Babar has been with me since childhood, first through the animated series and then through Jean de Brunhoff’s gentle, fantastical world. In 2013, while I was still a university student taking my first steps into vector illustration, I drew a tribute to the elephant king and Jean de Brunhoff’s art. It became one of the very first projects published on this site, back when it was born. In that piece, the walls of the room dissolve into a starry night sky, the way imagination turned the space of home into an endless universe.
Years later, I wanted to go back to him. This new illustration redraws Babar with everything I have learned since: a more mature style, richer light and colour, and the same affection. He sits in his armchair, reaching for a star in the night sky, with a pile of books beside him. For me they are the books of childhood, the place where so many of us first learned to imagine.
I’m keeping the 2013 original on this page as a symbol of my beginnings, and adding the new version as a thank-you to the character who started it all.
Designed out of pure passion.
