HI there,
your book idea sounds wonderful and I'm particularly happy to hear that you are looking for traditional art. I understand that you are looking for 16 double spread illustrations in gouache or watercolour. I'm a traditionally trained artist and I've been working as an old-school children's books illustrator for many years, with more than 20 published titles. As I strongly prefer to work by hand, with almost no digital tools apart from design and layout, this might the right project for me. In the process of work, I would first develop the storyaboard and design the characters, then test the style with several simple colour illustrations and prepare the pencil sketches of the scenes. In this phase unlimited revisions are possible until we are completely happy with the result. I would then proceed with painting and deliver digital files (high resolution scans), although it is also possible to have the originals sent or to arrange for a print ready book, including design and layout.
Please kindly check my portfolio section here https://www.freelancer.com/u/ddimitrovska?w=f to see few samples of my commissioned work. If you are interested, I could send more recent samples or those more that are not showcased here. In any case, I'd be happy to discuss your ideas over chat, to read the story and hopefully negotiate a cooperation.
Kind regards,
Dusica