My Little Brother Goes Green was a project I was commissioned for on Upwork. The story is about a young boy who becomes invested in his parent's efforts to "go green". From the author's summary: "Fun book, no villains, no monsters, just siblings beings kids and a little brother's innocent perception/interpretation of parents' conversations about going green."
The author originally had a different artist in mind, but when she saw my initial sketches for a potential first page, she loved it!
"Well I looked at Penny again and I love π the youthful look π you gave her being sheβs only 7 years old."
Initial Rough sketch
Changed the angle to see more of the family
Shrunk Penny to see more of her body and give her smaller proportions, changed her sweater from green to yellow
Completed page
Initial sketch
Almost finished page
Finished page: Changed her sweater from green to yellow, changed the size of the page to new aspect ratio
4 initial sketches to see which was best
Chose the first sketch and cleaned it up
Finished page, gave Penny BACK her glasses
Initial Sketch
Cleaned up sketch, added Penny and changed colors to make it seem more dream-like
Finished Page
4 initial sketches to see which was best
Chose the third sketch and cleaned it up
Finished Page
My Little Brother Goes Green is a completed children's book!
In the end, it was a very fun project to illustrate. Having a more childlike approach to the illustrations meant that I was able to be a lot more loosey goosey with some of my work, which created some really interesting and fun spreads that I don't usually get to do. I would love to do something like this again!