What’s amazing about our children’s book illustration course is how the work blossoms over the five jam-packed weeks. I love to teach our intensives for exactly that reason. The passion and achievement of our students are awe-inspiring. What kind of children’s picture books would you like to illustrate?
Today I’m going to show you student work from Week 4 of Illustrating Children’s Books which I co-teach with the very fun and highly respected children’s book art director, Zoë Tucker.
The theme of Week 4 is Environment. Students are tasked with creating a scene from their text. At this point, they have already developed their character and now they get to place their character in a setting.
TIP 1: Make a magical little world with lots of details that the child can explore over and over again, as Maria has done here. Doing research is a great way of making the illustration that much richer.
Maria Lillebo
TIP 2: Think about how your characters interact with one another in the scene. Employ movement and expressions to bring the page to life. See how the characters connect with eye contact? Kids may not always understand the words being read to them, but they tend to understand facial expressions.
Edit Hajdu
TIP 3: If appropriate, capture an emotional interaction. Here, Deborah used lighting very effectively to create a poignant moment.
Deborah Melmon
TIP 4: Vary the layout of your pages to add interest. Here, it’s fun to view the step-by-step series that Emily created to highlight the concept of saving money for a trip.
Emily Mackenzie-Shapland
TIP 5: Think beyond the obvious. For the character’s home, Fay created a very cool pink food truck as the character’s residence!
Fay Ford
TIP 6: Add playful details, such as the kitchen items as Katy has drawn here.
Katy Halford
Want to see more? Check out some of our students’ actual success stories, after taking our Illustrating Children’s Books e-course! I think you’ll enjoy reading about our students’ experiences in classes and their real-life success stories! You’ll see why our students are getting signed for book deals.
Want to make your own winning children’s book illustration pitch? Want to find out all you need to know about illustrating children’s books? Sign up today and let Zoë and me help you. See you in class!
Xo
Lilla
P. S. Have you already taken Illustrating Children’s Books? Many of our students repeat our courses to hone their pitches even further.
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