"Der Sparschweinbaum" Kid's Book Illustration
The book "Der Sparschweinbaum"- which can be translated to "The Piggybank Tree"- was written by author Bernd Grigat and teaches young kids how the concept of money works and how to save your money. With the story of "Max", a little red fox, young readers learn about the basics of financial operations. Of course I cannot spoil the secret about the eponymous Piggybank Tree at this point!
All the illustrations should be colourful and friendly. Also the characters had to look very likeable.
Mister Grigat had a very clear vision about the illustrations when he reached out to me. The characters should look very three-dimensional, almost like computer renderings. To simulate this effect it was essential to find the right lighting situation.
Beside illustrating the inside of the book and it´s cover, it was also my task to create a fitting logo. At last Mister Grigat chose a design with a very stylised "Piggy Bank Tree", three little piglets and a very cartoony font. The colours we chose were pink like the piggies, brown like the treetrunk and green like the leaves. Those colours also appear in the text.
As a little gift we also designed a little bookmark decorated with all the important tipps you learn about in the story.
Illustration
Children's Book Illustration, Corporate Identity, Print Design, Logo Design
Client
Bernd GrigatYear
2018Task
IllustrationSoftware
PhotoshopCharacter Design and Art Style
I created different characters for the book, what was quite a challenge, since every character is a fox and you must easily be able to tell them apart. So I decided to insert different races of foxes such as a snow white Polar Fox as teacher or a Desert Fox with very long ears and Grey Foxes as class mates. Also every member of Max' family got some unique attributes like glasses and a "moustache" for Grandpa or curly hair for Grandma. With that the line up would be diversified and you can recognise the characters easily.
I put a lot of little details in the backgounds to create some liveliness and to conjure up positive emotions.
To me it was also important to draw strong facial expressions, so you can see the characters emotion at first glance. Bright colours and a soft lighting should contribute to a pleasant mood.
Every drawing has a elaborated background and is packed with little details such as flowers, furniture, little sickers or pets. To make sure this will not overpower the main characters I had to fade the backgrounds a bit to create some depth and perspective.