? #3

What would work best for the cover/title?

I am debating between a illustrative cover with hand-drawn type (in the style of the book)
OR a purely typographic cover with the title "Imagining Space" in a bold sans-serif (ie. Gotham)

? #2

What other fun things would like to see the Spaceman do?

Some things I have so far are: Having tea, taking pictures, with an umbrella beside Jupiter's Big Red Spot (because it is a giant storm), catching a ride on a comet and being sucked into a blackhole.

? #1

Should I extend all the paintings to take up the whole spread? (as in the Leaving Earth spread vs. the Mercury one) OR leave the division and keep the type in that area (black hand-written type on white)

And what type treatment for the accompanying facts would be better suited to this?

• a light colour (white or gold/silver pens) on the dark space background
  
• comic-book style call outs or speech bubbles

**sorry I don't have examples of these layouts will try and post tomorrow**

2 Spreads

These are 2 finished paintings for my spreads, the first picture will be the opening spread and the other is the spread for Mercury. My pages are each 5x8" and the Mercury spread is shorter because I was planning to use the extra area (4.5") to layout my space facts, which will be hand-written. Now I am considering extending that spread, and all the other ones, to the size of the first one and integrate the type into the layouts either as lighter type on the dark background or perhaps in comic style call outs...

Here's the Plan

So my book is going to feature full page watercolour illustrations paired with a light facts on space and astronomical objects. The basic journey of the book will be starting at Earth heading towards the Sun by way of the moon, Venus and Mercury then Halley's Comet will take the Spaceman towards the asteroid belt and the other outer planets. Other stops will include the Oort Cloud (the farthest point in our Solar system), a nebula, supernova, blackhole and galaxies.

Here is a outline of most the spreads I'm planning to make...
It's very small and in pencil but I hopefully you can get an idea.

It will look something like this...

From March 20th Presentation

Illustrations/Watercolours of Space:

• Nebulas
• Blackholes
• Galaxies
• Planets
• Comets
• Stars
• Constellations
• Moons

Paired with facts and figures about space
Not extremely in depth, more factual and friendly
Floating Spaceman character featured in each image

Keywords:

• Whimsical
• Imaginative
• Exploratory
• Visual
• Floating
• Uninhibited
• Free

Sources:
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
APOD: Astronomy Photo of the Day – http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod
A Traveller's Guide to the Solar System - Giles Sparrow
300 Astronomical Objects - Jamie Wilkins & Robert Dunn

Size?
8˝x 5˝ OR 5.5˝x 8.5˝

Next Steps:

1. Gather research
2. Write content
3. Plan pages
4. Experiment with watercolour
5. Explore typefaces or hand-drawn type