Twas the Night Before Bayou Classic: A Tiger’s Tale

Project Overview

‘Twas the Night Before Bayou Classic: A Tiger’s Tale by Andrea Brew celebrates one of the South’s most culturally significant college football rivalries through the warmth of a family’s pre-game traditions. With its structure drawn from the beloved holiday rhyme, the story captures the electric anticipation of the night before the Bayou Classic — the blue-and-gold decorations, the shared excitement, the sense that something meaningful is about to happen — before an unexpected visitor adds a magical twist to the celebration. Andrea Brew writes with the pride and nostalgia of someone who has lived these traditions, making the book as much about community and heritage as it is about football.

The illustration challenge was conveying the specific energy of Southern University pride — its colours, its culture, its sense of occasion — with enough visual specificity to feel like a genuine tribute rather than a generic game-day story.

Role

The illustration challenge was conveying the specific energy of Southern University pride, its colours, its culture, its sense of occasion, with enough visual specificity to feel like a genuine tribute rather than a generic game-day story.

Full illustration across the book covered character design for the family and their surprise visitor, game-day tradition and blue-and-gold atmosphere illustration, lyrical narrative pacing reflected in visual rhythm and composition, 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.