Duck Dash

World Building
Character Design

Role: Illustrator
Tools: Procreate
Date: 2025
Type: Personal

Premise

DUCK DASH is a children's book concept about a duck who grows up in a chicken coop, yearning for freedom. Despite being treated with familiarity by most chickens, the duck dreams of swimming in ponds and meeting others like itself. Together with a few chickens, they plot an escape.

This project focused on developing a story-driven world with original characters, props, and environments.

Starting

I began with studying chickens and ducks to familiarize myself with the subject matter. From there, I exaggerated anatomy and personified certain features to design an original character.

Loose gesture sketches of chickens pecking, walking and turning

Gesture sketches of chickens standing, crowing and sitting

Character Designs

I created a bust turnaround and full-body poses of each character. These would be used as reference for the project to maintain consistency.

Bust turnaround of the duck, with a sprout growing from its head, in side, front and back views

Bust turnaround of a chicken wearing round glasses, in side, front and back views

Bust turnaround of a fluffy chicken with wing-shaped head feathers, in side, front and back views

Full-body poses of the duck: quacking, bending down to peck, and stretching a wing

Full-body poses of the chicken with glasses, including a small-eyes variation

Full-body poses of the fluffy chicken standing, sitting and looking up

Environment Design

I designed the chicken coop, where the story begins. The following images display the interior and exterior.

Greyscale interior of the coop: wooden rafters, a tiled roof, nesting shelves, hay bales and a small window

Greyscale exterior of the coop: a round wooden house with a shingled roof and a fenced yard, with a city on the hills behind

Prop Design

The following props would be used in the story as key visual elements. At this point, I developed a consistent color palette, consisting of vibrant colors.

Coloured prop sheet: the Nesting Cubicle with an attached water feeder, the Birdie badminton shuttlecock made of hay and feathers, and the Killer Kage bicycle cart used to transport chickens

Application

Created a finished spread illustration.

Rough blue sketch 1: the duck and chickens running across a hill, with the coop and a bicycle cart behind them

Rough blue sketch 2: the duck and a chicken fleeing over the hill as the cart rides after them

Rough blue sketch 3: the duck and two chickens dancing down a winding path away from the coop

Final coloured spread: the yellow duck and two chickens dance down a green hill, with the bicycle cart and pink coop in the distance and a city on the horizon