At the beginning of the year I came up with an idea of a character - mole Alfred. Since then he showed up in my sketches, I even invented a full picture book story for him. At the same time I was working on my portfolio and developing my skills regarding kid lit illustrations.
I’ve never illustrated picture book (yet!), so I don’t feel that confident sending my portfolio out in the world. To battle my insecurities I decided to make a miniature picture book - few pages, just to show my skills. And for that, Alfred seemed like a perfect match!
The idea was very simple - Alfred who is a very hardworking mole, goes on his daily routine of inspecting the neighbourhood. This miniature book shows his day in just a 9-page. I wanted it to feel cosy and warm.
To make things harder (of course) I decided to make it in a leporello form. Because of that each illustration had to seamlessly transition into the next one. Although it made things a little bit more trickier, it was a great puzzle-like project. I really enjoyed playing with elements and putting everything together. All 9 pages create one, long composition. Below you can see all the pages put together. If you want to have a closer look check my notes here, where I publish daily a page from the story.
While painting the story I thought of printing and binding together all the pages, so it could look better in my portfolio. So I did that - I even sewed the cover!
During the whole process I decided to record a short studio vlog about the project. The video shows painting process and then putting everything into a physical object. At the end there’s also a flip through of a whole book.
Throughout the duration of the project I felt incredibly inspired and motivated. It was like living in an illustrator's life simulator. I could imagine what working on a book would be, and that only strengthened my dream of doing so. Having this little hand-made book in my hands was like a small realisation of my dreams. It is still not a complete published book, but it confirmed one thing for me – this is my path.
Hope you have an amazing weekend ahead,
Karolina
P.S. Stay tuned for the next week, because there’s a new project coming..
It is utterly beautiful! As a children’s book author and illustrator, I say get it out there, I’m enchanted
This is just absolutely wonderful. I love Alfred. I love your art. And I freaking adore that you made it into a physical book like this.