An illustrated story about Marisol, an entrepreneurial spanish-speaking sea lion who travels from the Zagreb city ZOO to the department store on the main square to buy shampoo. She causes panic among the store clerks and emergency services, but manages to make friends with a helpful boy.
Like any other illustration project, Marisol started as a sketch. Defining the look of a character is always an interesting process, sometimes scary, sometimes exciting like a treasure hunt, but everything is forgotten once you manage to find /stumble upon the right look and attitude.
The editor and the author wanted to keep the relaxed, work-in-progress feel of the illustrations, so the style I landed on wasn’t very far from the initial sketches. I decided to restrict the pallette to only a few colours with an intent to not overcrowd the compositions and make them too messy.
When you step out directly out of your pool onto the tram station, there are bound to be some puddles.
Shocked saleslady trying to figure out the species of her new customer and whether it’s even from planet Earth.
Passers-by immersed in yesterdays newspapers detailing Marisol’s visit to the department store.
Would you give money to a spanish-speaking sea lion? I know I would.
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Written by Dubravka Ugrešić, designed by Ivana Borovnjak, published by Oaza Books. GET IT HERE :)