My Purple Kingdom

Project Overview

My Purple Kingdom by Gaby DeGroat is a lyrical, rhyming picture book that constructs an entire imaginative world from a single colour. In the Purple Kingdom, purple is not just an aesthetic choice but a complete reality — the sky, the ground, the creatures, the light, all of it suffused with shades of lavender and violet and deep indigo. Gaby DeGroat writes with a playful, rhythmic energy that makes the world feel genuinely inhabitable rather than merely decorative, and the cumulative effect is of a place that readers feel they’ve actually visited.

The illustration challenge was the most visually demanding of any book in the portfolio: working almost entirely within a single colour family while creating enough visual variety and interest to sustain a full picture book. Every spread needed its own distinct mood and composition, using light, texture, shade, and contrast within the purple palette to keep the world feeling rich and surprising rather than monotonous.

Role

• Full book illustration
• Single-colour-family world design with full visual range and variety
• Fantasy landscape and creature design within the Purple Kingdom
• Lyrical narrative pacing reflected in visual rhythm across spreads
• Print-ready file preparation