size increase the price difference is £277.00 for the later shipping date. This Price difference is more expensive for the square book than for the other custom sizing that I was originally looking at.

End Paper Crisis

Putting end papers in my book is something that I have wanted to do from the very beginning of the project so to find out that I can't do it through mixam is dissapointing.

Imprint Digital

Yeyy! Printed End papers! I was also asking about the wibalin cover as I also wanted a printed front cover as it works better for children's books and I didn't know what a PPC was.

Price difference between 50 and 100 books. is £162.50 (including shipping) not bad for 50 more books.

Book planning

During my research of illustrated books and print planning is when I decided on the size of my book.
My decided dimensions are: L: 280mm x W: 230mm Spine (36 pages): 9.3mm
For scale comparison I have used the book 'Rain before Rainbows' which is 280mm x 250mm. For a while I had like the idea of a landscape book and a square book, but I then realised that I had a preference for a portrait book and that on reflection I wanted to produce bigger scale imagery.

Bleed according to Imprint Digital

A basic rule of thumb is to have 3mm of bleed to every edge of your document. For example if you want your final document size to be trimmed to 210 x 148mm, you will want to design the document at 216 x 152mm. This then gives the printer a comfortable amount of bleed to allow for small movements in the printing. Therefore my bleed size will need to be 286mm x 236mm.

Development

Character Break down

Character sketches

Concept

I think creating a concept piece for how the book illustrations will look will be helpful for my process. Furthermore even if i do not include the spread in my book I can always used it as a print for a tier in my kickstarter.