Last year, I partnered with Tony and Darlene of MyAuslan to do ongoing commission projects for their sign language educational resources. So far, we’ve published three sets of animal flash cards, and I’ve done a few other miscellaneous designs for them as well. But I was looking forward to this project in particular!
I really enjoy kid’s cartoon shows and children’s media in general, so illustrating a picture book felt like a pretty natural project to take on. Here are the results!
English translation:
This is our cat. Our cat lives in this house.
Today our cat got naughty. He jumped on the table.
Naughty cat sat on the table, and licked off a bowl.
Dad shouted, “No!”, and swatted him off the table.
Naughty cat jumped on the kitchen bench, and licked off a cup.
Mum threw a ball at him to knock him off the bench.
Now our cat is sad, as he paced around the house.
I sat down and called him to come to me.
And I gave him a cuddle. Now he’s our happy cat.
In terms of style, I took inspiration from the Tom and Jerry cartoon show, since I felt the scene where Mum throws the ball set a bit of a zany tone to the story!
I also wanted to give it the feel of being drawn with a thick marker or crayon, taking inspiration from the Maisy Mouse and Binka cartoon shows.
My process was to first make a base layer with flat, loosely blocked-in colours, and decrease the opacity by 75%. I then used a large, textured brush with a medium opacity to go over everything on a new layer, allowing the brush stroke direction and some of the base layer to subtly show through.
The Pinterest board I made for this project shows the reference images I was working with to create the desired look and feel.
Below are some concept sketches and early drafts for the illustrations, as well as the colour palette I was working with.
All in all, I’m really happy with how everything came out, especially the colour theory and composition.
The book is available for purchase at MyAuslan’s online shop, here!