An Emirati illustrator, who started drawing as a hobby at age 14, has taken her skills to the next step and has designed a children's e-book.
Shaima Al Malik, 29, began freelancing in 2009 and currently is an illustrator of children's books.
Her most recent project is the illustration of Lootupootu - a bedtime story designed for iPads. She describes the main character, Lootupootu, as "a young elf with a bright smile”.
"He has green hair and wears a unique hat which he designed himself. The adapted fire helmet recycles wind energy to power his head lamp,” she said.
Lootupootu is an educational and interactive bedtime story application that encourages children to protect and care for the environment.
"We wanted to help parents teach their kids about the importance of looking after the environment, and learn how to recycle in a fun, interactive way,” said Ken Thompson, founder of Jolly Universe, the company that created the application.
The app provides interactive activities and a bedtime story, available in Arabic and English.
"I worked together with Ken on the character design. He wanted an elf with a unique hat, a fun character on a green mission. Elves are ageless which means they can go to the park alone which is important,” she said.
"We tested many colour combinations and this was the most popular with the kids and looked and felt right. The green hair was actually picked because it's fun and popular for kids. The fire costume was because he is a green fighter and we wanted a unique, iconic hat.”
She said she gave Lootupootu a very simple look to make it easier for kids to read his facial expressions.
"Therefore, the inspiration came from the kids and the environment,” she added.
Using the graphic design program Adobe Illustrator, it took Ms Al Malik about two months to complete the project, with a few minor changes made to the drawings throughout the project.
"I'm very comfortable using it,” she said. "I have been using it for a long time and also because we needed to have the illustrations and buttons layered so the programmers could add in the animation easily later on.”
Her only challenge in the project was drawing the vehicles.
"I didn't face a lot of difficulties, but it was a little challenging drawing some of the vehicles, because I didn't do so before. I had to do some research and draw them a couple of times to get them right,” she said.
Ms Al Malik's inspiration comes from her surroundings and by researching other books.
"But what I do is invert what I see into cartoons and try to make them look different in a way that will look interesting and may inspire a child,” she said.
She has also published children's stories, illustrations for the Ministry of Education and personalised notebooks that are sold in Kinokoniya Bookstore in Dubai Mall.
She is currently working on a new project.
Lootupootu bedtime story is available on iPads only, for Dh3.64.
Source: The National