The Book Look

A section from our latest Galdo's Gift page backdrop

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Looking worse for wear...much like the martyrs in the book

One thing that is important to Eleanor and I when making Galdo's Gift is to stay true to, and celebrate, the beauty of books.  This may sound contradictory when you learn that Galdo's Gift will firstly be a digital book;  we don't see it that way.  We want to encapsulate all that we love about print books alongside what a digital book can offer.

The image here is the front cover from a very old book I have inherited from my parents, The Foxes Book of Martyrs (a church copy, listing the stories of many Christian martyrs through history).  It has many of the qualities that have consciously fed into the design of our book.

Obviously a digital book can't be as wonderfully tactile as a print book, but we can draw a lot from it's visual texture, patterns and surface qualities and add all that is good about digital books; animation, sound, informative visual overlays, increased engagement of reluctant readers; the list goes on.

We look forward to sharing that experience with all of you.

Discerning Palettes

Our initial palette choice

When we started Galdo's Gift we knew that we had to be strict over the colour choices we made.

All to often, if the decision over what colour palette to use is ignored, the resulting imagery can lack coherence.  We decided early on that we would choose a few images (in our case illustrations) which contained colour combinations we liked and thought would compliment our style. 

That is what you see in the photo above; the three images we picked.  They had some beautiful muted tones and fitted with the colour palettes we had noticed in folk art and the Victorian paper theatres that also inform our work.

Scanning these images into the computer and constructing a project palette within all our graphic software meant we could remain consistent across all the imagery we produced.

Of course rules are there to be broken, so yes, we have strayed in our colour choices from time to time, but we always have the original palette choice to bring us back in line.

Getting the Message

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monster message

For a while now we here a Tapocketa have been wondering what we can offer to our subscribers whilst we are still busy building and promoting Galdo's Gift.  The book is going to take a while before it is finished and we are grateful for the following that we are accruing, we want to give something back in the meantime.

We've been looking at putting messages into our scenes, something that people would love to share with friends on social media.  So we are building a selection of great quotes that not only have strong associations with our scenes but that would work well when placed out of context on a timeline on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.

We will soon put out a link to a page of these messages that can be shared for free.  We have also been thinking about putting out personalised versions on request if there is interest in doing so.

For now here is one of the first (share by clicking on the paper plane symbol that appears in the top right corner (desktop/laptop: it sometimes only appears when you hover the pointer over the video, mobile: try rotating your phone, as it only seems to appear if the video is of a larger scale on your device)...

Enjoy...

An unexpected quote from a scientist, perhaps, but Einstein relied on the power of his imagination (alongside logic, of course) to expand his theories.

I Need a Hero!

Wait...did he just? Nah, can't be.

What a noble specimen of heroics. What a dashing, noble knight.  No wonder they have chosen to immortalise him with such dynamic realism.  Wait a minute, did he just move?  No...maybe not.

As I was saying, he seems just the sort of unflinching, bold hero we need for our tale.  What a fitting tribute to him this very realistic painting is...  no wait, he moved again.  Did nobody see it this time?  I'm not sure whether my mind is playing tricks on me.

Anyway, to get back to what I was saying... no there it is again.  Hang on, this is no painting.  No wonder it is so lifelike; Sir Strompliff is that you?  I'm not sure the hero we need is the sort that has to be his own portrait in his spare time.

Although heroes are pretty rare these days, so you might just have to do.

Animated, Like Clockwork

Do the squirrel rock

Mesmerising isn't it?  There's something so relaxing about watching a squirrel chomping away over and over again, forever.  

This is just one of the many critters that inhabits Galdovia and many of them lead very repetitive lives, but they don't mind.  They find something comforting in the familiar, even if it is familiar frequently as in the case of old 'scoff chops' here.

If he reminds you of an old Christmas nutcracker toy soldier, then top marks to you.  For those of you dribbling and scratching your head in bemusement, a diagram is in order....

Essentially a wooden toy for cracking walnuts shells and releasing the tasteless walnutty goodness within.

As good a starting inspiration as any, no?

Turning the Tide

Spin cycle

Well, now I'm all at sea.  Things are not all they seem when you look at them from a different angle.  What was once so substantial now seems wafer-thin.

But that works both ways; small and thin, inconsequential elements can be put together to build something quite substantial.  Unremarkable individual pieces can be constructed to create something to capture the imagination.

Now something that once seemed an unremarkable collection of parts can become a wonderful window into a weird world...

A scene from the up and coming digital book, Galdo's Gift: Now meet Master Mustafo and his mariner mates, Manoeuvring their Man O’ War through the Marlin Straits. Mercilessly mashing monsters from the murk. “Muster up a memento, or you’ll drive me berserk!”