students were provided with several children's stories and asked to develop a main character and easy to follow storyline in a distinct and friendly visual style. 

I decided to create the illustrations for the story, "My Dream in the Drawer".
In this story, Zippy the zebra's dream is to set sail and see the world. My character, unassuming, polite, and the shy quiet type, is a bit of a reflection of myself growing up. I chose animal characters as I have always found them more easy on the eye, friendlier and more relatable than their human counterparts. 

Visually, I chose a messy, outside the lines style to mimic how a child may draw to create illustrations which were realistic for the age group (2-5 years old). 

Zippy was designed using a friendly "bean shape" - he has a soft appearance and is welcoming and huggable. His stripes serve as a natural extension of a sailor's uniform, which is often times also striped.

Zippy lacks a mouth (I was inspired by the Moomin characters which also do not have them). This is to convey his quiet sensitivity. However it also meant I had to use more action lines and exaggerate other features such as his eyes and gestures to get emotion across. 

I particularly enjoyed working on this project as I have always wanted to write and design a children's book of my own. It was rewarding designing this book with the intention of gifting it to a younger version of myself; the colours, style, character design and message of following ones dream all helped to create a magical illustration piece.