Who Is Santa? | Illustrated Short Story
Character development / Drawings & Digital Paintings / Logo & Title Design / Book Layout
Problem to solve: Visually portray the character and life of “Santa Claus” with unique and custom illustrations from a poem presented by the client.
This project was an extra special one. My client and her family wanted to honor the life of their beloved grandpa who recently passed away. They told me that he had greatly resembled Santa Claus and to get relief from long term PTSD from serving in the Navy. He had done all kinds of fun, service oriented things over the years, like buying groceries for his grandkids, baking special birthday cakes, going on fishing trips with family, delivering gifts, serving others, and more. Each illustration in this book is a representation of the poem they had written about his life. What a special way to honor a loved one!
For this project I worked closely with my mom, Annette Randall, who I hired as a consultant to help develop the illustrated character of Santa and streamline the art process. She hand drew each illustration, then I created digital watercolor paintings of each drawing, bringing them to life with color and texture using Procreate (an illustration app).
Once all the illustrations were finished, I created a “logo” for the title of the book and the dedication message. I then laid the book out in Adobe InDesign and created a background texture on each page, giving them more depth and adding to the magical feel of the book.
After I had laid out the book and added in the text and digital illustrations, I prepped the files for the printer and sent in the order. The final product was a hardcover storybook with beautifully printed illustrations ready for my client to deliver as presents to their family for Christmas.
Here are a some of the illustrations from the book:
