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Looking for Napoleon

The bravest journeys fit on a plate.

Looking for Napoleon — cover: vines with fruits and vegetables and a sleeping white cat

Who hasn’t dreamed of getting lost in a broccoli forest?

Mariana has. When Napoleon, her mischievous cat, runs away, she sets off after him like an Alice in a land of fruits and vegetables: an avocado raft, a gossipy bumblebee, a banana moon. A playful rhyming picture book where every bite becomes part of the adventure. It was born at home: as a child I never liked vegetables, while my little brother loved them.

Format
picture book, rhyming text
Readers
early readers
Role
author & illustrator
Technique
analog + digital: hand-made watercolor textures and brushes

Personal project

Pages 20–21: a forest of giant broccoli; a tiny girl walks below
Pages 8–9: vignettes of a white cat with a lamp, a cookie, a bed, boxes and a ball of yarn Pages 26–27: a storm at sea; the girl sails an avocado raft Pages 28–29: the girl rides a blue, green and red bumblebee in the rain Pages 32–33: the girl asleep inside a lettuce

Process

Every story starts with a pencil storyboard, which I revise until the rhythm feels right. Then come the color tests: each project asks for its own palette and technique, more saturated or closer to graphite, while always keeping something of my own colors. For this journey, the color had to taste like fruit.

Storyboard
Storyboard: twelve colour thumbnails of the book in crayon line
Endpapers
Endpapers: green diamond pattern with fruits, vegetables and footprints