Toys and Meatballs - FayJay World

Toys short story cover image the toys come out of their box

Child's Toys Battle in an illustrated story a spider and army toy soldiers

Child's toys battle in the illustrated story the machines versus the animals

The toys put themselves back in their toy box

Meatballs cover illustration

An alien spaceship complete with toilet

Alien character juggling and popping meatballs

Digital watercolour of Quark character offering a gift up to us

Project brief

Commission by independent author Jan ten Sythoff to illustrate two of his children’s short stories. Toys is about a boy who discovers his toys come to life when humans are not around and Meatballs is about a boy who makes friends with an alien.

Deliverables

Four print-ready illustrations and a cover for each of the two stories.

Creative process

We used watercolour-style visuals inspired by the golden age of illustration which tied in well with the timeless nature of the stories.

Tools and media

Tradition pencil and paper sketches, scanning to digital, final painting in Photoshop. Layout of text and images; InDesign, export to PDF.