The Chicken with the Red Feather

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Book Illustration & Design

The Chicken with the Red Feather is an illustrated children’s picture book that tells a tender, allegorical story about inherited illness, love, fear, and hope. Inspired by a real family affected by Huntington’s Disease, the book offers young readers and their caregivers a gentle framework for talking about generational burdens and the healing found in compassion and surrender.

Deliverable

Book Cover Design, Book Illustrations, Book Formatting & Design

Client

Corina Hall

Audience

Elementary school readers of animal stories and heartwarming allegories

Collaborators

Corina Hall

Challenges

This project required careful balance, both creatively and logistically:

  • Translating a long-form manuscript into a visually engaging picture-book structure
  • Deciding when to use full spreads, single-page illustrations, or spot art to support emotional pacing while staying within budget
  • Maintaining consistency across character designs over many scenes
  • Establishing cohesive world-building between the barnyard and forest settings
  • Designing page layouts that integrate text naturally without overwhelming the artwork
  • Meeting Amazon KDP print specifications for trim size, bleed, margins, and spine setup

Strategy & Approach

  • Developed hand-drawn storyboards to map the emotional arc of the narrative before transitioning to final digital illustrations
  • Designed page layouts intentionally to allow narrative moments to breathe while highlighting key scenes through composition, color, and scale
  • Balanced warmth and gravity in the illustration style to support the book’s allegorical themes without diminishing their emotional weight
  • Designed a mix of full-bleed spreads, single-page illustrations, and lighter visual moments to guide pacing and reader engagement
  • Established a consistent visual language across characters, environments, and tone to create cohesive world-building
  • Integrated typography and page layout thoughtfully to support readability and shared reading experiences

Outcomes & Impact

The finished book offers families a visual language for engaging grief, uncertainty, and inherited struggle without fear or oversimplification. Through warm illustrations and intentional pacing, the story invites both children and adults into moments of quiet reflection, helping difficult realities feel approachable, shared, and held with compassion. 

This project demonstrates how intentional illustration, pacing, and world-building can transform a deeply personal story into a compassionate, accessible picture book for families navigating generational illness and healing.

Interested in illustrating or designing a children’s book that carries emotional depth with care and clarity?

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