Clitaurus Chronicles

Challenge

Illustrate a book for the first time! My goal was to create visuals that were not just captivating, but also conveyed the subject matter in an age-appropriate and educational manner.

Users

• Teenagers (13+) exploring themes of sex and consent.

• Parents seeking educational resources for their teens.

• Sex educators looking for innovative teaching materials.

Role

My role as the illustrator was to translate the author’s vision into colorful and appealing illustrations for paperback and eBook. I also designed the website, content for Instagram, and various merch products.

Process

The author provided me with rough sketches of some characters, and a draft of the book. I focused on refining the character designs using pencil and paper. After getting approval for the characters, I applied the same process to the locations and backgrounds. I cycled through multiple feedback sessions and iterations.

Transitioning to Adobe Illustrator, I developed higher fidelity drafts in black and white, gradually refining the line style and stroke width. The process involved a lot of trial and error, balancing the visual appeal to avoid looking too childish or rudimentary while still remaining appropriate for our target audience.

I then crafted a mood board to envision multiple options for the book’s overall style and color palette. Another designer was brought on board for the layout, cover, and instructional pages, providing a stylistic distinction for those sections. I designed the flyleaf patterns by utilizing early character sketches to maintain thematic consistency throughout the book, but not divert attention away from the interior illustrations.

I also contributed feedback on the text, advocating for inclusivity and correcting minor errors, before sending the file off to the printer. The first print test uncovered some issues with the bleed settings, so I requested a more detailed manual for the printer’s format specifications. After receiving feedback that the concept of a ‘clitaurus’ was somewhat unclear despite the description in the introduction, we added a preface page to give readers context, and I created a simple illustration of a clitaurus to accompany the text.

Starting well before our release party, I created illustrations for the Clitaurus Chronicles Instagram page and multiple merchandise products on Redbubble, which involved resizing and reformatting the illustrations as needed for each platform. *Merch is currently unavailable due to content restrictions.

Designing this book posed a unique challenge, particularly in finding the right tone and style for such an unconventional product. We faced more than a few barriers around content policies on Instagram and Redbubble, which was disheartening yet educational, and further stressed the need for this book to be made accessible to a wide audience. Selling the book through a small publisher posed its own set of challenges toward reaching readers, leading us to explore self-publishing options and hire a marketing consultant.

Reformatting the book for self-publishing on Amazon necessitated resizing and rearranging the layout, due to printing constraints. It was a welcome task, since it gave me an opportunity to edit a small detail on the spine that sometimes caused less-than-perfect alignment in previous prints.

Outcome

I'm immensely proud of the final book. The illustrations turned out to be lively, colorful, and struck a perfect balance between educational content and age-appropriate fun. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly from mothers and sex educators, affirming the book's impact and relevance. Our release party even sold out! The book's sales reflect its growing acceptance and reach (more than doubling sales from 2021 to 2022), with a notable following of over 1,000 on our Instagram account.

Reflections

This project was a significant learning curve for me. It underscored the importance of aligning with technical requirements from the outset and illuminated the immense value of external feedback. Additionally, the prolonged engagement with this project allowed me to refine my skills in Adobe Illustrator significantly. Through consistent practice and repetition over an extended period, I not only improved my technical proficiency but also gained speed and efficiency in my design process. I also learned a lot about self-publishing through Amazon!

Explore the Project

Visit www.clitauruschronicles.com to learn more.