10 tips for Illustrating Children’s Books
The following list is in no particular order, just things to think about, incorporate and consider when you are illustrating a picture book.
1. Draw Kids…babies, toddlers, preschoolers, k-5: Even if you are someone who illustrates with animals rather than people, drawing children is a great way to then mimic childlike actions, behaviors, and positions in whatever characters you draw. This will in turn, help children identify with your characters better. If you don’t have kids of your own to observe and sketch from, go to a playground and spend the afternoon sketching (just try not to look too creepy doing it…bring along one of your published books or pocket portfolio to verify your purpose being there, just in case).
2. Draw objects and background scenes. The most enjoyable part of a drawing for me comes through the main characters. The “hard part” is the background. However, to get a job illustrating picture books, you can’t just be good at drawing characters. You almost have to become a landscape painter, an interior designer, an architect, and a set designer all at once. Whew! Who knew being a children’s book illustrator was so tough. So, draw and PAINT plenty of THINGS. Draw when you are outside, sketch when you are in the city, paint pictures of interior spaces. Soak it all in!
3. Hone your 2D design skills. Take a 2 Dimensional Design class online or one offered nearby. Design doesn’t hone your drawing skills, but to be a good artist/illustrator (especially where books are concerned), you MUST be a good designer. Practice designing compositions with a few basic shapes. I once had to design 100 different compositions using only varying sizes of black circles. After that, I was so grateful and more aware of the varying basic shapes there are to use in compositions. Design itself tells a story. It reflects action, mood, and tone. A simple site like this may offer some online assignments you can do from home.
4. Think about Color. Artists like Maxfield Parrish understood color enough to manipulate it’s characteristics. I recommend a simple site like this if you are just beginning http://thevirtualinstructor.com/Color.html or a book. I used Itten’s The Elements of Color in college, and I still have it to browse through now and then. However, a hard copy is quite pricey now. For the most part, I would play and experiment with color. Color and value sets mood, tone, voice, and place in every picture book…even if it’s black and white. And remember, color won’t help if the design is bad.
5. Design your characters. Every main, supporting and background character in a picture book should be designed. Each character needs to look like an individual. Just like every person or animal on earth is unique, so should be your characters. You especially need to know your main characters enough to be able to draw them in any position, mood, or situation and still appear recognizable as THAT specific character.
6. Utilize every page to tell your story by understanding the picture book format. Look at tons of picture books. There are a few rule breakers, but essentially, a picture book must have a page count that is divisible by 8. Most books are 32 pages. I provide a layout map HERE. The front matter can vary slightly, but the text begins on page 4 or 5 and ends on a single page (32) at the end. An understanding of this format will allow you to utilize all the pages you can to tell the story.
7. Design your entire book. After you understand the layout of the book, make sure what you put in it is planned out completely. Draw Thumbnails for each page (many many many different ones). You can print out Thumbnail Sheets Here and Here. Remember most books are about 9×10 or 8.5×11, vertical. It costs the publishers more to do horizontal, or square, etc. So if your book needs to be another format, find out from the publisher what they agree to. When you are done drawing thumbnails, choose the scenes you like best and put them together in order. Make sure your book flows from front to back and that designs from page to page are not repetitive or boring. Make the design reflect the text.
8. Use your illustrations to tell more story than exists in the text. Illustrating most picture books allows for the illustrator to insert some small substory or something extra developed only in the pictures. It can be simple or complex. A few examples:
- In Annie McRae, I added a little brother to the scenes of the book even though he’s never mentioned in the text. He interacts with Annie and is even the only fully displayed character in one scene.
- In Heard of Cows, I added a deck of cards that falls off the nightstand and floats through the rest of the subsequent illustrations.
- In Already Asleep, I created a relationship between a cat and a mouse playing through the scenes, culminating with a friendship on the back cover.
- In The Happiest Mommy Ever, I used the book design for the substory element. The scenes in the past are designed in scrapbook form, and the present are vignettes.
- In Tickle Tickle, I never mention a mouse in the text, yet he is integral to the story’s plot. This is a more complex example of telling the story beyond the text.
9. Attend Conferences and Workshops. There exists a vast network of professionals in the industry out there sharing their knowledge…utilize it. The SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) is GREAT for those newer to the industry and I highly recommend their national conferences. Their local/regional chapters often hold beneficial conferences as well. The yearly Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers is an intensive, AMAZING, week-long conference held near Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, local one-day conferences, like Writing For Charity, often offer a wealth of knowledge for an inexpensive fee and go to a good cause. Beyond the knowledge you gain, you can also network, join critique groups, and meet agents and editors willing to accept your submissions just because you came to that conference.
