MAMI THE CAT& Way Back Home - Picture book Process

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Written and Illustrated by

Leony Giang Pham

Original Idea (2020)

The idea came to me when I saw the two main colors of 2021 on 20/12/20. A tuxedo cat pops up in my mind, she's wearing a yellow raincoat and yellow boots just like as Coraline (my favorite character).

I still can't create a story for her right now. But I imagined some pictures of her walking in the woods and she was carrying her schoolbag at the time, so I started with a question: "What did she see on her way back home?"

And that's how the story began.

Plot Creation _ Storyboard Thumbnails _ Character Design (2021)

Storyboards (2021)

At that time, I still didn't know how to make a professional storyboard, so I only used an A4 sheet of paper with a wooden pencil and a yellow colored pencil. (The original version, entitled Mami The Cat& "On The Way Back Home"

Test Color (2022)

I tested the color on an A5 dot notebook 100gsm, with gouache and brown ink.

Sketches & Transfer the images to the final paper (2022)

- Sketching on A4 photocopy paper.

- Drawing by Black pen.

- And used to a lightbox I made myself with a picture frame and a table lamp to trace my lines in colored pencil.

Character Development (2022~2023)

But because I'm still not confident enough to fully color the pages, so I challenged myself with an art challenge on sns, along with two other single paintings (and also drew mami a lot in my planner/journal notebook).

MAMI THE CAT #armoredcatwithbeautifuleyes #transmundanetuesdays

https://www.behance.net/gallery/157727823/Mami-The-Cat-armoredcatwithbeautifuleyes

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023

https://www.behance.net/gallery/160317535/MAMI-THE-CAT-HAPPY-NEW-YEAR-2023

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR 2023

https://www.behance.net/gallery/161984915/HAPPY-LUNAR-NEW-YEAR-2023