My picture book illustration process

Step by step, this is how I illustrate picture books

Before sketching anything, I ask the author/editor what the book dimensions are so I can set up the illustrations at that size at 300dpi. Usually, there’s an art note for each page of copy to describe what needs to be seen in the illustration. If there are no art notes, I suggest my own BEFORE sketching anything – it’s a lot quicker to change a written description of an image than a sketch.

Once the art notes are signed off, I begin to work my way through the book replacing the art notes with sketches. Here are my sketches for a picture book I illustrated entitled ‘Hugs from Papa’ written by Christina McKee.

It’s an advantage designing books as well as illustrating them – it means I can move the copy around where it needs to be, and I know exactly where to leave some ‘quiet space’ in the illustration so that the copy can be easily read on top. I usually send my progress at the end of each week so I’m not bothering the author/editor every time a sketch is completed. If changes are requested, it’s still fairly quick at this stage to change. Sketching minimises big changes at the final artwork stage, like changes to the composition which would be very time consuming. Once all the sketches are approved, I then move onto the final artwork, replacing the sketches as I go and ,again, sending my progress at the end of each week. Changes to the colour are easily to implement at this stage as I illustrate digitally with each item in the illustration on its own layer. Here’s the same book as above with the final artwork swapped in.

Once the final artwork is signed off, the final stage is to add bleed (usually 0.125″), separate the cover from the inner pages and export as print-ready PDFs for printing/online publishing. Usually indie authors like to publish on both KDP and Ingram Spark, so I make sure the PDFs comply with the relevant print specifications. Hardback books require extra bleed for the cover so that the artwork extends onto the overlap which is stuck to the inside cover. I also export either a fixed format KPF file and/or a fixed format EPUB file for the ebook.

If you’d like a quote from me for illustrating and designing your picture book, my email address is jcperry(dot)illustrator(at)gmail(dot)com

Posted By

J C Perry