Children’s illustration – A French Creative Life

A good year ago, I was lucky to get a lovely commission to illustrate a children’s book about a hen. I worked closely with the author to get the hen right as I felt she shoukd appeal to both of us. So often in traditional publishing the author is far removed from the artist, often never having consultation. This can be upsetting for an author as their vision might not be created.

I didn’t want that. All my illustrations need author approval and that avoids later alterations. I also want this as a joint collaboration, not one sided.

I have really loved finding my niche with whimsical illustration. It’s a happy kind of work and always fun to do. I like a slightly retro old style and traditional themes.

Below are the stages I go through for a typical illustration, from composition to completion. Below these are a selection of toy illustrations I am working on too for another project. These are all coloured pencil and pan pastels.

Above are further illustrations for he book commission, with the guineas here partly completed. I try to add lots of small details, elements that show the characters traits, caring, happy, sad etc. The illustrations should show what the text doesn’t say, it should add to the story another dimension.

Once completed, I will check the whole storyboard and ensure there is the right balance of main character throughout the story and that the pictures have continuity of tones and make adjustments. I then need to work with the text to complete layouts. This might involve adding a few more smaller illustrations.

One final check and then we can self-publish. We have total control over our costs and revenues, but we will need some marketing savvy to get sales. But it’s exciting to get my first book completed.