Champ: The Superdog of Health

Project Overview

Champ: The Superdog of Health by Paul W. Smith follows Champ, an energetic and lovable superdog, through a full day of healthy habits and caring actions — a nutritious breakfast, learning at school, and even visiting children at the hospital. Paul W. Smith’s story makes wellness feel genuinely exciting rather than prescriptive, embedding its messages about healthy choices within a character whose enthusiasm for doing good is completely irresistible.

The illustration challenge was designing a superdog whose heroism felt accessible rather than fantastical — Champ needed to be the kind of superhero a child could actually imagine becoming, with powers rooted in everyday choices rather than impossible abilities. Every spread needed to make healthy living look not just beneficial but joyful.

Role

The illustration challenge was designing a superhero whose powers a child could actually imagine having. Champ’s heroism needed to feel accessible rather than fantastical, rooted in everyday choices like eating well and being kind rather than impossible abilities, so healthy living came across as joyful rather than merely beneficial across every spread.

Full illustration across the book covered character design for Champ and the community cast, superdog design grounded in everyday heroism, hospital, school, and neighbourhood environment illustration, and print-ready file preparation for Mascot Books.

Character Design

Before a single page is illustrated, I develop the main characters in full — defining their proportions, expressions, and personality. This is the foundation that keeps your characters recognizable and consistent across every scene, every lighting condition, and every emotional moment in the project.

Process

Every project follows this same structured path, so you always know where we are and what comes next. You review and approve at the sketch stage and the line art stage — nothing moves to color until you’re happy. By the time the final spread is rendered, there are no surprises.