Capstone Project
In my capstone course, I had the opportunity to choose a project that showcased the knowledge and skills I developed during my college career. For my project, I created a children’s book that was entirely written and illustrated by me.
This process involved utilizing a variety of industry-standard software, including Clip Studio Paint, Procreate, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and ElevenLabs. The project allowed me to demonstrate my creative abilities and technical expertise across multiple platforms while bringing my vision to life.
Summary
Tillie, a german shepherd dog who loves her ball so much she forgets to share, will embark on a journey of learning and sharing the things while making friends along the way that show her their favorite toys and activities. She will learn that it’s more meaningful and will make her happier by sharing and playing with the things she loves the most with others throughout the story.
Behind the Scenes
How I created "Tillie Finds a Ball" and the thought process behind the book
After I came up with defining the characters and plots of the books, I started with simple sketches for the storyboard. This step was both the easiest and the hardest. The sketches are simple but trying to figure out how to create a "Disney" version of real-life animals was difficult because I needed to portray them correctly. I also came into this book with limited knowledge of drawing animals and in the "Disney" illustration style.
From there, I started to define my drawings and backgrounds. I utilized rulers, grids, and stabilization tools within my illustration software, Clip Studio Paint, to create clear and precise lines that would be the outline for the final draft. This step was the most fun out of the entire process. I already had my base sketch from the storyboard, but now it was time to finalize my sketches to prepare the final version of the book page. This step is where I decided the detailing of each page (i.e. the bushes, houses, trees, etc.) and how I would tie all the pages to each other. The details took the longest out of the illustrations, but I believe the intricacy of the pages is what makes this book so creative, stand out, and capture the audience's attention past the story itself.
After I created the outline of the children's book page, it was time to produce the final image. I created a color palette that was utilized throughout "Tillie Find's a Ball" and used that accordingly to tie all the pages of the book into each other. This step was the one I loved the most. It was interesting how I could further make the illustrations look like the real-life version of the dog with the similar dogs with the different color schemes.
Lastly, it was time to combine all these drawings into its final step, the book page. I used Adobe's Illustrator software to create text and shapes that made the borders and speech bubbles.
Here is a side-by-side representation of each dog from "Tillie Finds a Ball."
From top to bottom are: Honey, Bear, then Tillie.
Bear's favorite toy was actually Q-tips until he decided they would be his favorite snack too... after a hefty vet bill later, Bear is no longer allowed to go in the bathroom with Courtney.
