Dan's Mischievous Shadow (Children's Book Illustration and Layout Project)
Dan's Mischevious Shadow is children's book project I completed for a client at the end of 2025. This was a great project to work on. The client created a really sweat and touching story to help his son understand his Autism. The client had some very specific ideas but didn't know where to start as such we worked together to develop a style that suited him and that his child could also happily engage with. From there I worked up a rough layout for the manuscript and created compositional sketches so that we could work out how the text and the artwork would relate.
As well as creating all the artwork for the book I was also responsible for the layout and preparing the print ready files. In the end we did 3 versions as the client tested out different production routes including KDP, Ingram Sparks and Book Baby who we went with in the end.
Once the client was happy we moved on to creating the full artwork. The main challenge for this project was to make the shadow fun but not scary and to keep the shadow dynamic and joyful at all times.
I am really proud of the end result and I am so happy that I managed to make a book that my client is now sharing with his child and with other families dealing with similar differences.
As well as creating all the artwork for the book I was also responsible for the layout and preparing the print ready files. In the end we did 3 versions as the client tested out different production routes including KDP, Ingram Sparks and Book Baby who we went with in the end.
Once the client was happy we moved on to creating the full artwork. The main challenge for this project was to make the shadow fun but not scary and to keep the shadow dynamic and joyful at all times.
I am really proud of the end result and I am so happy that I managed to make a book that my client is now sharing with his child and with other families dealing with similar differences.
Testimonial From The Author:
Matthew is a very talented illustrator. Not only that but he is incredibly collaborative and since this was my first children's book, he took me through the process step-by-step and provided expert advice throughout. I'm very grateful to him for all the hard work and creativity he put into developing project.
