African illustrations (3-7 years old) like iwaju - the movie

Greetings

I am not just looking a 'great illustrator' but somebody that understands the age group their targeting..

This is a project that will be starting from 2026 January and I am giving a 6 month time frame for the illustrator to get the illustrations done. January will be a time of meetings and research and from February to July- will be the time frame to get the illustrations done.

I love the animated nigerian cartoon movie called IWAJU: it really shows Nigeria in a vibrant and colourful way and that's how I want my
Childrens book to be from 5 - 7 years old.

I am not just looking for a great illustrator but someone that understands how to communicate through illustrations with the intended target and getting the right frames for every page. I want an illustrator that can work independently after gathering enough information In January.

I am not a fan of 'cheesy' illustrations ie speech marks or really big close up of characters or comic style illustrations, it's very important that the illustrator that I work with knows the dose and donts of illustrations and it's best to be up to date with illustrations and children especially 5-7 years old: the illustration presentation on the page will not be the same.

I'm looking for an illustrator who will be consistent with the illustrations: colour, character features, gradient and everything to do with the technicality of illustrations

I want an illustrator who knows how to take a story and display the images on each page that will engage 5-7 years old

I need an illustrator that can work independently has professional experience and is able to create the best illustrations for my childrens book that's of industry standard and eye catching fir thr intending audience bringing out the best in Nigeria culture through images


Please reply to why you are the best person for my project and what do you understand with illustrations and the target group having a relationship with each other in order to be effective

(Please do not reply with ai or chat gp as this will be professionally checked)
Feel free to to attach illustrations

And can you replicate illustrations similar to IWAJU and find a way for me to have my own unique style of illustrations suitable for my story

I believe it's 32 pages and there will be activity book at the back of the book

This project will start January 2026
In January will be meetings research etc - prep from February to July will be the illustrations creation
I'm giving the illustrator 6 months to complete the project and