“Mortimer T. Frog” 🐸

Categoriestech wizard mike tales By techwizardmike

Mortimer T. Frog appears in the first and second editions of “Ziggy Wants to Know… Where’s Chippy?”

Mortimer will also appear in the digital citizenship picture book: “Chippy gets scammed!” (working title) which is currently being illustrated by a wonderful artist named Dinnie.

Here is how Mortimer appears in the first edition of “Ziggy Wants to Know… Where’s Chippy?” as drawn by Alexandra Tataru:

Reference image

For his first appearance in “Chippy Gets Scammed”, I thought it would be fun to have Mortimer wearing a 1920s men’s  swimsuit whilst splashing around or reclining in his pond so I searched the Web and sent Dinnie this reference image…

Dinnie’s character designs and scene options

After receiving the reference images for Mortimer and the 1920s mens swimsuits, Dinnie sent me these options from which I could select from — and it was a tough choice!

I greatly appreciate how much thought and care Dinnie is putting into the illustrations for this book.

Dinnie’s notebook sketch

After I sent Dinnie my selections for character design and staging of the scene, she got to work!

I love this glimpse into the “nuts & bolts” of rendering a children’s book illustration.

Dinnie’s Completed illustration

And here we have the completed illustration for what I think will be page 5…

Check out the little towels wrapped around Mortimer’s rubber ducky!

Themes in this book

In this fun to read children’s picture book, we will explore:

  • responsible technology use (including identity theft)
  • true friendships
  • positive collaborations
  • sensitivity
  • and being kind to others
This is a sketch for page 8 featuring Ziggy, “Bee Careful”, Mortimer and Lambo 🐏 (Ziggy’s stuffed toy).

This is a wonderful collaboration!

Illustrator Dinnie is bringing my story to life with her artistic talents, heartfelt ideas to personify the characters and wonderful visual storytelling.

Illustrator Dinnie is the girl in the lower left corner.

Buy me a coffee?

If you like what you see here, you can help support this project by buying me a coffee.