Mitsy Goes to School
In this heartwarming and playful story, written by Chad Chenail, we meet Mitsy, a young oven mitt who has spent her whole life in the mitten factory. When she is accepted into Miss Copperpot's Acedemy for Useful Utensils, the magical boarding school where kitchen utensils go to learn how to assist in cooking, she is nervous to leave her home and meet other heat-proof utensils. Her first days at school bring together a diverse cast of characters, inspiring kitchen facts, and a story to empower kids for when they, too, feel nervous.
After originally designing Mitsy art part of the ATK Kid’s Young Chefs’ Club Subscription Box, I was thrilled to expand Mitsy’s world and explore a more illustrative, hand-drawn view of this character.
ROLE
Illustration, Book Design, Art Direction
AUTHOR
Chad Chenail
FORMAT
Children's Picture Book
DEVELOPMENTCharacter design
Mitsy, as part of the Youn Chefs’ Club, was originally designed to be used at a small scales on recipe cards. Because of this, the character had been exclusively vector based and had a stock series of poses. My first task in creating the illustrated world of this picture book was to reimagine Mitsy in a more hand-drawn, expressive style. I explore feature proportions and line weight, while keeping Mitsy’s color and shape consistent with the original version of the character.
After the character illustration style was set, I worked on sketches of various characters that popped up throughout the book. I focused on creating a wide range of expressions and shapes. Here, you can see characters based on gloves. They live in Mitsy’s hometown- Mitt City!
DEVELOPMENTThumbnail sketches
finished productProduct photography
I art directed photoshoots featuring the finished Mitsy book. The book was shot to promote the book individually, as well as part of bundles selling additional ATK Kids products and books.
