Treasure Hunt: Children’s Book Illustration
Timeline: August 2020-2023; illustrations drawn August 2020-September 2021
Deliverables: 40 digital illustrations
Tools: Adobe Photoshop
Held weekly meetings with Songster to update her on illustration progress and plan for future drawings.
Finished about 1-3 drawings per week during illustration process. Also helped with various other tasks, including proofreading text and editing illustrations during the publishing process as needed.
About the story
Treasure Hunt is a story of three brothers, based on the author Catie Songster’s sons. The book begins with two of these brothers, who are adventurous and love to run and explore, going on a treasure hunt. In doing so, they leave their little brother behind. Throughout the story, however, they realize that their true treasure, rather than something faraway and make-believe, is the people who are already around them.
This sweet story captures childlike wonder and awe when exploring the outdoors, but ultimately places higher importance on experiences with loved ones. In my illustrations, I wanted to capture these themes using vibrant colors and a variety of compositions for the landscapes, and dynamic poses and bright expressions for the characters. Songster also had the wonderful idea to add hidden “treasures” in multiple pages to make readers feel like they are on a treasure hunt with the brothers!
Planning
I began these illustrations by designing the characters. After these were approved, Catie sent me a document of all her text so that I could block off sections into pages. Doing so helped me create a storyboard, which guided me throughout the rest of the illustration process and gave me a clear vision of the entire book, from the character's poses and expressions to the layout of the landscape the characters explored.
Character Sketches
Locations Map
Storyboard 1
Storyboard 1
Drawings
Keeping a consistent system for each page was an important part of juggling between multiple illustrations at once. I always referred to my storyboard when drawing a more rendered page, and then asked Songster for critique of the drawing before adding finishing touches.
Iterations
Some pages required more iterations than others. Page 24, for example, went through several edits that mainly involved changing the appearance of the clouds. Catie and I worked together closely on illustrations like these to ensure that my illustration style and idea for the page matched her vision for these important elements of her story.
The finished product!
I owe so much gratitude to Catie for providing me the opportunity to make her vision for her book come to life!
Our book is now published and can be bought at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Credits
Client: Catie Songster
Illustrator: Abby Louie
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing