A children’s book illustrator provides images for children’s stories.
Drawing the images that shape childhood can be one of the most rewarding jobs you can have. If you want to become a children’s book illustrator, you must spend many years studying and perfecting your crafts. You will have to learn to draw for the desired age group and compile a portfolio of your drawings. Once you have a sizable sample of drawings showing off your skills, there are many avenues you can take to begin this work.
Earning a degree in illustration can help develop the experience needed to become a children’s book illustrator.
You will need to have a precise set of drawing and coloring or painting skills if you want to become a children’s book illustrator. There are no educational requirements for this job, but many illustrators get the instruction and practice they need by majoring in illustration in college. Learning to use color, scale, scope, and style in drawing class will help you become a versatile artist who can match images to any story.
Studying art in college can help you land a job as an illustrator of children’s books.
To become a children’s book illustrator, an important step you can take to improve your skills is to study children’s book illustrations. Most books have a unique style that can range from bland, realistic characters to erratic children’s plays and everything in between. You can study these books and try to emulate their illustrations, just as many painters imitate the work of the masters to learn new techniques.
All of this practice will come in handy, not only for your development as an artist, but also to help you build your portfolio. If you want to become a children’s book illustrator, your work should speak for itself because there are few interviews to get a job. Instead, you’ll show potential employers hard copies or digital scans of your best work and let them judge if it’ll be a good fit for their book.
Once you have a portfolio of sketches and illustrations, you will have many options to become a children’s book illustrator. Freelancing is probably the most popular way to get work and involves networking with publishers, illustrators and agents who need just one illustration job. Working exclusively for a publisher is rare, but it happens, and you’ll get drawing jobs. Another way is to write your own story and illustrate it, or you can team up with a writer and create something together.