HOW I GOT RID OF THE MONSTER UNDER MY BED
Timeline : November 2019 - April 2020
Skills : Illustration, Book Design, Handlettering
“How I Got Rid of the Monster Under my Bed” was my Degree Project when graduating from Northeastern University. The concept of the project was to create a picture book that would address childhood fears in a way that was easy for both parents and kids to relate to and find humor in. Over six months, I researched the picture book market, spoke to kids, educators, and parents, and eventually created a printed version of the book I illustrated, wrote, and designed.
Through my research, I developed the book’s abstract:
When a little girl moves to her new house, she’s sure she has a monster living under her bed. When she tells her family, they don’t believe her, but her worries about the monster are keeping her up at night.
It takes confronting the monster herself (and finally befriending him) to fix the problem.
One of my first steps was to develop the cast of characters, as well as determine the drawing style I would use in the book. I drew a character lineup to finalize the primary and secondary characters, then worked on expression tests for Sophie and Carl, the two primary characters in the book.
When creating Carl, the monster, it was particularly important to me to create a character that would look more silly and fluffy than scary. Carl is a monster, but as Sophie learns, he isn’t truly anything to be afraid of- and I wanted to be sure kids would not be afraid of him based on his appearance.
I began by creating thumbnail sketches for every page in the book. Once I was happy with the general layout, I moved into clean sketches to better define the illustration style. Finally, I drew full–bleed illustrations in Photoshop.
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
Once I had sent the picture book off to print, I worked on a marketing campaign for initial promotion of the book. I created a series of three Instagram slide posts that would appeal to parents and kids. I wanted the ads to reflect the illustration style and feel of the book while working with a social media format.
