This character-focused illustration was created in response to the Penguin Random House book cover competition for City of Stolen Magic, a middle grade fantasy novel. While the competition centered on cover design, I was inspired to delve deeper into the protagonist, Chompa, and explore her emotional range beyond the constraints of a single image.

In this piece, I examine a spectrum of emotions Chompa might experience throughout the story: confusion, excitement, annoyance, pride, guilt, and jealousy. I also used this study as an opportunity to push the elasticity of her facial expressions, testing the extremes of stylization while maintaining her recognizability and narrative integrity.

This exploration allowed me to better understand her character and refine my approach to visual storytelling. Created entirely in Procreate on an iPad Pro with a second-generation Apple Pencil, the piece reflects my commitment to character-driven illustration and expressive design for middle grade audiences.