Things to consider when starting your illustrations:
Preparation stage – At this stage you understand the story, the plot the characters, and the over all set up for the book.
Students should have read through the story a few times to understand character progression, pace of the story, and important events. How many pages will you need to have in the book? Typically the traditional pages are set up in the multiples of 8 (8,16,24, 32) 32 are the most common page number for children books. How many words need to be on each page to fit? Tip: Usually 50 words per page max 2.Story Layout Stage – Drawing a progression of ideas/order for the story. Students should look at the characters that need to be created for this story. Who and how many main characters? Are there supporting characters? What was the physical description for the characters? What is the general mood or feeling for the character?
Thumbnails - Students should create thumbnails of character and support character designs. These are quick sketches with many different designs on same page. This is the brainstorming time. Jot down any ideas you may have, even ones you might think are unimportant, they may be used later on. Watch this Video Storyboards –Students will start by creating sketches of the events as they unfold. Very little detail in sketches, the outline of the story, the position of characters, point of view, space for writing. This is also an important time to collaborate with the writer to make sure that the story and illustrations are working together.
3. Dummy Page/Mock Up Stage – This is the point where students will incorporate the words and story formatting into the book design. Student’s will be redesigning boards and adding details Students will have a “mock up” or rough draft of the story pictures created. Take care in adding the boarders, page bleed, and double spread in this stage. Students will then place the sentences into the position for mock up. Tip: often, paragraph layout can be done by sliding the design pages into a clear sheet and writing over the top.
4. Inking/Coloring Stage - At this stage the designs are mostly hammered out and ready to go. Students will be coloring in and checking to make sure all designs are cohesive through out the book. Students need to be sure that the drawing material and colors fit the story. Tip: type of material can also aid in story telling. If the story is about a fluffy bunny, illustrators may want to use colored pencils or pastels to soften the edges of the designs. Think about how the material “feels” when using them.
5. Touch up/Review Stage - This is the time for rereading, last minute editing, and ‘tweaking” page layout. Make sure the format includes a bleed area for the printing process. On a double spread make sure to add extra space in the middle that will be taken out/overlapped by the binding process of the book. Format the images to a pdf. for the printing process.