One of the best parts about illustrating this book was the range of spreads this rover's journey allowed me to portray. 

Some pages required a lot of detail and intricacies, whilst others had to convey such a large scale, it was best to draw very little at all.

From the gorgeous Californian hills surrounding the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to high tech launch control rooms, to landscapes on another planet all together, it really was an incredible story to try and put to paper, with the best part being - it was all true. 

The feats this mission has achieved thanks to the incredible engineers behind it, captured my imagination and countless others around the world. She really is a very special rover indeed. 

My Photoshop canvas

Need to practice at staying inside the lines.

A Closer look

Here's a look at what I've been tinkering away on. 

I was greatly inspired by the journey the Mars rover took, on Earth and in space, and I felt there was a great opportunity to teach younger readers about the amazing things happening in space exploration. 

The story is told by Curiosity itself, much like the rover's official Twitter page tweets in the first person. Seeing the first person narrative created on the Twitter page was one of the places I drew my inspiration from.

I was also inspired by Pixar's film Wall-E, which perhaps was itself partly inspired by previous real life rovers. 

My goal was to create great big spreads which would capture children's imaginations, whilst also teaching them about the amazing story behind Curiosity's mission.