Your New Year’s Resolution: Become a Better Illustrator
By Kathleen Rietz
A new year brings new opportunity, but in this challenging economy, only the strong survive. I like to believe the economy is on an upswing, although the children’s illustration market might not reflect it just yet. This is a time to offer your very best to each and every illustration assignment you take. Every illustration assignment is an opportunity to add credibility to your portfolio, as well as another rung on the ladder that leads to your next illustration assignment. It may be with the same publisher or a different one. The key is to set yourself apart from your peers so that you are the illustrator who publishers return to again and again. Read on for three tips to becoming a better children’s book illustrator:
1) Research Your Subject Matter
You may be offered a book project about a subject or culture you know little about. Don’t panic, fake it, or try to rely on stereotypes. Now is the time to expand your horizons and learn something new. Libraries, the Internet, friends, and organizations can all offer a plethora of valuable information to help you research your subject matter.
When illustrator Kristi Valiant (http://www.kristivaliant.com) was offered a book to illustrate about a Filipino girl who cooks a special dish, Kristi did her research: “For Cora Cooks Pancit (Shen’s Books, 2009), I first checked out books from the library and online resources to become familiar with the Filipino culture. Then I made pancit, the Filipino noodle dish that the main character makes in the story, and wow, that was yummy (the recipe is in the book)! I don’t usually use models for my illustrations, because I find that my illustrations become too stiff if I rely on photographs, but for this book I took hundreds of shots of a little model and loosely used them to bring Cora’s personality into the way she stood and moved.”
In my own experience, when I was offered the assignment to illustrate Little Black Ant on Park Street (Soundprints, January 2010), I admit I knew very little about ants. I put in many hours of research using the Internet, learning anything and everything I could about little black ants. I even watched videos posted about ants on YouTube so I could see how they built their colonies and moved about. Since the book needed to be approved by the Smithsonian Institution as part of their Backyard Books series, the illustrations needed to be very tight, clear, and scientifically accurate. It was imperative that I learn my subject matter!
2) Become Your Character
There are times when you may be offered a book project with very sensitive subject matter. Such is the case for the book I am currently illustrating, titled Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! (Sylvan Dell Publishing, 2010). The purpose of the book is to help children diagnosed with cancer deal with and better understand their illness and treatment. The assignment hits home for me, since I have watched several people close to me battle cancer and endure various treatments. For this book, I decided it was important to convey the emotional connection between the main characters of the dog and the boy who cares for him. The editor and I were in touch with several veterinarians who helped us understand aspects of chemotherapy treatments for dogs, including how treatments are administered, possible side effects, etc. I researched actual video footage and photos of dogs receiving treatments, and looked through dozens of photos of children interacting with their pet dogs, so that I could convey the bond between the main characters in the story. And most of all, I thought of my own love for my dog and imagined what it would be like for both her and me if she ever became sick and had to endure treatment for cancer. Once I became emotionally bonded to the story and the characters in it, I knew that bond would become apparent in my work. It is my ability to empathize with the characters that is giving life to the illustrations.
3) Flex Your Creative Muscle
As the illustrator of children’s stories, it is up to you to enhance the words on the pages of books. Before children learn to read, they take visual cues from pictures in a book to try and understand or imagine the story. Even the most basic subject matter can become exciting through creative illustrations. This includes creating mood in your illustrations through lighting, color (or lack of it), and point of view.
For example, in Little Black Ant on Park Street, I chose to vary the point of view in the book based on the scene on each page. Some parts of the story took place on the ground, and I imagined the perspective from the eye of an ant. Other illustrations overlooked a park, so I changed my perspective to an ant positioned in a tree. I also paid attention to lighting. In one particular scene, a large carpenter ant invades the ant colony, sending the little black ants into attack mode. I wanted to evoke a feeling of tension through dramatic lighting and a low perspective. My illustrations are sharp, vivid, and literal. I chose to work in acrylic paint for the entire book because of the crispness of the colors and the permanence of the medium.
On the other hand, in Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! I want to lend sensitivity and softness to each illustration. I am illustrating the book using a combination of gouache, watercolor, oil pastel, colored pencils, and pastel pencils. It is in the layer of the pastel pencils that I can achieve a softness and feeling of movement in the illustrations. I want the illustrations to be warm and comforting to the child who views them. I am also working to achieve this through the use of a diffused light source throughout the book. My focus is not on creating dramatic scenes, but on creating scenes that convey connection and emotion, all while maintaining my style as an artist.
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For those of you who are new to the business and have not yet landed your first book project, these same principles can be applied to the illustrations you create for your portfolio. Editors and art directors want to see how creatively you can think and portray a scene. Challenge yourself. Try a different point of view. Ask yourself how the mood of the scene in an illustration would change if the characters were backlit, or portrayed from a bird’s eye view or an ant’s eye view. Imagine a modern-day scene taking place in the late 1800s. Or create a color scheme that is monochromatic except for the main character or an object that becomes the illustration’s center of interest. In a nutshell, spice it up!
I hope these suggestions have helped to get your creative juices flowing as we start out a new year with a new resolution: to become better illustrators in 2010!
[All illustrations are from Little Black Ant on Park Street, written by Janet Halfmann and illustrated by Kathleen Rietz.—Ed.]
Kathleen Rietz is the illustrator of several picture books for children, including the three-time award-winning The ABCs of Yoga for Kids, Little Black Ant on Park Street, and Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer, Too! You can find out more about Kathleen by visiting her website at http://kathleenrietz.com and blog at http://licoricegirl.blogspot.com.
