What’s amazing about our children’s book illustration course is how our students’ work blossoms over the five jam-packed weeks. I love to teach our intensive courses for exactly that reason. The passion and achievement of our students are awe inspiring. What kind of children’s book would you like to make?
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 pages to life. See how the characters connect with eye contact? Kids might 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 that Katy has drawn here.
Katy Halford
Want to see more? Check out the most recent Student Showcase on our blog from last week. I think you’ll enjoy reading about our students’ experiences in class and their successes. You’ll see why our students are getting signed for book deals.
Want to make your own winning children’s book illustration pitch? 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? (or one of our other classes?) and are interesting in repeating the course to hone your pitch even further? Take advantage of our generous ALUMNI DISCOUNT! Email [email protected] to take advantage of the substantial savings with your alumni discount
Save the date: On Thursday, September 21 at 11am Boston time (EDT) Lilla will be hosting a special Facebook Live on our main Make Art That Sells Facebook page. The topic is: Manifest Your Dream Illustrated Children’s book and look out for your free PDF download in our newsletter on Thursday.
