BA Illustration graduate illustrates children’s Christmas book

The book follows the journey of Turkeys on their way to the market to be sold for Christmas dinner.

BA (Hons) Illustration graduate Brandon Mattless has collaborated with local author John Norton to create unique illustrations for a children’s Christmas book. The book is based on a true story about a truck transporting live turkeys that overturned partway through its journey.

The story follows the journey of Bertie, a very clever turkey who has learned a lot from his time growing up on the farm in Norfolk. Upon the truck’s accident, Bertie accompanied by fellow turkeys Tululah and Charlie, seizes an opportunity and leads their escape for freedom.

“My illustration style is collage based, so to create the illustrations for this book I used a variety of textures that I had collected and digitally illustrated them using Photoshop,” said Brandon.

“The challenging part of this book in particular was the fact that I was illustrating turkeys – they aren’t that cute to look at and something I personally have never drawn before. So designing a character suitable for a children’s book that also looks like a turkey was quite difficult.

“This project was completed quite fast. Sometimes jobs can take a while, especially with children’s books. But the publishers had a deadline to aim for in order to get it printed by Christmas.

“Norwich feels like home to me, and I feel quite honoured to be able to illustrate for a local author.

“The final outcome is just great. It’s a really good feeling seeing my work in its real form.”

You can see more of Brandon’s work on his Instagram.