FEATURED PROJECTYaya’s Manti
Ellie wants to help Yaya make manti, but done of the tools in the kitchen are right for her, what will she do??
This is one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on and has really given me an opportunity to stretch myself as an illustrator. Here I’ll talk through some of the process that got us to the finished book “Yaya’s Manti”.
Visual Styling
Going into Yaya’s Manti I knew that the tone wanted to be really warm and comforting.
I explored palettes based on yellows/oranges and opted for digital painting techniques that used limited outlines and left rough edges. The end result was a warm palette and shapes that feel more connected to each other.
Character Design
My main focus here was of course Ellie. She’s such a cute kid and I wanted to bring as much of that as I could on to the page. Some of the complications were getting her hair right and deciding on how to style the eyes.
I loved ending up on that hair shaped up-do for her hair, and sticking with the dot-eyes lent itself well to the overall simpler look of the book. It was a bit more trouble sometimes to get her expressions right but a worthy tradeoff!
The Cover
I went through a lot of variations on the cover but really locked in on Ellie holding up the rolling pin.
I like how positive it is and how it shows the loving interaction between the two characters right away. Plus I’m a sucker for a typographic holding shape built into the image!
Laying it Out
This is the largest book I’ve made so it was important to really hit the ground running with lots of thumbnails followed by quick decisions on what to build out.
Some spreads like the floating manti were locked in immediately, while others like showing Ellie alone and sad in the kitchen took some rounds and reworks to get to. I found it really helpful printing out miniatures to get a feel for the flow and color blocking.
It’s Done!
I’d always wanted to work on a full-sized children’s book like this and I’m thrilled that the process was so fun. I learned so much and got a glimpse of how much room I have to grow. I can’t wait to start on my next project!
Let’s chat!
I’m currently open for commissions, if you’re interested please shoot me a message with the link below!