Hi there! My name is Mary, and this is my grad project: Overwhelmed!

It is a children’s picture book that talks about overwhelming things!

The book is inspired by my little brother, who grows up in a world where everything is … kinda chaotic. Me and him both spend a lot of time worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet.

So, I said to myself, what if this time, we make a book about all that annoying, exhausting, intrusive thoughts!

Even though I’ve done a few small book projects, I still find it extremely hard to start my work.

The biggest struggle I had making this book, is about “presenting things that are overwhelming without making my readers feeling overwhelmed”. As a children’s picture book, we don’t want it to be over-stimulating. But as an artist, I want to draw out those stupid moments in a crazy way!

Also, if the book is anxiety centered, should I give some advice on how not to feel anxious?

If I had answers for that, I probably wouldn’t make the book at the first place …

So, I decided to “borrow” my cat Xiaoju, who is my all-time comfort, to be the answer.

Click here to see a stupid photo of Xiaoju

The final idea is, try to find your peace in this chaotic world!

Character exploration (you can tell they were based on my grumpy brother)

All illustrations are traditionally made with markers, charcoal pencils and pastels. I scanned and edited them through Indesign.

My style is inspired by Italian artist Andrea Antinori, check out his works here: Andrea Antinori

The final design of the main character is inspired by くちぱっち from Tamagotchi. I wanted her to look like she’s at a loss for what to do.

The overall process of making was pretty smooth. I told myself not to worry about color palettes this time (because that would be absolutely time-consuming and I only have 3 months !) So, it definitely made things so much easier. I had a lot of fun imagining the character’s facial expression, even though she ended up looking annoyed most of the time.

Cover options & Story boards

Small originals

AKA THE BOOK

Click to see sample pages :3

I wish I had more time to do more test prints ㅠ ‧̫ ㅠ

THE SHOW!

AND…THAT’S IT!

I hope you enjoyed my book and maybe felt better about your own overwhelming things！

This book to me is like a small adventure, I decided not to “care too much” about it and let my imagination does its work. So, it’s really not a polished book and I really hope it can go somewhere in the future! My goal as a picture book artist is always to make people feel seen, telling them it’s okay to “feel weird”!

Great thanks to my lovely families, friends, and my professor Hyein Lee

Let me know what you think about my book! Link to feedback space!

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If you’re interested in publishing this book, please feel free to contact me at anytime!