The Calming Circle

Role Art Direction • Design • Illustration
Company Kate Hanson Creative
Product Illustrated Children's Book

Project Objective

Illustrate a children's book with a nightly calming routine

Challenge

Wally and the Whatifs, the first children's book I illustrated, took me almost a year to complete. I had a much shorter timeline with this book, as the author wanted published before the holidays. I had to find a faster way to complete the illustrations.

Approach

Instead of pen and paper, I used an Apple pencil and learned how to draw on the iPad. It felt foreign at first, drawing on glass, but it was so much quicker than drawing on paper. My first illustration took 5 hours, but by the time I got to my last illustration, I was able to complete them in less than half the time.
I started every illustration in pencil. Once I liked my sketch, I traced in it black marker. From there, I digitized and brought each illustration in to Photoshop where I added color. The process was very time consuming but extremely fun once I had a good set of each character that I could then copy and paste and change simple features like expressions and body language.
Once I had all of the illustrations completed, I flew to Minneapolis and had a workshop with my family (also artists) who helped me make some finishing touches before we sent the book off to get printed.

Final Book

Overall Outcome

The book hit the #1 spot on Amazon for Children's Daily Routines and continues to sell today