Mission Statement: I would like to use my passion for animals to help children through the grieving process of losing a pet.
Why: I have written and illustrated this book to showcase my love of animals and illustration. I meshed the two together for my final Capstone project at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This book is dedicated to my Golden Retriever, Dexter, who crossed the rainbow bridge in September 2021.
Research Question: What do kids ages 3-7 think and feel after losing a childhood pet and how can we help them overcome their grief through visual communication?
All process work and final images can be found below!
Process Work
My research process consisted of interviews with parents, children, Veterinarians, pet owners and therapists. Some insightful responses are shared below.
Sketching
The next thing I did was start sketching to see what kind of style I wanted to go with for my children's book.
Storyboarding
I also started my storyboarding process with some simple sketches.
Illustrations
The next step was to illustrate every spread.
Spread 1
Spread 2
Spread 3
Spread 4
Spread 5
Spread 6
Spread 7
Spread 8
Spread 9
Spread 10
Spread 11
Spread 12
Naming and Cover
The last thing I worked on was the name of my book and the cover. I settled on the name "goodbye ______" with the intention of every book being able to be personalized to say each pet's name.
