Instructions for June 2009 Painting Project Children's Book Illustration

The challenge of this painting project is to create illustrations based on this children's story. You need to submit at least two illustrations for different pages from the story. You can also submit a cover illustration if you wish. Each spread (or pair of pages) from the story can have two illustrations or one that works across both page. The decision is yours. Any medium may be used to create the illustrations.

Assume the size of the book pages to be A4 or letter, orientated either landscape or portrait. While your paintings can be larger than what would be the printed page, they must have the same proportions (so they could be shrunk to fit the page). If you do one illustration for a spread, then the painting would need to be at least the same size as two pages side-by-side. In book publishing, illustrations are never enlarged to fit a page (as quality and detail are lost) but are often deliberately done slightly larger so the detail tightens when the scan/photo of the illustration is reduced to fit the page.

Remember to allow space on the page for the words and, if you know how, add them to your photos before submitting. (A children's book illustrator wouldn't usually paint the words, these are added by the book designer when the book is put together. This allows for the words to be changed if editions in other languages are done.)

Submissions for this project's gallery will be accepted between 1 and 29 June 2009 only, and must follow the submissions guidelines.

Questions to ask yourself before you start:

• Is the Misty mentioned in the story a child or a sheepdog? If the latter, what breed? (While I visualize her as a Border Collie or Beardie, she doesn't have to be.)
• Are you going to paint one illustration for each page or each spread, or a mixture?
• Will the viewpoint in the illustrations be at the level of of a child (low) or an adult (the height from which you see the world)?
• What will the landscape look like? Will you include much landscape or location at all, or will your illustrations focus close up "the action"?
• Will you paint the sheep realistically or stylized (for instance with smiles)?

Here are some sheep reference photos to help you. Remember that reference photos should be used for gathering information that you then incorporate in your painting, not for copying.

See Also: Interviews with Authors and Illustrators of Children's Books (From About.com's Guide to Children's Books)