Children’s Picture Book Illustrator Wanted – The Adventures of Linc

I’m looking for an illustrator to help bring to life a new children’s picture-book series for 4–6 year olds, beginning with Linc Follows His Nose. Linc is a curious, loving and slightly stubborn young beagle, based on my real dog. The book is warm, adventurous and character-led, with a strong focus on emotion, personality and visual storytelling. I’m looking for a bright, modern digital illustration style with strong colours and clean shapes, similar in feel to contemporary children’s animation and picture books. Linc should still look recognisably like a real beagle, but with enough expression in his eyes, ears, face and body language to clearly show curiosity, excitement, fear, relief and mischief. The target reader is 4–6 years old, so the artwork should feel colourful, energetic and immediately engaging, while still looking polished enough to appeal to parents and work well as a commercial picture book. The first book is approximately 32 pages, with several double-page spreads. I already have the manuscript, page structure, character details and a visual direction in mind, but I’d like the illustrator to bring their own creativity and ideas too. This is intended to become an ongoing series, so I’m particularly interested in someone who enjoys character development and could potentially help establish the visual identity of Linc across future books.