category: illustration
deliverables: illustrated children’s book
concept: This Illustration assignment was created in collaboration with a Children's Literature class at Point Loma Nazarene University. Each student from the Illustration class paired with a student from the Literature class to create illustrated children’s book spreads based on the writer’s 1-2 page children story. • For my assigned story written by Taylor Ongaro, I had the privilege of telling the story of a dog named Henry who is adopted by a young girl, but then in efforts to chase a passing by school bus, he is separated from his new home. This story was inspired by Ongaro’s dog, Henry, a spunky lil’ Pomeranian. My goal for this project was to create a friendly and happy children’s narrative and while the expectation was to create 1-2 spreads, I decided to tell Henry's whole story. Inspiration was drawn from the famous children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” because the writing style is similar to Ongaro's story. Both books have descriptive language that promotes imagery; this allowed me to tell the story through various small illustrations on almost every spread. The final book contains full spreads and watercolor vignettes from a color palette of six colors. The palette contains the only colors used throughout the book; Each color is used within a 30% tonal range to retain harmony throughout the book. I added watercolor and used large plains of color to communicate a childlike feel and add dimension to each illustration.
