What is the process for illustrating a picture book?
I am told by the editor how many pages the book will have. Usually 32 for a picture book. Then I work out where the lines of the text will go on each page. This forms the basic layout. It can be moved around later. Then I start the roughs of the illustrations, done with pencil, and eraser, on tracing paper. A photocopier is useful, especially being able to change the size of a drawing. Bits of roughs can be sticky-taped together. A rough can become pretty messy! These roughs show all the important bits of the composition. But not all the details. Lots of things can be left for later. Especially colour, of course. Then they get sent back to the editor (I hate taking them in personally). The editor may require some changes, or worse – lots of changes! But if the editor loves them then I can start the final artwork. That usually means tracing the roughs onto artboard, re-outlining them in ink, then finally painting them with goauche paint. Sometimes it takes forever going from first rough