10. Use a Blog, Website, Print and Social Media. No one will know you and your art exist unless you show them. These days, that’s primarily through the internet. Put your best work out there. You can put a small watermark on your images or just make them small and pixelated enough to be limited to web use only. Twitter and/or facebook can be another avenue to share your work AND become connected with like-minded people who encourage your talents. In addition, you can create and print postcard mailers to mail to publishers as promo pieces. They receive tons of these so be creative. Use the mailing list that SCBWI provides to it’s members. Make sure you are only mailing to relevant publishers.
Thoughts/Analysis
- Draw Kids
- Draw Background Scenes
- Character Design
User Testing – Meadows Primary School
I was able to send out a survey to year 4 primary school students at The Meadows Primary School in Birmingham in order to get some primary research into their knowledge of World War 1.
To make sure the pupils were fully engaged in the questionnaire, I kept the questions short so they could understand and read them quickly, in addition to this I made the survey multiple choice, again, so they could quickly answer them.
Doing this survey enabled me to pick out key themes and expectations of primary school children when relating to books, especially World War 1 related. This now provides me with what colours to use, which medium to focus on, and what title to use, as well as their existing knowledge of World War 1.
Infographics
If you’re looking for a way to drive traffic to your business website, increase social media marketing results, and establish credibility and authority in your niche, look no further than infographics.
Put simply, an infographic is a visual representation of data, information, or knowledge. You can use an infographic to represent any type of data and to tell a variety of stories. As a business person, there is most certainly an abundance of information to share with your audience.
For example, “10 Things an Entrepreneur Should Know,” or “5 Best Blogging Applications,” might make exceptional infographic topics.
Infographics follow the same basic rules of content. They must provide value to your reader. Because infographics are information driven and easy to view and share, they are a simple tool to provide quick value to your audience.
- An Abundance of Inbound links – Infographics are not only sharable, you can also include an embed code, list your graphic on directories, and let other bloggers and business owners post them on their websites. It creates an inbound link to your site which boosts your search engine ranking.
- Analytics and Tracking – Whether you use an embed code or not, infographics are generally easy to track. You can, and should, measure the traffic generated from each graphic. Use analytics to calculate page views, clicks, and time spent viewing the infographic.
- Keywords – Your infographic is another tool you can use to embrace traffic generating keywords most popular in your niche. Use infographics to boost your search engine ranking for those keywords. Place the keywords in your title and in the description of your infographic.
- Increase Followers and Subscribers – One potential way to use infographics is to share them on social media. You’ll be able to reach a broad audience because infographics are shared by millions each day. As more people become aware of your business and social media profile, you’ll earn more subscribers and followers.
- Blog Engagement – Infographics tend to generate comments when they’re published on a blog. You can increase the interaction on your blog by sharing an occasional infographic.
- Relationship Building – Creating great content including infographic content helps forge a connection between you and your audience. The more value you provide them, the more they’ll interact with you and become an active member of your community.
- Credibility – Publishing relevant and useful infographics that educate and offer value, positions you as a thought leader within your niche.
- Branding – Infographics can and should include your voice, logo, and message within. This helps brand your business.
- Scannable – The majority of people are visual learners and infographics serve them well. They’re easy to scan and provide a useful way to educate your audience.
- Viral in Nature – Include an embed code in your infographic and watch it spread. You’ll see your content on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google + almost overnight. People love to share infographics.
- Increased Traffic – Inbound links, improved SEO and more awareness for your brand and business all mean one thing, traffic.
- Multi-Purpose Content – Your infographics can expand beyond your online marketing. You can use them as print material as well. Whether you publish a brochure, book, or marketing collateral, infographics serve a variety of purposes and functions.
- They’re super easy to create – You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create an infographic, the free tools with easy to follow wizards help you get the job done.
Thoughts/Analysis
Above are a list of 13 reasons why Infographics are so beneficial to use. With children being heavily revolved around visual learning; the use of infographics within the recipe page spread would enhance their interest and understanding of how to complete the task, therefore making the recipe more successful.
Not only would the use of infographics benefit the children, but the parents/teachers who will follow the recipe would also find them beneficial as they wouldn’t need to read the instructions, instead they could just follow the graphics.
WW1 Centenary – Remembrance
The 4th of August 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the day Britain entered one of the costliest conflicts in history – the First World War – with fighting continuing until the 11th of November 1918, Armistice Day.
The Royal British Legion was founded by veterans of the First World War who adopted the poppy as their symbol of Remembrance and hope. Today the Legion is at the forefront of Centenary commemorations. As we come together in Remembrance of events a century ago, we are reminded of the important welfare work the Legion continues to provide today and will need to provide in the future.
