This illustrated children's book, The Journey for the Labradorite, is an adaption of an Indigenous Inuit and Innu folktale – a warrior saw the Northern Lights trapped in rocks and struck them with their spear to free some of the lights and the magic of the night sky. While labradorite is very popular in spiritual communities for its unique iridescence and believed properties, not many people know the legend about the gemstone’s original source. As a person who loves crystals and mythology, my goal for this product was to share the story about these sought-after stones. I went through rounds of development to find my illustration style, ultimately working with markers and colored pencils to get a warm, hand done texture. The color story centered around the rainbow release of the Northern Lights from the stones, so I reserved the illustrations to cool grays and blues, deep browns, and the white of the page to let the lights pop.
Front Cover
Opening Cover Pages
Spread 1
Spread 2
Spread 3
Spread 4
Spread 5
Spread 6
Ending Cover Pages
Back Cover
Development
Visual Style Concept Page
Plot Concept Page
Style Test using Marker and Colored Pencils
Quarter-size Thumbnail Sketches
Half-size Color Thumbnail Sketches
Half-size Color Thumbnail Sketches
Full-size Pencil Drawings for Spread 1 and 2
Full-size Pencil Drawings for Spread 3 and 4
