Dot the Rainbow Butterfly

Project Overview

Dot the Rainbow Butterfly by Angel L.J. Aranha is a picture book about the particular loneliness of being different in a way that isn’t immediately understood — even by those who care about you. While the other butterflies paint flowers with their wings, Dot struggles to do the same, her rainbow hues resisting the pattern everyone else follows. Even her teacher Miss Benditwig isn’t sure what to make of her. What unfolds is a gentle journey of self-discovery that arrives at the truth most good stories about difference arrive at: that what seemed like a flaw was always a gift.

The illustration challenge was making Dot’s rainbow colouring feel visually distinctive and beautiful from the very first page — readers needed to see what Dot couldn’t yet see about herself, so that her eventual self-acceptance felt like recognition rather than surprise.

Role

The illustration challenge was making Dot’s rainbow colouring feel visually distinctive and beautiful from the very first page. Readers needed to see what Dot couldn’t yet see about herself, so her eventual self-acceptance landed as recognition rather than surprise.

Full illustration across the book covered character design for Dot, her butterfly classmates, and her teacher, butterfly wing pattern and colour as expressive visual storytelling, fantasy natural environment design, and print-ready file preparation.

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.