"We are all equal, we are all special" (in Spanish "Todos somos iguales, todos somos especiales") is the title that author Anthony Zreik gave to his book and contacted us as Multitaskers to illustrate it. The book was literally designed to be read together childrens and their parents, graphically focused so that the text is perfectly reflected in the illustrations, always giving ample room to the imagination.

This post was made in Spanish before, you can find it here. We're sharing it in English thanks to @nomadicsoul that made us remember this cool project.

     The story is about a young Dalmatian boy at the beginning of his school years who feels insecure about what his classmates will think about him, in story there is a bully bear that constantly mocks his spots until the rest of his classmates make him reflect.

---

Previous Study

     Within our work we have illustrated many things, logos, animals, even people. But to do it with a character who had to appear in various scenes with different facial and body expressions, reflecting a wide variety of feelings and specific actions, was not necessarily our field, until this project.

     After reading the story very well and analyzing the scenes together with the author, we decided to start with what would be the study phase. It began with a physical analysis of the characters of the story, we already mentioned the dalmatian, the bear, besides there is the dalmatian mom, a giraffe, a hen and a turtle. We focused on seeing real photos of these animals so that we can take their physical characteristics to the pages of the story.

Analyzing and discovering the main physical characteristics of each animal to highlight them in the characters. Source images: Dalmatian, Giraffe, Bear. Own edition.

---

Sketching Process

     We started with th sketching process of the first page. Starting with some guidelines that are always very important to evaluate the position and expression of the character, as well as the perspective of the environment with respect to the action of the scene.

Guided by the study of the animal to be illustrated, we develop the character and scene according to the author's instructions. Own screenshot.

---

Illustration and colorization

After the sketch, the magic begins.

     It is very important to have the indications and ideas of each scene to be able to reflect everything the author wants in the illustrations, however, the process of study and sketching, helped us to have each and every one of the illustrations of each page so clear that on occasions we did not even need to read the indications, just by reading the story our imagination and skills did the rest.

The black outline is the funniest part, it's when the idea that we've been working with since the beginning of the project really starts to take shape. Own screenshot.

---

     The indications of the colorization were not beyond using the colors indicated according to what appears in the scene, even so we gave the appearance that the text is integrated into the illustrations as a cloud, also the shadows add a little depth and texture to each page.

Already with the colored illustration the page seems to "come alive". For the environment, the bright, vivid colors are the ones chosen in contrast to the main character who is practically monochromatic.

---

Project and Tools

• Software used: Adobe Photoshop CC 2018
• Main tool: Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch Tablet 8"
• Quantity: A total of 37 illustrations spread over 31 pages
• Time: 100% of the project was completed in 10 days
• Coffee mugs: Never enough

Layout of a part of the Multitaskers work area always with the company of "Wilson D'Tape" and a cup of coffee.

---

Final Result

     To conclude, we show you one of the mockups with which we present our work to the client, in addition, all the pages of the book if you are interested in giving it a read or if you do not speak/understand Spanish you still should be able to understand the book througth the graphic content, if you do, we did a good job.

     It is a short book, entertaining and has a very good message for children and adults. We hope you enjoy it!