Maddie in the Garden
Written by Marta Drew, Maddie in the Garden follows Maddie as she learns to recognize and manage her emotions with the support of her GramBea. Through expressive characters, playful compositions, and warm, inviting illustrations, I brought the story to life, capturing both the intensity of big feelings and the small moments of connection that help children work through them.
ROLE
Illustration, Book Design, Art Direction
AUTHOR
Marta Drew
FORMAT
Children's Picture Book
THE ASKMaking big feelings visible
Big emotions can be difficult for young children to understand, let alone express. Maddie in the Garden explores those feelings through the story of a young girl learning to calm her body and navigate overwhelming moments with the help of someone she trusts.
The illustration challenge was to make Maddie's emotional journey feel authentic and relatable while keeping the visual world warm, playful, and reassuring.
From moments of frustration to quieter moments of connection, the artwork needed to communicate feelings through character expression, body language, color, and composition, helping young readers recognize emotions even before they have the words to describe them.
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Quiet moments
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Loud moments
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In-between moments
CHARACTER DESIGNCreating characters with heart
At the center of the story is the relationship between Maddie and GramBea. I explored a range of character designs to develop personalities that felt expressive, relatable, and full of warmth.
Through variations in facial features, hairstyles, clothing, and proportions, I worked to establish characters that represented distinct personalities, even in a simplified illustration style. I also established a calming color palette favoring natural colors and pastels to bring the characters and their world to life.
These explorations helped shape the visual personality of the book, creating characters who feel believable, approachable, and capable of carrying the story's emotional range.
After exploring a range of character styles, proportions, and personalities, I refined the designs for Maddie and GramBea to strike a balance between expressiveness, warmth, and playfulness.
The final characters feature distinctive silhouettes, approachable features, and expressive body language that allow their personalities to shine through. I focused on creating designs that felt both visually engaging and emotionally authentic, capable of conveying everything from Maddie's biggest frustrations to the reassuring moments she shares with GramBea.
The result is a pair of characters whose personalities and relationship come through in every illustration, creating a sense of consistency and connection throughout the story. Our final version of Maddie and GramBea gave each character their own distinct attributes but maintain clear connection points in their palettes and design.
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Test illustration (sketch version)
I created a rough sketch for this spread, based on initial copy provided by the author.
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Test illustration
I translated the sketch into a full-color spread, testing the initially presented color palette and two of the character designs.
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Final illustration
The final character designs and color palettes were now applied to the original concept.
THE WORKA look inside
The finished book brings together expressive character design, playful illustration, and thoughtful visual storytelling to explore an experience familiar to many young children. The illustrations create a warm, engaging world that supports the story's message of emotional growth.
This project reflects my approach to children's book illustration: creating characters and visual narratives that feel imaginative, emotionally authentic, and meaningful to young readers.
