Illustrating Children's Books
Guest contribution by Ruth Campbell
rcampbell@alumni.sfu.ca
Recently Opus asked for an article based on the Tips for Illustrating Children's Books presentations last fall at Opus stores in Vancouver and Victoria. I wanted to share some of my experiences working with a publisher and editor, as well as lessons learned in the process of illustrating children's stories. Of course, everyone also wants to know how to break into the publishing business.
Starting with how to break in, I can offer the usual advice about finding local publishing companies on the internet and following their requirements for submitting portfolios. A good U.S. web site that provides details, articles, and answers to questions is at www.underdown.org. Books that also might be useful are The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books by Harold Underdown of the same web site, and my favourite, Illustrating Children's Books by Martin Salisbury. My own first experience in publishing, however, occurred in a more haphazard way. I had made friends with an author who had bought a few of my paintings, and who was about to publish a novel set in India. She asked me to send the publisher, Oolichan Books, some slides of my work as possibilities for the cover. They liked one of my paintings and used it. Later, when Oolichan decided to enter the field of children's publishing, they asked me to illustrate their first picture book. Since then, I've completed illustrations for a second and third book, and currently am working on a fourth. So, what can you gather from these events? Get your work out there and sell it if you can. You never know what opportunities might come to you.
If you are going to get into children's publishing, one thing that you shouldn't be without is a portfolio suitable for children. Start with a well known fairy tale, for example, and do a sequence of images from it. That will show that you can actually paint or draw sequentially and create consistent characters, both essential to illustrating stories. Once you are presented with a contract, be aware of the clause that requires you to promise to commit no copyright violations. I didn't think that would ever be a problem for me until I started to illustrate Elf the Eagle, a story about a baby bald eagle who is reluctant to fly. Although I had flattered myself that I could draw anything, I realized quickly that I knew squat about eagles, that I wasn't in a position to view or photograph them, and couldn't rely on the work of other photographers. Consequently, my eagles looked like teddy bears, and my publisher began to pull out his hair and make ugly noises about cancelling the project. Appalled, I sank into researching eagles, studying their anatomy, skeletons, and plumage, and plodding through books on ornithology. After gathering information from many sources, I finally saw an eagle emerge from the end of my pencil. It was a relief, but also an important lesson on how to cope with obstacles while staying within the terms of a contract.
There are many other aspects of illustrating to discuss, but let me conclude with some comments on digital imagery and deadlines. Digital imagery has made obsolete the horrors of illustration, such as coping with colour separation and having to make manual changes to paintings. Illustrations don't have to be made on a computer, but they can be altered there. You can also save your painting at various stages, which makes it easier to experiment. Therefore, it is worthwhile to invest in good graphics software, if you haven't already, and acquire some dexterity with it. Every image eventually becomes a digital image, regardless of how it began. Besides, working digitally can be a huge time saver when your ungrateful editor throws an illustration back at you and asks for changes. And as for deadlines, deadlines are serious. That can be hard for an artist to adjust to because it is difficult to work creatively according to someone else's schedule. It can be done, though, as the work of many talented illustrators reveals. Just be realistic about your time frame, and fight for reasonable deadlines if you have to.
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