During lockdown, I completed several different online courses in order to upskill and keep busy. I recently submitted these two pieces that I made for my portfolio assignment for my Graphic Design and Adobe Illustrator course with Ecollege and received 100% in all three assignments in the course. I now just have to take the final exam to receive my Adobe Certification. The first piece I made was an illustrated short children’s book titled “Tim’s Bad Day”. It follows the journey of Tim who is sad and having a bad day, but he is trying to do what makes him happy to cheer himself up. In the end we discover Tim is actually a puppet and the child was reflecting their emotions onto their toy, but playing with the puppet and making it be silly and dance brought the child joy! The aim of this book was to inform children that no one is happy all of the time, we all go through problems and have bad days, but that it’s important to communicate our feelings to someone we trust and do what makes us happy! The second piece I created was an illustrated map of Dublin. The original idea behind the map was to showcase all the great places to visit after lockdown, to encourage people to be hopeful when lockdown ends and visit these attractions to make memories and help boost the economy...but then lockdown 2.0 happened. These attractions will just have to wait, but for now keep busy, look after yourself and stay safe!