In January 2020, I started a semester-long project for one of my classes. I want to go into the field of Children's illustrations and Book Publishing so I utilized this opportunity to create a book of my own about a small Duck that has Anxiety.
I have had anxiety for a long time and I wanted to create something to tell children that that's ok because it doesn't need to stop you from doing what you love. Pablo does his performance and in the end, it all goes well! Does that mean Pablo isn't afraid anymore? No, it means that Pablo has learned that taking a chance can lead to good things.
A very important thing to me as I made this book was to utilize themes that aren't always talked about so as to normalize them in literature, I did this through background characters and with subtle symbols in the book.
As the semester went on and quarantine started, Pablo started to expand in meaning to me and become something that reassures me that things can turn out alright.
Below I've added the cover, the inside pattern, a couple of pages with matching initial thumbnail sketches, and at the bottom some early concept drawings of Pablo.
May 2020
Pablo is based on a friend's real-life Duck by the same name. This story was started by a rhyme I created about this Duck:
" Little Pablo is small and brown
He’s very soft and very round. "
He’s very soft and very round. "
Some very early testing and concept work to narrow down Pablo's look and the style of the book.
