While studying at university, I decided to design and illustrate my own children’s book for my final project. It was a great experience as I was able to experiment with different media and learn all the steps that a picture book has to follow to be published.
What is this book about?
This colourful book is about a dog, a cat, a bird, a worm and even a tree, who will gather their skills together in order to find their best friend who didn’t come back home by tea time.
Inspired by the idea of teaching children to accept their differences and find each other’s strengths as a way to reach a goal.
Process
The images below show the storyboard, the number of illustrations I was going to need and all the important things you have to think about before starting to make a book.
As the book progressed, the story started changing and adapting to different circumstances. Some characters were also changing. The storyboard was of great help as a starter point, but as a designer, I also had to adapt to the way the story was progressing, that’s why there were so many changes.
Colouring
After drawing the characters together and seeing how they would look like interacting with each other, I decided to choose one of the drawings and colour it to have an idea of how the other illustrations would look like.
Once I saw the colouring image I decided to change a bit of style as I thought it looked to flat for me. That’s why I decided to use other media like acrylic paints and other textures in order to give my book a bit more of one dimension. Obtaining the results I was looking for.
Once happy with the results, I was ready to start putting it all together, so it could be ready for printing.
Printing Process
It took me a while to find the right printing company, as I wanted the book to have certain measurements. Once I found the right place to print the book, everything went smoothly.
Exhibition
As part of my book project, I organized my own place to exhibit and promote my book.
As part of the decoration, I printed some images from the book and I used some clear plastic sheets to draw on top of the drawing, so once they were framed, it looked like the design was popping out from the frame.
Also, I printed some of the images of the book as A6 posters with quotes and stickers as well, to promote my book.
Conclusion
It was a great experience to be able to work on a book from scratch, I enjoyed every stage, from drawing storyboards to preparing the exhibition for the printed book.
I am very proud of the final results as I sold three books at the exhibition and a few posters. Also, my book was read in a primary school for Book Day.
As a long-term plan, I would like to reach more audience with this beautiful book because I think the story can teach beautiful lessons to children