Calvin Reynolds has a special message for his readers.

Believe in yourself.

This Tampa resident shares his artistic journey with young audiences hoping to inspire them to follow their dreams.

In this segment discover how Calvin followed his childhood passion to become a professional illustrator and children's author.

(gentle inspiring music) - The development of my character Jayce came about from coming home, just kind of seeing how my kids struggles in school were kind of lining up with my struggles in corporate and in my professional life.

And not just that but you know just seeing that correlation between kids and adults and we kind of share the same stories.

Jayce really just came about from just being creative and wanting to find something that is kind of always defining the odds.

So Jayce is a bee.

What other character can you use that can be the staple of believing in yourself.

And so the whole development process about Jayce came about with just going back to my sketching, R&D, things of that nature.

'Cause I wanted to create something special that we can all connect to that was fun and that could just, touch people in a different way.

(gentle inspiring music continues) - Calvin's artwork, his style is so unique, it's so different and usually when people see it, they're like they know it's a Calvin Reynolds original.

Which I love, 'cause he really has such a dynamic and unique style.

His illustrations literally jump off the pages and that's what I love the most about it is that it's so lifelike and people can see themselves in the characters.

(gentle inspiring music continues) - Again, I was like in elementary school, right?

Elementary school.

Any of you guys remember this guy?

Remember me showing you my illustrations from when I was a kid?

- [Children] Yeah, red ninja.

- Red Ninja, yep.

And so my love for drawing and writing never stopped.

And so now I'm producing artwork and stories such as "Harold's Big Dreams" and "Jayce the Bee" Series.

- His artwork really inspired them to realize, "Oh everything is possible."

Start here wherever it is that you are, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade start right there.

And just know that whatever you're doing if you have that big dream, you can get there.

So that was also really cool that he was able to share with them "Like, this is my actual fifth grade stuff.

This the same age as you all are."

- So you can see my love of comic books, Saturday morning cartoons.

It was just a good way to stay creative.

Well for me it started when I was in like third grade and I would just draw and it got to a point where I wanted to just create my own stories and my own comic book characters.

And then when I was in high school, I had this cartoon character that I created called The Red Ninja.

And it was my art teacher, Mrs. Boring, who took me on a college trip to Sarasota, Ringling College of Art and Design, and that changed my life.

When I went to visit that school I just had that feeling like this is where I wanted to be.

And it was my guidance counselor and my parents' support.

I ended up getting accepted into Ringling, and that was where the journey started.

I had this love for sports.

I was on the high school basketball team and I wanted to try to find a way to combine sports with art and fashion.

And I was fortunate enough to land a job over in Bradenton, illustrating famous athletes such as Kobe Bryant, a lot of those great athletes from the late nineties, 2000 era.

But you know, after 25 years of doing anything you kind of want to try to find other aspects of art.

And so I wanted to create something that I felt like could resonate with everyone.

(inspiring music) Children's books are the cornerstone to literature.

And so I think when I go into these schools and they get a chance to see me, and I can connect with these kids and they see the art and I get a chance to show them books that I created when I was in elementary school, middle school I get a chance to show them projects that I worked on on when I was in high school.

They get a chance to see the journey of what it looks like to believe in yourself and to have a craft and work at it.

And they get a chance to see how you progressively get better if you don't give up.

And so the teachers love that message.

It's a great way to connect.

I give my presentation and afterwards I have kids come up to me and say, how did you do this?

And they ask very interesting questions.

They're engaged and so I guess they see a little bit of me in them and vice versa.

(inspiring music continues) - I think like Calvin is a great artist and I and inspire me like to keep going with my art too.

- Well he said to like always follow your dreams to never stop until you get what you went for.

- I used to draw like stick mans now I wish I could be like a artist and make my own company.

- "Jayce the Bee" is like inspire me, like to keep going.

- I was in the fifth grade that love- - Calvin has just been amazing to come out here and be such an approachable voice.

Our kids many times don't feel like they're represented and he is the person that looks like them, that acts like them, that's doing what they want to do.

So he's able to show them if he can do it, they can do it.

And I just love that positive message because our students need and deserve to realize that anything is possible.

- There's a art form to writing children's books.

You can't write that many words.

You can't have that many words.

So it was a process of learning how to say more with less.

And that's powerful.

- He's truly a dynamic boy, he's a dynamic illustrator, and really knows how to touch the hearts of children.

- I wanted Jayce to inject positivity into the world.

Like I wanted it to be more of a, this is my legacy and this is my way of making the world a better place.

And so Jayce is an acronym for just accepting yourself changes everything.

And so just Jayce's name is something that I think we can all resonate with.

We're all faced with difficulties.

Sometimes with, you may be stepping into a area that you're not comfortable with, and it's just about believing that you can step outta your comfort zone and follow your dreams.

(inspiring music continues) - Learn more about Calvin Reynold's work at jaycethebee.com.

Since 1979 Tiger Lilly Press