“First Day of School” Kids Book 2025

A book illustration commission for a friend. This post shows only the illustrations I made for the book but not the text. The book comes in two versions, a boy version and a girl version, where only the child character in the illustrations are changed.

Swipe to see the two versions ⇆

Digital illustration of a doorway view of a young boy carrying a green school bag, standing, smiling, looking back with a forest and school building in the background.

Digital illustration of a doorway view of a young girl carrying a red school bag, standing, smiling, looking back with a forest and school building in the background.

!Attention! As of the writing of this post (08/10/2025), this book has not yet been officially published, and not yet ready for purchase.

The intention of this picture book called “First Day of School” was to teach children, including children with autism, the steps and process of mentally preparing for their first day of school. The author of the book wanted the main character’s name to be customisable to any child’s name to help make the book feel more personal, as well as allowing parents to pick the gender of the main character at the purchasing of the book.

Page 1 – cover illustration
Page 2 – introduces the child and their name
Page 3 – wake up early
Page 4 – brush teeth
Page 5 – get dressed
Page 6 – eat breakfast
Page 7 – pack lunch and school bag
Page 8 – put on shoes
Page 9 – say goodbye and leave the house
Page 10 – at the school front gate
Page 11 – enter the classroom

Finalised illustrations were created using Clip Studio Paint using a Huion pen display.

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