Han and his bright, brilliant, beaming poniard light can go anywhere and do anything!
My inspiration was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. Han and the Poniard Light strays from its original inspiration mainly in the diverse use of color, not just purple, in which the instrument paints, and the medium in which I made the drawings: through long-exposed photography instead of hand-drawn prints.
I made my book using a unique process because I wanted to challenge myself and experiment with painting with light. First, I created a narrative inspired by the book and then took two series of photos, one set full of exposed light drawings, another set of posed still shots holding the light wand. Using Photoshop, I utilized the “automate” feature and programmed the editing software to automatically remove the photo background and create clip art versions of the exposed light, leaving just the light paintings themselves. I could then mask and color the light in a range of colors without physically altering the light paintings in anyway.
However, for the still shots, I was not as fortunate, as I had to make individual cutouts by hand through Photoshop using the polygon select tool. I then combined the light paintings and the still shots into Adobe Illustrator and began the construction of the actual book pages there. I saved each page as a Jpg, printed the covers on 79lb ultra gloss paper and the bulk of the pages on 48lb premiere matte paper, and bounded the book using brass screws as a decorative finish.
Han and the Poniard Light - Back Cover
Han and the Poniard Light - Front Cover
Inner Cover
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Definition of "Poniard"
Exposed Light Painting - Example 1
Abstracted Light Painting - Example 1
Exposed Light Painting - Example 2
Abstracted Light Painting - Example 2
Exposed Light Painting - Example 3
Abstracted Light Painting - Example 3
Posed Shot - Example 1
Cut Out - Example 1
Posed Shot - Example 2
Cut Out - Example 2
Posed Shot - Example 3
Cut Out - Example 3
This work reflects me and my family’s history because Harold and the Purple Crayon was a book that my parents read to both me and my sister. I also remember watching the Scholastic video series of Harold drawing with the purple crayon. I remember being fascinated by this book when I was a child.
Han and the Poniard Light - Exhibition Layout
