Moon, Ramu and I - children's book for Katha

Moon, Ramu and I, a book recently completed by Therefore Design for Katha. They comissioned me to visualize and illustrate the story in most interesting way possible. Elements in this story were unusual and so is their expedition to reach the moon. An adventure led by a dog [ramu] and a cranky little girl [i] who talks to ramu, later joined by her grandpa and amma.
Initially the main character was designed as a mouse keeping a back story of mice's fascination for the moon as it looks like cheese to him, thanks to Tom&Jerry. The plot was not approved by the client. i still feel mouse would hv been an interesting element in the story as it brings a lot of possibilities in which he could have performed throughout the book. We tried hard to convince publisher to make Ramu a mouse but that did not work out, the rough sketches have Ramu as a mouse! you can see the difference. 

Also 'i' was a boy first. I am sharing with you guys a small part of the process, the initial doodles done as i read the story and the way characters came to me, a lot of alterations happened as we brainstormed further.

I wanted kids to interact with this book, rotate, explore details, travel inside the story as they would dream, which have no logics or science applied! So began the explorations and layouts. Layouts are always stimulating as you see a story progression getting another dimension, a visual delivery, after a major visual pregnancy of thoughts and brainstormed ideas! Deciding on a color palette was little dicy as events in the story happen at night, so the moon was shown a full moon balancing the darkness and giving it a fun look. I wanted to use Idli texture for the moon but didnt work all that powerful and then Van Gogh happened. :D

Click on the images for a hi-res experience!!

love - inkbrushnme