Chloe Elimam, a professor of digital media design at OCCC, recently illustrated a children’s book called “The Special Lady.” The book was written by Tyson Bell and published by Watersprings Publishing.
Elimam says she was always interested in doing some type of animation and illustrating.
“When I started as a student at OCCC in 2018, I was always interested in illustrating children’s books,” she said. “When I was about to graduate, I started a Kickstarter for my first book. I was going to make it a calendar at first, but I had the idea that I wanted to turn it into a book.”
Elimam and Bell had a vision of what they wanted the book to look like, so they began collaborating immediately.
“We worked on our first book together and wanted to create another,” Elimam said. “Back when I was working on my bachelor’s at Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, there was a program where people from the community could request art projects through the students there. Tyson posted on a job board looking for an illustrator for his book. He liked the first book and asked if we could do another one together.”
Elimam brainstormed on what the specific characters would look like in the new book.
“For the grandma character, I gave Tyson a few examples and asked him what he wanted her to look like,” Elimam said. “Then we thought about what the kids should look like. Tyson agreed with me on their looks, and then it was settled.”
From there, the pair mixed and matched the characters with various hairstyle and outfit ideas.
“We brainstormed on different kinds of hairstyle and outfit ideas,” Elimam said. “Tyson made his choice, and we kind of went from there.”
To date, Elimam’s favorite project to work on was her capstone called “Star Dance.”
“This was from my capstone for my bachelor’s program,” she explained. “That was when I realized that I liked working on color scripts a lot. I ended up doing 50 rough color illustrations for ‘Star Dance.’ It was fun.”
Elimam has always had a passion for doing something artistic ever since high school. Her career and education have been a journey, but she wouldn’t take any of it for granted.
“I graduated high school, and I was pretty sure I wanted to do something artistic,” she said. “I double majored in graphic design and marketing. I started graphic design at UCO (University of Central Oklahoma) and didn’t like it. Then I decided to pursue medical illustration. Then I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore.
“My boyfriend at the time was attending OCCC,” she continued, “and I decided to sign up for the digital media design program at OCCC. I was also double majoring in computer science at one point but decided it wasn’t for me. I was also an engineering major for two weeks. I was all over the place.
“When I graduated from OCCC, I started working as a graphic designer for a construction company, but I didn’t like that. I got accepted to an art program in Ohio, so we moved there. We had an interview with a recruiter from Disney, and they liked my work a lot. I was also a candidate for Netflix’s early artist opportunities program and got accepted.
“I heard about a digital media design professor position at OCCC, so I applied and got accepted,” she added. “And now we’re here.”
Elimam says that she loves teaching and learning about the students here at OCCC.
“One of my students was an independent study student,” she said. “We worked on learning 3D software together. She was able to graduate and transfer to Oklahoma City University. She told me that I was teaching the right stuff. I really like seeing them progress and encouraging them.”
Going forward, Elimam plans to pursue a variety of different projects in the future.
“I am talking to this other author right now, and we are working on her children’s book,” she said. Plus, “my friend and I are working on a visual development for a video game. Something else I want to work on further in the future is more color scripts.”
Those interested in seeing Elimam’s artwork are encouraged to visit her website at chloeelimam.com.
