5 things to know before illustrating a children's picture book

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In 2021 I had the pleasure of working with author and midwife, Sarah Pavlenko, to illustrate her first picturebook.

It was a huge project - as all picturebooks are - and was a great process to travel through. From storyboarding and colour schemes, to character design and painting.

Sarah was inspired to write her  gorgeous story with beautiful words due to her work as a midwife. She found older siblings were sometimes unsure about what was happening on mum's visits to the midwife when pregnant with baby number 2. This book explains what a midwife does in a child-friendly story.

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​If you want to illustrate your own picture book or are thinking about taking on an illustration project, here are some things to consider to help you quote accurately, plan efficiently, and have a lovely finished product.

1. Time
The most important thing I learned is that illustrating an entire book is a time consuming project. However long you think it will take, it'll probably take 50-100% longer. We always overestimate how much we can get done, and this project was no exception. Generally picture books are 32 pages including the end pages. That's a lot of pictures!

I worked on the book in between other projects and spread the work out over about 12 months.

2. Process
For things to run smoothly, there is a process to developing the artwork. Authors that are self-publishing will have a slightly different process to a publishing house. A publisher will give you a timeline and deadlines, but with a self-publishing author, you will likley need to set out a timeline, communicate it to the author and keep everyone on track.


​Our process looked like this:

• Read the manuscript and liked it. Really liked it - enough to spend many, many hours working with it.
• Asked questions about the kind of style and format for the book. It was important to know whether the author wanted full bleed illustration or spot illustrations as this effects the time and therefore the budget.​

• I provided a quote based on simple watercolour, illustrations with minimal detail in the background.
• I then provided a contract that outlines our responsibilities and usage rights for the artwork. It also includes a payment schedule, linked to project milestones.
• After a deposit is paid I start researching and gathering reference images for ideas I have in my head. I make notes about images that spring to mind as I read the manuscript. Some are obvious, others take some thinking. How can the pictures show the action and how can they add to the words?
• I created a black and white storyboard. This is done with stick figures and it conveys the movement from page to page. Which pages will be an 'establishing shot'? Which will be a close up? Where will the text be placed? (Sometimes this is up to you, sometimes you will be told where it is going.)
• Once the author was happy with the story board, I moved on to black and white roughs. This is where I finesse the composition, and think about details. It also means it's time for character design.
• Character design involes 'finding' the key characters in the book. Lots of sketching and exploring to develop a charater that suits the story and is the correct age. Drawing their faces with difference expressions and drawing their bodies in a 'turnaround'. These go to the client for approval as well.
• Once we are both happy with the roughs and any changes are made, I develop a colour scheme. I'm looking at the main colour on each page too, to make sure they flow.
• Generally a client will want to see colour roughs before moving to final artwork. But if you work digitally you can create the finals from the digital roughs. 
• Then it's onto transferring sketches to watercolour paper and painting!
• I scan and tidy up my artwork in photoshop and then it is ready to send to the printer or book designer. (This is quite a big job too.)

3. Continuity
When working on one-off illustrations, continuity isn't a thing. But a book is one, cohesive work, so the artwork has to be cohesive. One of the important factors in achieving this continuity is the colour scheme. The other obvious one is the style of illustration.

The third element is a bit trickier - keeping the characters consistent. This means that the little girl (pictured above) looks like the same little girl on all the pages. Whether she is facing side on or front on, happy, sad, laughing; she needs to look like the same person. She also needs to look the same age. This means getting the facial features just right can be pretty time consuming.

​You may notice that characters sometimes have the same clothing throughout a book. This helps us quickly identify them as we read. It helps with continuity. In Mummy's Midwife, I wanted Harper to have lots of different outfits because little girls often love playing dress-ups. This meant I introduced other elements to help her look the same. She always has pigtails and a clip.

4. Revisions/Art direction
Circling back to 'Time', there will be a number of revisions that need to be made at several stages throughout the project. From composition, to character tweaks, to colour changes. Communication is key as well as being a good project manager. It is important that you seek feedback at each stage and incorporate it before moving forward. It also needs to be made clear that once that project stage is complete, it is done. When working with traditional media, changing all the colours after painting isn't really an option, unless the budget is altered to allow for a full repaint.

5. File setup
It's really important to know the book format from the outset.
What size and orientation will it be?
Also, what format will the artwork be required in order to be integrated with the rest of the book?
Will it need to be converted to CMYK or will the Printer convert from RGB?
You might need to leave a certain allowance/overflow around the edge for trimming (called a bleed) and you may need to allow for the gutter (where the binding/stapling happens)

I set up my colour roughs at 300dpi in procreate so I could print them out fuill size. I then painted a double spread on an A3 page. I then scanned at 600 or 800 dpi to ensure I'd have the correct page size at 300dpi (print quality).

Depending upon your arrangement, someone else might scan and clean up the artwork. But on a small project you would likely be doing that. Ensure you discuss this and quote accordingly.

Seeing the artwork come together with the text and full layout is a real milestone. Ideally you will see a proof so you can liaise with the book designer/client about any tweaks that are needed to colours or vignetting around artwork.

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​Illustrating a book has been a challenging and incredibly rewarding project. Whether you are planning to illustrate you own book or have been asked to work on someone else's, hopefully this article helps you consider some of the important factors for success.
Have experiences you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about them below.

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