For part one of this series, click here …
Let’s jump ahead and assume you’ve received a positive response from one of your many queries. Now it’s time to begin the actual work of illustrating a story. In my case, I was presented with several manuscripts written by different authors and was allowed to choose which, if any, stories I wanted to illustrate. In the glow of joy and gratitude for being accepted, I contracted with the publisher to illustrate THEM ALL. Go big or go home, I always say…
The publisher provided me with a prioritized list of these titles indicating which story to illustrate first through fifth. The first job an illustrator has when presented with a manuscript is to create a storyboard and character studies to arrive at a “look” for all of the major characters in the story. The storyboard lays out the story in comic-book fashion, showing the action of the story and how it will be broken up into pages. Once the storyboard is drawn, a digital image of it is sent to the art director and whomever else the publisher wants in the loop. As you can see in the example, I included a great deal of detail in the storyboard. I wanted to make sure everyone involved in the book’s production knew what each page was going to look like. At this point, discussions ensue about questions the Art Director or others have about the plan the illustrator has laid out.
A page from the storyboard for Simon’s Skin
Once the storyboard is approved, the illustrator creates a book dummy. This dummy is a full-size facsimile of the book, showing where the text will appear on the pages. Children’s books are produced (almost always) with 32 pages. These pages include the “front matter” (title page, copyright page, dedications, etc.) and, of course, the story. Every page in a children’s book will have art, so you can see it is no small task to illustrate one!
The book dummy can be a pretty loose affair, with simple, thumbnail sketches to represent the art. The most important job of the book dummy is to set up how the text of the story is going to be presented on each page. I created a book dummy for each of my books using the actual font and letter size the publishing company uses in the printing of the book. That way there are no surprises about how and where the text will go in the final, print-ready version. I actually typed out all of the text, printed it, cut and pasted it onto the pages of the book dummy. I then scanned each page and sent them to the art director for approval. Once the “dummy” is approved, it’s on to creating final art!
A sample page from the book dummy for Forty Winks