Football Freddie and Fumble the Dog: Gameday in Kansas City

Project Overview

Football Freddie and Fumble the Dog: Gameday in Kansas City takes the beloved series into the heart of Missouri, where Freddie, Fumble, and friend Julie explore the city’s remarkable cultural landmarks before catching the big game. From the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to the Legoland Discovery Center and the National WWI Museum and Memorial, the story packs genuine educational depth into an adventure that never loses its sense of fun.

The illustration challenge for this installment was representing culturally and historically significant spaces with accuracy and respect — each landmark needed to be instantly recognizable while still feeling integrated into Freddie’s signature warm, energetic visual world.

Role

Marnie and Julie came to this installment with a specific challenge: Kansas City’s cultural landmarks aren’t just backdrops — they’re the point. The American Jazz Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, and Legoland’s miniature cityscape each needed to be instantly recognizable to anyone who knows these spaces, while still feeling at home in Freddie’s warm, energetic visual world.

Beyond the landmark accuracy, this was also a series continuity project. Freddie and Fumble already had established designs from earlier books, and the new companion character Julie needed to be developed from scratch and then held consistent across all 38 pages — the same standards of character sheet discipline that apply to any full picture book illustration scope.

Selected Double-Page Spreads (Final Book Layout)

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.