Moving House
Moving House is a children’s picture book developed around the theme of home, exploring the experience of moving through illustration-led storytelling.
The project was created to help younger children understand and navigate the process of moving house in a way that feels familiar, reassuring, and engaging.
The Begining
Theme
The theme for this project was ‘home’ so almost instantly I decided
that I wanted to create a story revolving around moving house as I
have a lot of personal experience with this and thought it would be
a good idea to guide younger children through the proccess.
Starting
I started by drawing as many things as I could that related to moving
house. Keeping the target audience in mind but not allowing it to
limit my thought proccess as this could be refined later.
Observation of "Real Houses"
I liked the idea of the character imagining extravigant possibilities of where they might live next. But first I decided to look at some real houses and sketch them as a base to expand upon.
Thinking About Houses
I then tried to think of some of the extravagant houses a child might come up with such as a house with a giant slide.
Thumbnailing
After I had a rough idea of the story in my mind it quickly became words. In a sort of rhyming song form.
Following this I added the first visuals to them.
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Here are my final thumbnails for each page.
As shown there were a few pages that had been altered to make the scenes more imaginative, such as the page ‘Maybe it will be old’. I originally illustrated an old house, but to make this more interesting and imaginative, I changed this into a cave surrounded by dinosaurs and made the main character wear a stereotypical caveperson outfit.
Character Design
I then designed the character, experimenting with different proportions, faces and clothing.
Additional Drawings
Further Character Design
Character design process. Starting with the sketch, Adding colour and texture,
Changing proportions to resemble a younger child,
removing black lines and adding more texture.
Refinement
I then refined the thumbnail sketches into full drawings and worked on these further digitally adding colour and texture.
Moving House
This is a children’s book aimed at children aged 3–6. I both illustrated and wrote the story, which is presented in a rhythmic style to appeal to younger children, whether they are being read to or beginning to read independently.
The story follows a young boy’s imagination as his family prepares to move house. He imagines what his new home could be like, from simple ideas such as big or small, to more imaginative possibilities like spaceships and caves in the prehistoric era.
