Football Freddie & Fumble the Dog: Gameday in Dallas

Project Overview

Football Freddie & Fumble the Dog: Gameday in Dallas by Marnie Schneider and Susan Tose Spencer takes the series deep into Texas, where Freddie and Fumble explore the city’s most iconic landmarks before heading to AT&T Stadium to cheer on the Cowboys. From the Katy Trail and Pioneer Plaza to the Dallas Zoo and the city’s historic sites, the pair bring their signature blend of sports excitement and genuine curiosity to one of America’s most recognisable cities.

The illustration challenge was capturing Dallas’s particular visual character — its wide skies, its mix of cattle-drive heritage and modern skyline, and the unmistakable atmosphere of Cowboys game day — in a way that felt both accurate to the city and accessible to young readers encountering it for the first time.

Role

The illustration challenge was capturing Dallas’s particular visual character, its wide skies, its mix of cattle-drive heritage and modern skyline, and the unmistakable atmosphere of Cowboys game day, in a way that felt both accurate to the city and accessible to young readers encountering it for the first time.

Full illustration across the book covered character design consistency for Freddie, Fumble, and the series cast, Dallas landmark and AT&T Stadium illustration, visual storytelling and scene development, 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.