Illustrating A Children's Book

It’s been said that the words of a Children’s book, only tell half the story, which is true! This means that the illustrations of a book are just as important! Now, if you aren’t artistic, have no fear; a publisher always picks the illustrator for a book. In fact, authors almost never have any say in whom the illustrator of their book will be. This is up to the publishing company, but if you DO have art skills, heres some illustration techniques you might find helpful.

Step 1: Make a rough sketch

Create a rough black and white sketch for each page of your book. Bounce ideas off of your friends and artist to see what they think of what you’ve done. Be ready for good criticism and advice.

Step 2: Consistency

Once your satisfied, add colour to you rough draft. The trick to a well-illustrated book is having all the pages match in style and quality, so make sure you spend just as much TLC on all the pages, not just on the scenes you like the most.

Step 3: Match Illustrations with text

This may sound simple, but having the words and pictures match up tastefully, really make the difference professionally. Be creative with fonts! Stylized, important or dynamic words can be put in bolder colours to add emphasis. Changing the shape of a word automatically makes it more Attention Grabbing.