The project is a collection of poems for children who learn to love nature. And I was lucky enough to be involved in creating illustrations for this marvelous book.

First of all, I started my search for the right style. It was important to focus the viewer's attention on the emotions of the characters. To turn ordinary birds into heroes to be empathised with.

The eyes alone are enough to convey emotion, so I decided to enlarge them considerably.

Another means of expression was "talking" poses and gestures.

The images of the birds in the poems matched the stereotypes about them, which I reflected in their characters.

The main characters in the book are Grandpa and Granddaughter.

Granddaughter's main traits are curiosity and enthusiasm. This is what I have reflected in her design.

Grandpa accompanies the girl without drawing too much attention to himself. He warmly observes his granddaughter's delight.

There is a deep emotional connection felt between the characters.

The author's poems are filled with actions and reactions. In one quatrain, several important events can happen at once. Therefore, I needed to highlight the most important one.

The Blackbird defends the nest from the suddenly arrived Jay. 
Due to the "triangular" composition, the reader's sight first falls on the Jay (the threat), then on the Blackbird (the brave defender), and finally on the nest (what is at stake).

On some spreads, I combine the pages with one large illustration. This helps to make the reading process more entertaining.

It also helps to emphasise the dynamics of the action. It seems to flow from one page to the next.

This technique allows you to visually contrast the characters on opposite sides of the spread. In this illustration, I have separated the "good" and "evil" characters.

While working on the illustrations, I got the idea to create a set of stickers with the characters.

It was a great pleasure for me to work on this project. And I hope you found it interesting to see.