Brayden and the Big Test

Project Overview

Brayden and the Big Test tackles one of childhood’s most universal anxieties: the fear of failing a high-stakes exam. When Brayden learns that a single test could hold him back a grade, his confidence crumbles — until his friends Junior and Sofia remind him of what he’s truly capable of. Author Tisha Clay has written a story that is honest about academic pressure without ever becoming heavy-handed, keeping the emotional core focused on resilience and self-belief rather than performance.

The illustration challenge was capturing the full emotional arc of a child moving from dread to pride — each scene needed to show Brayden’s internal world through expression and body language without relying on words to carry the emotional load.

Role

Tisha came with a story that lives entirely in Brayden’s head — the anxiety of a high-stakes test, the weight of what might happen if he fails, and the slow rebuild of confidence through friendship. My role was to show all of that through Brayden’s face, posture, and the emotional atmosphere of each scene, without any of the words having to do the heavy lifting.

From developing Brayden, Junior, Sofia, and the supporting cast through to print-ready files, I worked across all chapters illustrations, making sure every spread tracked Brayden’s emotional arc from dread all the way through to pride.

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.