Title: Entre las nubes altas
Author: Sarah M. White
Publisher: TPRS Books
About: A chapter book of a Spanish story for Spanish learners. When Cristina’s summer is ruined, she tries to escape her disappointments by volunteering with her aunt’s summer school program in the Dominican Republic.Instead, Cristina is changed forever by the island, its people and the lessons they share with her.
I was hired by TPRS Books to illustrate Sarah M. White's story, "Entre las nubes altas": a story partly based on her own experiences while she travelled to the Dominican Republic to learn Spanish. The artwork was required to have two main characteristics: to depict the scenes as realistically as possible in my own style and also to show a clear difference in atmosphere and colors between the scenes in the USA and in the Dominican Republic.
My biggest challenge with this project was to create and arrange all the characters in the book and also make some of them resemble the real people from the photo references I was provided with. Another nice fact about this work was that one of my personal projects was the style reference the client liked and chose for the characters. You may check it out here if you'd like.
I enjoyed working on this project a lot, as it let me learn new ways to create my compositions and I could also put to practice my skills in character design and vegetation painting. But, the most rewarding aspect of working on it was being able to grasp exactly what the client wanted and to deliver that to her: when she saw the illustrations she said that looking at them felt just like being there again. A priceless reaction I'll always remember and cherish!
Character design sheets:
Skin color studies:
Storyboard:
A selection of illustrations for the USA part of the story:
A selection of illustrations for the Dominican Republic part of the story:
The cover illustration and the map drawing for the index page, which was required to look as if the main character had drawn and painted it herself:
And some of the references used for the environments. The people's photos aren't shown in respect for privacy concerns of the author.
Contact: oliviapintoilustra@gmail.com