The problems facing First World War veterans when they returned to the UK continue to affect serving personnel and veterans today: whether living with bereavement or disability, finding employment, or coping with financial stress.
As the UK’s Custodian of Remembrance, the Legion is leading the nation in respecting the sacrifices of the First World War. As the UK’s largest Armed Forces charity, the Legion is leading in providing direct care and support to Armed Forces and veteran families in need.
Thoughts/Analysis
After learning about the centenary of World War 1, I’ve been inspired to use it as a backing theme of my project. This will allow me to add a dimension of learning to the design, with the inclusion of facts that happened in the war being scattered around the design. Featuring it around the centenary also opens up the use of key World War 1 symbols, like poppies; which could be used as part of the worksheet.
In conclusion, the centenary theme is relevant to the time period the book will be produced and used, it will spread the awareness of World War 1 to children who aren’t familiar with it yet, giving it another educational purpose.
Activity Sheet Idea
- What it to be Educational
- Tied in with Remembrance
- Beneficial to the Environment
- Fun and Interesting
My idea for an Activity Sheet is to mix a range of subjects so that as many pupils as possible get engaged with the task. I think the best way of doing this would be to mix academic with kinaesthetic learning styles. In order to do this, I’m going to create a task that makes the students figure out some instructions that will inform them on how to plant a poppy, once they’ve done this they’ll then swap sheets with a class-mate and see if they can plant a poppy with their instructions.
By using a poppy, I’m also relating back to the Centenary theme as well as remembrance which is also heavily linked with World War 1. This makes the task, educational, relevant to my theme and interesting to both form of learners.
Alongside this, the book includes three subjects: literacy, science and design & tec, which will also allow for a larger amount of pupils to be engaged with the project.
World War 1 Recipes
Plum and Apple Jam
Method
For every 10lb of Jam use 5lb Sugar to 5 lb Prepared Fruit ie: washed, hulled, peeled, Cored, etc; 50/50 Apples/Plums. Apples are rich in Pectin so the Jam will set nicely+1 x Tablespoon lemon juice if required to taste.
- Place fruit in a large pot/bowl & sprinkle with the sugar to draw out the juice,
- leave for as long as is possible – overnight is ideal,
- transfer fruit & sugar to preserving pan & bring to simmer gently, stirring gently to distribute fruit evenly, add lemon juice.
- Boil steadily, not rapidly, or it will discolour & burn, until setting point is reached.
- Once the correct result has been reached, allow to cool slightly then pour the hot jam into hot sterile jam jars.
Aunt Betty’s Pudding
Method
- Weigh one pound of bread pieces and soak them in milk until quite soft.
- Drain off any milk that has not been absorb; then beat up the egg with a fork.
- Stir in half a pound of jam.
- Turn into a greased basin and steam for two hours.
From 1917 there were fines introduced for wasting bread so this recipe would have been ideal for using up stale bread as would the recipe below.
Cooking in World War 1
The cost of food more than doubled during the war years. Some prices went up by even more than that. A pint of milk cost a penny in the early 1900s. Just after the war, people were expected to pay sixpence a pint.
As the fighting dragged on, fresh fruit, vegetables and meat got harder to find. There were even stories of butchers selling dead cats!
Bread and flour were very hard to get. By 1916, bread was being made from ground-up turnips. The new Ministry for Food put out a leaflet with ideas for making pastry, cakes and buns from potatoes, and even ‘chocolate potato biscuits’.
Mothers had to be inventive in the kitchen. Wartime cookbooks had ideas for foods like ‘potted cheese’ – leftover crumbs of cheese, mixed with mustard and margarine, baked in the oven and served with biscuits or toast. Another recipe used cooked fish, rice, and breadcrumbs to make ‘fish sausages’.
‘The Win-the-War Cookery Book’ carried this message: ‘Women of Britain … Our soldiers are beating the Germans on land. Our sailors are beating them on the sea. You can beat them in the larder and the kitchen.’
Thoughts/Analyse
The rate in which the price of food increased over the war was shocking, especially the price of milk, which was increased by 600%. This meant it was harder to afford a range of ingredients and as the war went on the problem became bigger and bigger and the stock kept declining.
An interesting slogan was released in The Win-TheWar Cookery Book, which stated: ‘Women of Britain … Our soldiers are beating the Germans on land. Our sailors are beating them on the sea. You can beat them in the larder and the kitchen.’ I think this is a clever campaign to run, as it encourages the women who’re cooking for their families to try and save supplies because it links them in with the war so they would feel they’re doing their bit. This may be a theme I decided to include in my recipe design due to the power and connectivity it has with both cooking and war.
Children's Book Design 