Book: Aliaa's Brave Adventure
Aliaa’s Brave Adventure! These are a few spreads I illustrated as part of a collaborative project with Shirley Satiti , who wrote this beautiful story that I could help bring to life.
Aliaa is the main character in “Aliaa’s Brave Adventure”, who is following her big sister Yuna on an adventure to find a beautiful garden. She is more timid and self-doubting than her sister, and sees the small obstacles on the journey as scary fantasy scenes that stop her in her tracks. Throughout the story Aliaa learns to be brave and realises she can do anything, as she overcomes the negative thoughts from her toy bunny who warns her she’s too weak and not strong enough for the adventure.
It was a real pleasure to work with Shirley, and hope we can continue this project soon! I’d love to see our book out on bookshelves one day, hopefully being the voice that a child might need to hear!
The front and back cover for "Aliaa's Brave Adventure"
Inside spreads (pg. 13-14), showing Aliaa too scared to follow her big sister Yuna across the shallow stream.
Inside Spread (pg.15-16). Aliaa listens to the negative thoughts of the bunny, and sees the shallow stream as a scary fantasy scene.
Character Turnaround: Aliaa and Fluffy
Character Turnaround: Yuna
Early draft of the front and back cover.
Early draft of the first inside spread. We decided on this spread that the illustration would be more effective without any text, and decided to let the picture tell the story.
Early draft of the second spread. The fantasy scene was changed in the final because the communication was not very clear. I decided to change it to a view of a scared Aliaa inside her own imagination, rather than Yuna across the stream.
Some early thumbnails and character concepts, focusing on a small section of the story.