Children's Book Illustrator Needed

I am seeking a talented freelance children's book illustrator to bring my passion project, Pip and His Meadow of Friends, to life. The story follows a young, anxious bunny named Pip as he navigates making friends in a new meadow, learning the difference between a true friend and a bad influence through interactions with Bella the calm bluebird, Luna the energetic hedgehog, and Rocky the mischievous squirrel. The project involves creating soft, expressive watercolor illustrations—either traditional or high-quality digital—for a full 16-page layout, which includes a front cover design and 15 interior pages featuring a mix of full-bleed scenes and spot illustrations. Because the final book is fully translated and will be published in Portuguese, the ideal candidate must be willing to collaborate closely during the initial sketching phase to ensure the artwork leaves plenty of clean, strategic negative space for text placement without compromising the visual narrative. As I plan to self-publish the book on Amazon KDP as an eBook as well as distribute premium physical print copies, the final deliverables must adhere to strict production standards. The book will be formatted in a square 8.5 x 8.5-inch trim size, meaning all interior files must be delivered as full-bleed pages with the standard extra 0.125 inches added to the outer edges for a final file dimension of 8.625 x 8.75 inches. All artwork must be high-resolution at 300 DPI, managed in print-safe color profiles, and delivered as both fully layered source files and high-quality, flattened, print-ready PDFs optimized for Amazon KDP's premium color printing. The fixed-price budget for this entire 16-page project is $250 USD, which will be paid out across clear project milestones starting with initial character sketches, followed by rough storyboard thumbnails, and ending with final color delivery.