Online Illustration student on writing, illustrating and publishing a children’s picture book
07 April 2026
Inspired by one of the projects she completed as part of her BA(Hons) Illustration (Online) course, second year student Alyssa Georgia has self-published her own children’s book, a story based off a character she created in her first study block at Falmouth.
What initially started as coursework has now blossomed into Little Moth Adventures, a charming picture book that celebrates pollinators and their habitats, published earlier this month.
We chatted with Alyssa to learn more about how Little Moth Adventures went from a first-year student project to a published children’s book, how she balanced writing and illustrating a book with an online degree and how the course itself has encouraged her to develop her own unique art style.
Can you tell us more about what your book is about and what first inspired it?
Little Moth Adventures is a children's picture book about a lonely moth who explores the woods in search of other moths and butterflies like herself. The story combines magical fantasy with simple education for little ones about where they can spot butterflies and moths for themselves.
The story is inspired by my love for butterflies, moths and wildlife; I am very interested in butterfly conservation and think it’s important we have more media and stories that teach young children about our pollinators and their habitats!
How has your time on the course impacted or shaped your book?
I began working on the characters and story back in my first year at Falmouth, and they came to me as I was undertaking my very first module. We were tasked with a project to create a day in the life of a character; this inspired me to create a children's book spread about a character called Little Moth who had a magical cat friend. I wasn't completely happy with my outcome, so I knew I wanted to continue working on this project in the future to perfect my original idea.
My course tutor encouraged me to keep working on the character, and since then, the course has continued to help me develop and realise my art style as I continued to turn Little Moth into Little Moth Adventures.
How did you find the process of writing and illustrating a children’s book whilst studying for your degree?
Working on a personal project like this alongside my course projects and studies has been a bit of a challenge, but thankfully doing an online course allows for a bit more flexibility with my study and I think it has helped me build good time and project management skills.
What have you enjoyed most about studying BA(Hons) Illustration (Online) at Falmouth?
I’ve really enjoyed my time on the course; I initially joined to develop my illustration skills further and meet other like-minded artists, and I have done just that. I have really enjoyed being able to work on all kinds of projects across different areas of illustration; even ones I think don't match my personal interests have still been really beneficial for developing my own art style and understanding of the kind of projects that I want to pursue.
I have also learnt through this course how much I love narrative illustration such as books, comics and graphic novels!
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