Children’s book

For this project I was assigned to write, illustrate and code an interactive children’s book.

Concept

During this project I was thinking of creating a concept that kids can take with them as they grow older. I lost my grandmother at a young age, she taught me how to express myself with paint and art. That’s when realisation hit me, one day your teacher and idol wil pass away and leave you on your own with the lessons they taught you.

That’s when I created my concept;
Nothing is forever.

My target audience are kids between 4 and 6 years old.

I decided to mix 2 diffirent techniques together, a painted background with animated and digital characters. Everything that is white can be colored during the duration of the story, create your own story and paint your own paintings.

The story

The story is about Pien, Pien visits her grandparents every weekend and paints together with grandma. Grandma always wanted to go to the art-school but she wasn’t allowed to go there by her parents. One day, all painting suplies vanish, Pien searches the house and eventually finds the painting supplies behind a big closet. After returning the supplies to grandma, grandma confesses that she can’t paint anymore due to her illness. She suffers from cancer and she can’t beat it this time. Pien is distraught and thinks about what death means. Can you call to heaven? Can she join grandma? But if grandma is going to heaven, she can’t take her painting supplies with her and Pien can’t paint with her anymore. Grandma gets worse every day untill she eventually passes away. Pien was able to say goodbye and promises grandma that she will do her best to go to art-school to which grandma replies that she should do what makes her happy. Grandma tells Pien that whatever she does, whereever she is, she is always proud of her. Pien eventually gets accepted into art school and the story ends with the lessons that; even if your teacher and idol is gone, their lessons life on through you.

Characters

The characters that appear in the story are ofcourse Pien, Grandpa and Grandma.

Pien’s mood can be depicted by the way her ponytails are drawn. When happy or excited, her ponytails will go up, when sad or confused her ponytails will be drawn droopy.

Art style

The backgrounds are hand painted, highlights were added with metallic caligraphy pens and they were scanned and edited digitally.

My connection

My connection to this story is very prominent. I’ve written how I said goodbye to my grandmother, how she taught me her techniques and how I managed to get over her death. This story is like a memorial for her, because of her I am who I am today. I will be forever greatful for that. I had a hard time writing the story as it was still painful for me. This project helped me process her death better.