Craig the Capybara was born in early 2025, as an illustration project I began after my first year post-grad from art school. My work prior consisted of primarily acrylic and oil paintings, with some watercolor and colored pencil work. I wanted to take on the challenge of creating a narrative, character design work and a trying a more whimsical illustrative style with my watercolors. A time-travelling capybara might seem random to most, but as my most favorite animal (the worlds largest rodent), and with my encompassing interest in history, it is a very Alaina concept indeed. I took inspiration from my childhood reads such as Magic Treehouse, Frog and Toad, Tom Kitten, and Winnie the Pooh for my narrative and illustrations. Research and books cited for every historical period is expanded upon below.

After almost two years of an exorbitant amount of tinkering, re-sketching, and re-writing, Craig the Capybara goes to Ancient Rome is being self-published and will be available on November 5th 2026! Sign up for the Capy Club to stay updated on all my work through email.

I have fallen in love with children’s illustration and Craig, so I am permanently incorporating more books in my regular art practice and Craig’s next adventure is already in the works! After my first attempt at writing and illustrating a book, I have found more efficient practices to make future works less time consuming.

Craig is not a piece of scholarly work. I am, however, very committed to keeping an integral amount of historical accuracy in my work, pertaining to time-period accurate fashion, clothing, cuisine, basic attitudes of the populations, as well as incorporating the political and imperial notes present wherever Craig goes, while remaining appropriate/interesting for children. I am not a professional academic or historian, just an art history minor with nerdy passion and a dream! Read more below to explore the historical background and research into each era Craig explores.