A studio service
A personalized book drawn from your photos.
Send us a few pictures of your child and we illustrate them, so they appear as the hero of the story looking like themselves on every page. Their name runs through the text. It is not a photo pasted into a template. It is a painted likeness in a real picture book.
Your photos in. A book about them out.
N° 01Drawn, not pasted
Why we illustrate the photo instead of printing it.
Most personalized books with photos cut your child's face out of a picture and drop it onto a cartoon body. The lighting is wrong, the edges are hard, and the child looks like a sticker on a page. Children notice. Parents notice more.
We work the other way round. Your photos are reference material for an illustrator. The child is drawn in the style of the book, with the same hair, the same freckles, the same glasses, the same favourite cardigan. They belong to the picture because they were painted into it.
You see and approve the character before a single page is illustrated. If the likeness isn't right, we fix it then, at the sheet stage, not after the book is bound.
N° 02What you send
Three photos and a few facts.
01
The photos
Three to five clear pictures: face on, from the side, and one big smile. Phone photos are fine. Send more if they wear glasses or their hair changes a lot.
02
The name
Exactly as it should be read aloud, plus any nickname the family uses. The name goes into the story text, not just on the cover.
03
The details
Favourite colour, favourite toy, a pet, the bedroom, the street. Small true details are what make a child gasp when they turn the page.
04
The people
If a parent, sibling or grandparent appears in the story, three photos of each of them too. Everyone gets drawn from reference.
05
The dedication
A line for the first page, in your words. Many parents write it for the day the book is given.
06
The story
Choose one of our story templates, or brief a fully custom story built around your child. Both routes are below.
N° 03How it runs
Likeness first, then the pages.
We draw a character sheet from your photos: front, side, expressions. You confirm it. Then the spreads are illustrated against that sheet, so the child cannot drift from page four to page twelve.
You get a digital proof of the whole book before printing. The template keepsake ships in about two weeks. A fully custom story takes six to eight weeks because the story, the world and every spread are built from nothing.
N° 04Investment
Two ways to work together.
Template keepsake
From $480
One of our story templates, illustrated with your child drawn from photos.
- Child illustrated from your photos
- Name throughout the story text
- 12-page illustrated story
- Character sheet approved by you first
- One printed hardcover copy
- Digital files for reprints
- 1 round of revisions
Custom story
From $2,200
A story written around your child, with family drawn from photos.
- Original story from your brief
- Child and up to 3 family members drawn from photos
- Up to 16 illustrated spreads
- Character sheets for everyone
- 2 printed hardcover copies
- Full digital files
- 2 rounds of revisions
- Endpapers and dedication page
N° 05Questions
The answers we give most often.
- Do you print my photos in the book?
- No. We illustrate your child from the photos, so they appear as a painted character who looks like themselves. A printed face on a cartoon body never sits right.
- How many photos do you need?
- Three to five: face on, from the side, smiling. Phone photos are fine. The same for any family member in the story.
- Will it really look like my child?
- You approve the character sheet before any page is drawn. Hair, skin tone, glasses, the favourite jumper: confirmed first, then the spreads.
- Can the name run through the whole story?
- Yes. It is written into the text on every spread, not stamped once on the cover.
- How long does it take?
- About two weeks for the template keepsake. Six to eight weeks for a fully custom story.
Start your book
Send the photos. We'll draw the rest.
Tell us the child's name and age and attach three photos. We reply within two working days with a style suggestion and the next step.