5 reasons taking a course on how to illustrate picture books won’t impress a publisher
Publishers sometimes feel this way when offered portfolios that don’t tell them what they need to know. Illustration by Arthur Rackham for Alice in Wonderland.
Does your picture-book illustration portfolio show a publisher how much you know about picture books, or does it tell them what they want to know?
If your dream is to be an illustrator, chances are you’ve taken one or more courses on how to make a picture book. Chances are you loved the courses, but chances are you still feel a bit lost about what being an illustrator actually entails.
Taking short courses on how to make a picture book will teach you how to make a picture book, but making picture books is what editors, art directors, book designers and publishers do.
The picture-book illustrator’s job do is create heart-banging, skin-tingling, eye-watering narrative art that gives publishers palpitations of joy and has them reaching for the proverbial cheque-book.
Knowing how many pages are in a picture book will not accomplish this.
Even understanding the physical proportions of children in order to draw age-appropriate characters will not accomplish this.
What will accomplish this is a substantial portfolio that doesn’t tell the publisher what you know, but tells her exactly what she wants to know.
She wants to know if you understand the secret magic of great illustration, and that’s what will impress her.
5 things you DON’T need to know to impress a publisher, and 5 things you DO:
1. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW there are either 24 or 32 pages in a standard picture book (although it is useful, you don’t need to take a course to learn it because I just told you free of charge, so consider the job done! And here’s a whole lot of other stuff free of charge too)
YOU DO NEED TO KNOW how to apply visual aesthetic elements to those 24 or 32 pages to develop a narrative arc that speaks directly to the heart of your readers ... and you need to demonstrate this in your portfolio.
2. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW that the first 3 pages of a 32-page picture-book are the prelims (half-title, title and imprint pages), but that in a standard 24-page picture-book there is often a full title-page on page 1, and an imprint page on page 24.
YOU DO NEED TO KNOW how and when and why to use the prelims for narrative purposes, and how, when and why not to ... and that it’s best to collaborate closely with your editor about these things.
3. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW that the role of the endpapers is to hold the pages of the book to the cover (or case) of a hardback book.
YOU DO NEED TO KNOW how to use endpapers to bookend the story, set the narrative mood or provide backstory or setting – either by designing them yourself, suggesting how the book designer might mock-up art work from elements of your illustrations, or suggesting a plain PMS colour that reflects the tone, mood and content of your illustrations. You ALSO need to know that the editors and book designers might prefer to decide this for themselves.
4. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW the technical names of a double-page spread, such as bleed, trim lines, margin, grid and text box (your editor or art director will brief you about these when you are doing the roughs. However, if you’re curious, you can find out more about this here)
YOU DO NEED TO KNOW that each double-spread must offer a new angle, surprise and source of delight at each turn of the page... and you will need to demonstrate this in your portfolio. If you can do this, the editors will advise you about everything else.
5. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW how to create a dummy book, or what is meant by ‘orientation’ (find out what ‘orientation’, and a whole lot more, means here if you are curious).
YOU DO NEED TO KNOW how to use any page orientation to create the narrative effect you are after, by manipulating the formal aesthetic components of the page rather than the orientation of the page itself.
In other words, to impress a publisher, you need to submit a picture-book portfolio that tells them:
1. You are a visual storyteller who knows how to manipulate elements of setting to add narrative drama
2. You are a craftsperson who knows what makes an illustration bright and vivid (and what doesn’t)
3. You’re a storyboard artist who knows how to create, maintain and build interest through a sequence of images
4. You’re a psychologist who knows there is more to character than freckles, curly hair and a toothy grin
5. You are an original picture-book illustrator.
Does this sound abstract, impossible, painful and depressing?
Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be.
It’s actually simple, once you understand what, how and why.
It’s even becomes obvious, once you realise what makes our brains and bodies tingle when we look at one image, and leave us cold when we look at another.
If you’re curious, you can grab a taster of the what, how and why of illustration magic with my mini-course (Re)thinking Like an Illustrator. This course will change the way you look at and think about the world of illustration.
If you apply the simple techniques, it will change the way you illustrate, too.
If you’re keen to read about building a portfolio from an illustrator point of view, hop over to Rebecca Green’s blog about portfolio building.
Until next week!
Margrete x