My practice focuses on children’s picture book illustration, with a strong emphasis on curiosity, exploration, and emotional storytelling. Across my work, I am interested in how simple narratives and colourful visual worlds can encourage children to engage with unfamiliar experiences in a positive and playful way. 

The three picture books presented here are all centred around the theme of journey and discovery. Two of the books explore travel as a narrative device, while the third focuses on curiosity and searching within a familiar environment. Although the stories differ, they are connected through a shared interest in movement, emotional growth, and the desire to understand the world. 

Let’s Find My Lovely Friend follows a cat searching for its missing mouse friend, using curiosity and exploration to drive the story. The illustrations use bright colours and expressive characters to create a joyful and engaging atmosphere. The Little Black Fish is inspired by Iranian culture and literature, incorporating traditional motifs and carpet-inspired patterns to reflect cultural identity while telling a story about courage, experience, and self-discovery. In Me and My Little Cat Around the World, a girl and her cat travel through different countries, where elements such as architecture, clothing, environment, and atmosphere subtly reference diverse cultures and places. 

Through these projects, I aim to create visually rich, emotionally accessible stories that celebrate curiosity, cultural awareness, and the joy of discovery for young readers.

Me and My Little Cat Around the World is a children’s picture book that follows a young girl and her cat as they travel together through different countries. The story uses travel as a narrative framework to explore curiosity, discovery, and emotional connection. 

Each page introduces a new place through carefully considered visual details inspired by local architecture, landscapes, atmosphere, and everyday life. Transportation plays an important role throughout the book, with different vehicles subtly representing each location. Trains, boats, buses, and other forms of transport help guide the journey forward, reinforcing the sense of movement and exploration from page to page. 

Rather than explicitly explaining cultural differences, the illustrations suggest place and identity through colour, environment, clothing, weather, and modes of transport. This allows young readers to intuitively experience diversity in a playful and accessible way. 

The relationship between the girl and her cat remains central to the narrative, emphasising companionship and reassurance while navigating unfamiliar environments. Bright colours, simplified forms, and expressive characters create a warm and inviting visual language that supports the emotional tone of the story. 

This project encourages children to embrace new experiences with curiosity and openness, presenting travel as an imaginative and comforting journey.

The Little Black Fish is a children’s picture book inspired by the well-known Iranian story, reinterpreted through a contemporary visual language while remaining rooted in Iranian cultural identity. The narrative follows a small fish who leaves its familiar environment to experience the wider world, encountering uncertainty, danger, and discovery before returning with a deeper understanding of itself and its surroundings. 

Travel and experience are central to the story. The journey introduces moments of risk and curiosity, reflecting emotional growth and the courage required to explore the unknown. Rather than presenting the journey as purely linear, the book suggests a cyclical path, where exploration leads to awareness and return. 

Visually, the book draws strongly from Iranian culture. Traditional carpet patterns and decorative motifs are used throughout the pages, creating a sense of continuity and rhythm that resembles a visual map repeating across the narrative. The illustrations reference hand-printing aesthetics, with textured surfaces and limited colour palettes that evoke traditional craft and printmaking processes. 

Through this project, the book connects storytelling, cultural memory, and visual experimentation. It introduces young readers to themes of curiosity, experience, and identity while presenting Iranian cultural elements in an accessible and visually engaging way.

Let’s Find My Lovely Friend is a children’s picture book about a curious cat searching for its missing mouse friend. The story begins when the cat notices a single clue: a small piece of cheese. This simple discovery sparks curiosity and leads the cat to begin searching. 

Rather than following multiple signs, the narrative focuses on this one visual clue and the cat’s emotional response to it. The piece of cheese represents a moment of realisation and connection, prompting the cat to explore different spaces in the hope of finding its friend. 

As the cat moves through the story, feelings of worry, care, and affection are gradually revealed. The book gently explores friendship and concern, showing how curiosity can emerge from emotional attachment rather than problem-solving alone. 

Bright colours, clear compositions, and expressive characters support the storytelling and guide the reader through the cat’s emotional journey. The anticipation builds toward the moment of reunion, emphasising reassurance and warmth. 

At its core, the book is about friendship, kindness, and attentiveness. It shows how even a small detail can lead to meaningful discovery and how emotional connection drives curiosity and action.