Illustrating and Writing a Children's Book

Illustrating and Writing a Children's Book

“We have reached the end of the course, but I want this to be the beginning of many of your projects for you. I hope you have learned a lot about creating a children's book, and that you feel more confident and inspired to pursue your ideas. With the firm belief that you are now ready to create your project, I ask you to allow yourself to do so, let me accompany you in your process. I share an example of how I would like you to show me your route. Let the ideas flow You should start by drawing your first ideas, even if they are imprecise phrases or shapeless sketches. Everything that comes out of your imagination will be the raw material to start working. Ideally, you should come up with a "seed phrase" that triggers a story, from which you can imagine characters and settings and you can start writing. At this point, it can help to ask your story questions, like the ones I asked mine in unit two, to clarify doubts about the plot and the characters. Always remember the importance of having a "lucky charm book", a reading that inspires you.

Get to work Do the main script. It is crucial for your project that you draw a script where you put all your ideas in order and give a direction to your story. It is also time for you to choose your materials and get to know them well before starting to illustrate. You must experiment with them, taking into account how you can enhance your illustrations with the use of the technique. The characters Get to know your characters well, illustrate them and try to give them their character. Remember that a good character speaks for himself and does not need a cover letter. You can give it a lot of life if you explore its shapes and movements enough. The map Make the map of your book. That way, you will see all the possibilities you have to play with the narration throughout the pages. From this map, you must define the personality of the story and find the most important scene to be the pillar on which you will build everything else. Remember that each story has its essence and that once you discover and understand it, it is easier to move forward. The scene Having defined that mood or personality of the story, you should start sketching a scene and choose one or two sketches to compose the final illustration, taking into account the indications that I gave you before about the use of pencils, the exploration of textures and shading, and the care of the paper. Digitize your illustration Finally, you must take your illustration to the next step, that is, to digital, and you can follow the advice I gave you to retouch it, conserving manual work to add the text and get it ready. To conclude, remember the tips on how to keep your originals and what things to keep in mind when knocking on the doors of a publishing house. Your project is ready! Always carry a notebook or journal with you where you can write down your ideas. You never know where you are going to find inspiration and it is very useful to return to those notes when you are about to start a project. Remember to also be patient and careful with your process. We can all write and illustrate a story, but this takes time and patience is the main vehicle to achieve it. Although it seems simple, making a book takes time and ideas do not always flow linearly. Do not be afraid to go back or start from scratch as many times as necessary, all the effort will pay off in the end. If you still don't have a clear idea of the story you want for your book, you can take a classic fairy tale and reinvent it. You can also use an anecdote from your life as a starting point or use your pet as the main character. The point is that you don't stop, that you allow yourself to create something wonderful. Thank you very much for accompanying me in this course. I hope you will be encouraged to share your processes in the forum so that I can see them and advise you, and so that others can get feedback. See you soon! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final project Hello, we have reached the end of our course. I hope you have learned and enjoyed it as much as I have. Before I say goodbye, let's review the important steps so that you can finish your final project. Before starting, it is important to have some references as your guide and inspiration. Then you should set down your initial ideas. Everything you imagine is the raw material to work with. You should come up with a seed phrase from which you can think up characters and settings and you can start writing. Make the main script of your story. It is crucial that you write a script ...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Illustrating and Writing a Children's Book

• Level: Beginner
• 98% positive reviews (1045)
• 40647 students
• 4 units
• 15 lessons (2h 13m)
• 9 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Areas

  Character Design, Children's Illustration, Children's Literature, Creative Writing, Drawing, Editorial Design, Narrative, Storyboard, Traditional illustration, Writing