Now that I had the title locked in and the story written, it was time to work on the storyboard. The first step? Character references. Guess what? I didn’t have to search far for the perfect one for 5-year-old Macie. The inspiration came straight from my own photo album—a favorite picture of my daughter at that same age. 

Before securing a design team, it was important for me to visually share how I envisioned the story being told through illustrations. Using reference photos and mock-page layouts, I constructed numerous versions of storyboards until I felt confident that I could clearly articulate my vision. 

You can see in red how I differentiated the direction of my notes provided to the design team: 

● General (visual reference only) 

● Key (single focus of the illustration) 

● Required (elements that must be included) 

Having worked with various producers, directors, videographers, editors, and animators in my career, I have refined my process for communicating key project elements to a creative team. This experience helped me balance that input with the freedom I wanted to give them to express the story through their creative lens. 

It takes a village!