How to Illustrate a Children's Book

Posted by Anonymous , 9/4/2007 Tags:IllustrateChildrenBook

Story Highlights

Introduction Illustrating a children's book is a difficult, but rewarding, occupation. You can

Adjust font size:
Desrease font
Enlarge font

Introduction

Illustrating a children's book is a difficult, but rewarding, occupation. You can spend hours creating colorful pictures to be enjoyed by children all over the world. To do this well, have patience and cultivate competence in a variety of artistic modes of expression.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Steps

1

Step One

Decide what the plot and tone of your book will be. This will determine the character of the drawings or paintings that you create. A serious book may be illustrated with somber colors or dark black with pen-and-ink illustrations. A comical, happy book may need bright, primary colors.
2

Step Two

Prepare your materials according to the project that you're going to illustrate. It's important to have everything you need in order to let your creative mind get to work on the illustrations you want to create.
3

Step Three

Think carefully about the visual impact that you want each page to have. If the book is heavy on text, your image will be lighter and smaller. If the image itself is the focus of the story, you will want to create large, captivating images.
4

Step Four

Remember that you're drawing for children. Make the images colorful, easily "read," and attractive. Subtlety isn't as necessary in children's books, though substantial detail and richness of context are pluses.
5

Step Five

Be open to many materials and methods. You can illustrate with simple pencil drawings, or you can use pen and ink. You can use colored paper, ripped or cut into the desired shapes, or you can use clay images, mount them and photograph them. You can photograph real-life scenes, or you can use paints of all kinds.
6

Step Six

Read books like Writer's Market, that tell you what publishers are looking for. If you're working on a specific book, check out publishers that would take on a book like that, and follow their guidelines.
7

Step Seven

Get your work out there to be noticed. Select your best pieces and upload them to one or more of the various web sites that cater to the promotion of illustrators. The more people know about your work, the more likely you are to get hired as a professional illustrator.

Tips & Warnings

  • Read all the children's books you can get your hands on. You will get wonderful ideas as you discover all the ways in which illustrators are doing their thing these days.
  • Make frequent use of Writer's Digest, both the magazine and the website. The company has published many books on the topic, as well.
  • Practice every day. The field is competitive, and you need to be at the top of your game in order to make a living at such a career.
Next >>
How to Illustrate a Children"s Book
How to Illustrate a Children"s Book
Comments
Tools: |