Go, Dawgs!

Project Overview

Go, Dawgs! by Tory Frol is a lively, rhyming picture book built on one of childhood’s most reliably exciting scenarios: animals on the loose in a place they absolutely should not be. When Clara’s family visits U Village and their two energetic huskies suddenly break free, a campus-wide chase begins — past historical buildings, through crowds, ignoring every frantic call. Tory Frol’s playful rhymes give the story an irresistible momentum that mirrors the dogs’ own unstoppable energy.

The illustration challenge was capturing genuine canine physicality and the specific visual character of the University of Washington campus simultaneously — the huskies needed to feel fast, funny, and absolutely real, while the campus landmarks needed to be recognisable enough to delight readers who know the university and vivid enough to enchant those who don’t.

Role

The illustration challenge here was twofold: the huskies needed to feel genuinely fast and physically convincing — dogs in real motion, not cute cartoon approximations — while the University of Washington campus needed to be rendered with enough specificity that readers who know it will recognize it immediately and readers who don’t will still feel the energy of the chase. Getting the canine physicality right across action sequences, and keeping Tory Frol’s rhyming momentum visible in the composition of every spread, was the central design problem on each page.

Full illustration across all 38 pages covered character design for the two husky pups, Clara, and her family, campus environment and landmark illustration, animal movement and energy across action sequences, 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.