The Penguins are OUT! is an illustrated children’s book project that led to the production of a sample of six pages, including one finalized spread, and a dust jacket. The story, written by Tziporah Cohen, follows a group of penguins as they escape their zoo enclosure to explore the city.
The first step of the process was to establish the visual style of the book through exploration sketches of the characters. I opted for a rather simple style of rendering, intending to use shape and scale to give interest to the illustrations' compositions.
Before jumping into the production of any final illustration, I had to lay out the full narrative in a storyboard. This is where I determined rough compositions, text placement, and feelings meant to be conveyed by different spreads.
These thumbnails were then useful to prepare a full pacing book. The sketches in the pacing book are refinements on the storyboard. Here are sketches for three consecutive spreads.
Text © by Tziporah Cohen
To give an idea of the book's full artistic direction, I finalized the last spread and the dust jacket. The colour and lighting choices were made to depict a magical version of the world that inspires wonder and exploration.
Text © by Tziporah Cohen
