I drew a Children's Illustration Book!

A book I illustrated for a client "Bear and Fetch, Butter and Cream"

I have a humble online store where I take in commissions as much as I can. Because of time constraints, I can afford time for only a selected few.

If you have been following my Instagram or Facebook account, you would have heard about this really special project which I embarked on in the past couple of months. I ended up spending quite a few months on (amidst my full-time job, travels, and other commissions)!

Tadaaa! Here's presenting my first illustrated book -- "Bear and Fetch, Butter and Cream" -- which I did from cover to back.

Then, Bear felt hungry and rubbed his tumtum. Bear told Fetch: "I'm hungry".

So my client, Mr M, wanted to gift his wife something really special for her birthday. And what better way than to pen his own book and get it entirely handmade from illustrations to even the words. Talk about #relationshipgoals 😆

During the initial discussion phase of the project, Client M shared photos of Bear and Fetch (a dog/pup) in their real-life soft toy version. He also shared how each illustration should look like. As for stylistic elements, I was given free reign muahahah. And guess what? We discussed the details right down to the stitches on Bear's right foot!! (See below)

Bear: "Let me sit on them, see which gives a better cushion for my bumbum."

With expectations set, the next crucial step was bringing the characters to life through a series of illustration drafts (before sealing their fate forever in colourrrr!!! I dramatise, but it is true. Hah!) It was definitely fun imagining how they would look like if humans weren't in their presence. Kind of like in Toy Story.

And because book illustration is relatively new terrain for me, I summoned help from my soft toy bear at home to study body postures (not that he had a choice anyway). In other words, all illustrations are 100% original and born out of pure imagination.

Here's my model

Look at him BEND. #flexibility (refer to next photo!))

One of my favourite illustrations in the entire book!

One challenge, in particular, stood out when working on this illustration book. That is, keeping the characters looking consistent. For my usual work, my subjects are usually different for each piece. But with recurring subjects, you've got to make sure they look the same to readers.

Another was working with a new medium this time -- colour pencils and non-watercolour paper (because it's hard to find a nice hardcover book with almost the same number of pages for the book!) But of course it helped that I could blend the colours together with the fabercastell watercolour pencils.

I think one of my favourite parts was also drawing the cover of the book. For this, I used tracing paper to draw my original illustration on the cover first before adding a layer of pen ink. No room for error yo!

And finally, it was time to bid farewell to my baby...off you go to your new home!

Packing and shipping my baby off to its new loving home

My Seal of Authenticity

So proud of the outcome after working on this for months. Bear and Fetch are now my friends 😍

Thank you Mr M. I hope you like the book and love it despite its handmade "imperfections".