Some good tips on illustrating children's books

So you're an illustrator, trained in the fine art of interpreting text into one dynamic eye-catching illustration, one that says–– read this text! Perhaps then, you've thought about illustrating a kids' book. Perhaps you've even thought about writing one!


First consider this: As much as you'd like to write the next Velveteen Rabbit or perhaps tell the true life story of Ella Fitzgerald, remember that a longer text means an older audience. Who do you want to be reading your book? A toddler?A kindergartner? Or a kid who's going into the third grade?


There are picture books for the older audience, but from my bookseller experience, most kids who are 7 and up are reading chapter books and novels––the next Junie B. Jones or for the more advanced, delving into the next Harry Potter.


Shoppers are generally looking to buy picture books for the younger group. Most three year olds cannot sit through a picture book that consists of 3,000 plus words! So try to keep your story under 1,000 words and edit, edit, edit!


Now you have the perfect text and it's just right for your target audience. Now what? Well, you're an illustrator, right? So I'm sure you want to get illustrating! But wait just a minute. Are you sure you know HOW to illustrate a picture book? Do you know how many pages to make it? Do you know where to place the text? You're not thinking of illustrating the whole book in full color before you submit, are you?


First things first... research!


Go to your local library. Look at all the books. What catches your eye? What doesn't?


Go to the bookstore. What's on display? What isn't?


Go to a local story time. See what books are read. What age kids are listening? Are they paying attention? What books do they respond best to?


Once you've discovered some of your favorites, take them home, look at them... study them! Who published what? How many pages do the books have? How many words?

Sketches

Many new illustrators wonder just how detailed their sketches should be. Do they have to be exact B&W replicas of the final product? No. Some illustrators do very detailed, neat sketches while others do not.


Work in a way that's best for you.


DO make sure, however, that your sketches clearly convey the characters, action, and setting. They can't be so rough that the editor and art director don't know what's going on.


It's best to make sure that the action (characters running, cars zooming and so on) goes from left to right, encouraging the reader to turn the page. This is not a rule but it's good to do so whenever possible.

Getting down to 'Buzz'ness

In celebration of Summer coming up and my book, Bug Crazy, Here are some interesting facts about bees:

There are three kinds of bees in a hive: Queen, Worker and Drone.

Only the Queen in the hive lays eggs. She communicates with her hive with her own special scent called pheromones. The queen will lay around 1,500 eggs per day.

The worker bees are all female and they do all the work for the hive. Workers perform the following tasks inside the hive as a House Bee: Cleaning, feeding the baby bees, feeding and taking care of the queen, packing pollen and nectar into cells, capping cells, building and repairing honeycombs, fanning to cool the hive and guarding the hive.

Workers perform the following tasks outside the hive as Field Bees: Gathering nectar and pollen from flowers, collecting water and a collecting a sticky substance called propolis.

Bees have two stomachs - one stomach for eating and the other special stomach is for storing nectar collected from flowers or water so that they can carry it back to their hive.

The male bees in the hive are called drones. Their job in the hive is to find a queen to mate with. Male bees fly out and meet in special drone congregation areas where they hope to meet a queen. Male drone bees don't have a stinger.

If a worker bee uses her stinger, she will die.

Bees are classified as insects and they have six legs.

Bees have five eyes - two compound eyes and three tiny ocelli eyes.

Bees go through four stages of development: Egg, Larvae, Pupae and Adult Bee.

The bees use their honeycomb cells to raise their babies in, and to store nectar, honey, pollen and water.

Nectar is a sweet watery substance that the bees gather. After they process the nectar in their stomach they regurgitate it into the honeycomb cells. Then they fan with their wings to remove excess moisture. The final result is honey.

Bees are the only insect in the world that make food for humans.

Honey has natural preservatives and bacteria can't grow in it.

Remember kids (and adults too), it is always good to expand your learning.  Pick a topic you really enjoy and research it till you become a little pro.  It's fun and you can wow people with your new found knowledge!  Bee happy!



Like a Rock Star!

It was really nice to be at Duclos School on Tuesday.  I had the privilege of reading to a whole gym of kids!  300+ kids to be exact!  What a rush!  We had sooo much fun, and I was encouraged by the children.  I am so glad I pushed myself to follow a goal!  Sometimes we think on our goals all the time, we long for them to be reached, but there's something that holds us back.  Fear...maybe?  I'm not entirely sure. 
Just doing it, taking that leap of faith...best decision ever!  Thank you to all kids who motivate me day in and day out to do what I love.  You help confirm in my heart that I will be doing this for as long as I can!  I appreciate your support.  You make me feel like a rock Star!

The Joy of Summer

The buds of green are peeking their heads
To catch a closer look at the sun.
The grass is stretching it's skinny arms
out towards everyone.

The cyclists are cycling
The motorists are motoring
Legs are getting excercise.

The bees are buzzing
The wind is singing
All we see is bright, blue skies!

Kids laughter is in the air
The ants are building their hill
The joy of Summer is spreading
Say goodbye to Winter's chill!

written by: Mandy Hunter



7 Tips to get yourself writing!

1. Set a deadline-The urgency to get something done is all the more when you only give yourself a certain time to do it.

2. Take a writing class-You may get a chance to talk to other writers and that in itself may be the motivation you need, and the knowledge you will get with the class can give you a solid foundation to your project.

3. Listen to music-You want to concentrate mostly on music styles that fit your writing.  Set the tone with some background encouragement.

4. Imagine yourself writing-Sometimes when we can imagine ourselves reaching our goal it can motivate us to try to accomplish what we were thinking about. 

5. Set aside time-Let's face it, life is busy.  If you have a pretty tight schedule as it is, writing can sometimes feel like a burden.  Relieve that stress by taking a specific amount of time out each day or every couple days to get a good chunk of your project done.

6. Reward yourself-When you stick to your writing schedule and you are proud of how you spent your time, then give yourself a reward.  Working hard should pay off, so do just that!  Buy something reasonable that you really like, or even something simple, like an ice-cream or treat.

7. Be realistic-Even though you should have a deadline, don't push yourself to unrealistic expectations, because that in itself will extinguish your drive to write.  Keep it real, and be pleased with what ever it is that you accomplished that day.

I hope these tips are getting your creative juices flowing.  Grab your pencil and paper, or your laptop/computer now, and start!