Illustrating Children's Picture Books

by Steven Withrow, Lesley Breen Withrow, Lesley Breen Withrow

No matter what the medium is, vivid storytelling and clear communication - including character development, world building, and the creation of structural patterns - remain the hallmark of every successful picture book. "Illustrating Children's Picture Books" delves into the world of illustrated books for children of all ages, including infants, preschoolers, tweens, and teens. This fully illustrated book provides an international overview of today's top children's illustrators alongside practical, step-by-step instructions on specific creative techniques and design solutions, from traditional drawing, painting, and pen and ink, to digital design and collage. It includes discussions on how to pace content, create emotion, develop a narrative, work with perspective and abstraction, bring a character to life, define an age group, and be culturally specific to an audience.

Genres: Art, Reference, Nonfiction

First published December 29, 2009

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing With Pictures and How Pictures Work go deeper into composition and story, but this book is great for its dozens of interviews with illustrators, editors, designers, & critics (from around the world), and for all the full-color illustrations from published books and personal projects. The chapter on digital illustration is an excellent primer for those who'd like to know more about how artists create with the computer.

[Cindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and informative. Not a fuzzy feel good read for me. I feel slightly overwhelmed and a little discouraged if I’m being honest. But I still appreciate the wealth of knowledge in this book and will probably come back to it again as a reference. I also got a list of some new picture books to read which is fun!

[Nojood Alsudairi · Rating 5 out of 5]

By scanning the book I can see that it is great reference for illustrating children's books. The writer states the views of may illustrators which is great. We learn about illustrations from the experts. Thank you Huda for giving me this wonderful book.

[Elizabeth Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked reading about process of other illustrators and comparing it to my MFA illustration classes. It was worth the money and I'm keeping it in my limited bookshelf space. That says a lot about it being a valuable reference.

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains lots of great interviews, some practical information on digital and traditional illustration. Overall a nice, easy-to-access (language) reference book for wannabe illustrators to the children's picture book world.

[Huda Fel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A writer  who knows how to illustrate
Or
An illustrator who knows how to write
Writing and illustrating, what comes first?
This book doesn't give an answer to such a question, that's mainly what I was thinking of while reading it.
Even though not every info mentioned in this book  was new "thanks to dr nojood", i think there's absolutely no harm in reading and trying to anticipate differently 

* it's always good to read about the culture your characters belong to, that DOES bring them into life.
* there's a broad range of illustrating techs to consider . I liked when ppl mixed two or more, brilliant!
* some illustrators collect pix to help them with their drawings, others use google image, there's nothing wrong with choosing either ways, the best thing, though, maybe combining both.... The more options
you have, the better
* case studies and lots more

[Shannon Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was lured by the topic and the art... this book was too broad. I wish I could return it for something with more applicable tips or ideas.