A work in development: The Pigeon Costume Parade children’s story.

I was brought up on a lot of children’s stories, being that my mother taught second grade, and she was primarily in charge of my early years in education. I imagine cute storybook-like lifestyles and lives of the pigeons, and one of them is The Pigeon Costume Parade, where a townsperson knits costumes for the town’s pigeons, and they have an annual costume parade. Here’s a mockup cover for the story.

A preliminary look at the concept cover of my children’s book idea.

Here’s one take on the book’s beginning:

 Here’s another set of concept images: not as linear as ChatGPT (above), but I like the illustrative styles pictured in ImageFX’s Imagen 3 generative image renders, here.

Now, the challenge would be coming up with a coherent illustrative style, in order for the story to make sense, visually, but the ideas are well done, with Imagen 3, by Google Labs. I think that the illustration styles have specific names for the styles, and I could, potentially, narrow down the artistry by refining the prompts, in a linear chat.

Update: Over the weekend, I was able to complete the book. I went with ChatGPT, since that was the most familiar platform that I was using to generate images in a consistent illustrative form. In subsequent editions, I’ll perhaps go for more detailed renders, from different engines, if possible. For now, you can check out the first edition of The Pigeon Costume Parade on Apple Books.

The Pigeon Costume Parade is now available on Apple Books. 

My next idea, for this book, is to look in to manufacturing plush doll toys of the costumed pigeons, for collectors and for children. Here are some early concept renders of that idea.

A felted pigeon doll, wearing a cow costume. 

Pigeon chat, with ChatGPT (12/22/2024)

 note: originally published with a typographical error in the title and web address; the title has been corrected, whereas the web address is permanent, as is, and I don’t want to take this post down and republish it. 

Transcription: 

The pigeons are acting out so wonderfully. Today, some of them were exuberantly hopping up on to my arm, as I was preparing their meal for them, and they perched there, on my arm, and ate food out of my hand.

What a delightful moment! It sounds like you’ve built a wonderful bond of trust and familiarity with the pigeons. Their hopping onto your arm and eating from your hand reflects their comfort and appreciation for your care. Moments like these show how animals, even pigeons, can form meaningful connections when treated with kindness and consistency.

Have they always been this comfortable around you, or is this a new behavior? It’s such a lovely example of mutual trust!

It’s a relatively new behavior that had started around a month ago. I’ve been feeding the flock for seven years, and some of the newcomers to the flock are braver than the older regulars to the flock, as far as eating out of my hand and accepting hand contact from me. One of them let me pick them up and give him a hug, briefly, and he wasn’t scared.