Illustrations in picture books play a crucial role. You may not fully get it because you were there when your story was born, right? There were no pictures, just black words on a white screen. This is not how your reader or customer sees your book! The first thing they see are illustrations. The first emotional response they get comes from illustrations. They can’t imagine characters any other way than they are drawn and painted in your book.
You don't want ANY illustrator. I'm amazed how little people care about their work if they want to hire the first one who offers them the lowest price.
Let’s see how to find YOUR illustrator, the perfect person to bring your story to life and make it justice.
Emotional Connection
I strongly believe this is the first thing you should look for.
Ideally, you should see their work and say, "Hey, this is exactly how I imagined my story!" You can’t make someone see the world through your eyes, but you can find someone who has a similar vision.
So look for the art that speaks to you, that stops you from scrolling. When an artwork wakes up something inside of you, probably you have something in common with the person who created it. And it will be a great foundation in your future work.
Remember how in “Avatar” they were connecting with animals by their tails? Well, this is a good metaphor for what you’re looking for.
When the match is right it also happens on the artist’s side - I remember getting some manuscripts and not sleeping that night, just sketching their story. Needless to say, these authors are still in my client list and we made various projects together just because we clicked so well in the beginning.
“Technical” Connection
There are some very important skills in illustrations that people are unaware of if they are not into art that much. If you’re the first time author, it’s better to find yourself an experienced person to handle illustrations, this way you can release some weight from your shoulders.
So, what to look for in the portfolios of your potential artists:
Completed book projects, obviously. See if you like their previous books and can imagine your story being told the same way.
Your topic. If your book is about cats, you don’t want to hire anyone who has only children and other humans in their portfolio. Some people have preferences in what they are drawing and that’s okay. For example, I’m good with monsters, animals, toddlers, and any nature themes. I’m definitely not the right person for a story about older kids having adventures in a big city.
Sequential art with different poses and emotions. This skill is a must-have for artists working in book illustration and animation, but can be neglected by those working in stationary, for example. This is not something given or that comes with “the talent”, this is a skill that requires a lot of practice. So if you’re not ready to wait for someone a few months until they master their sequential drawing skills, it’s better to find the one who already has it.
Different backgrounds. Your story can take place in a forest, space, under the water or in your living room. Just like with character design, search for similarities with your story in portfolios. If someone is great at drawing cute farm landscapes, maybe they’re not so great with sci-fi spaceships. If they are, they’re probably demonstrating it in their portfolios.
Where to look for:
https://www.scbwi.org/ Your first stop can be The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, they have 26500 artists in their database and you can find every style and every possible technique presented.
https://www.behance.net/ It’s a great portfolio website with many illustrators presenting their work. Just type “children´s book” in the search bar and start exploring.
Instagram - many illustrators are active there and you can use hashtags like #picturebook to start your search
Keep in mind, many illustrators work exclusively through their agents and traditional publishers. But with the growth of self-publishing industry and more and more success stories, many may be interested in your offer.
Facebook Groups - if you’re still not in a facebook group for fellow self-publishers, join one! It usually has a great selection of artists who are willing to work with new authors.
What NOT to do:
If you want to end up with an amazing product, avoid websites like Fiverr and Upwork. It’s filled with scam and AI generated images sold like real illustrations.
If you’re very limited with your budget, you can give it a try, but DON’T create a “job listing” waiting for artists to come to you! It’s the worst thing you can do to your book. Why? This kind of announcement will attract only scammers and very desperate people with a low skill. Even beginner’s illustrators usually can’t take your project right away and you have to wait some time - between a few weeks and a few months.
Instead, go through the website and see what their artists have to offer. Contact them directly one by one, asking for a quote and time estimate.
How to avoid scam and AI.
In 2024 there are several dangers waiting for you on freelance websites.
First, good old clipart sold as an original art. What is clipart? It’s an image created by someone, being sold on various platforms with non-exclusive rights. They can be very useful for many projects, but not for book creation - your story deserves so much better!
The scam scheme looks something like this: you pay to someone, who promised to create you original illustrations. Then they search for available clipart that more-less is similar to your story, maybe change some details like hair and cloth color. Then they collage them together to create a scene that usually looks inconsistent and unprofessional.
How to spot it? Use google image search and see if this illustration appears on other websites. Usually they have very clean, generic look. It’s because by its nature it need to appeal to a very wide audience and (mostly) be in vector format - the one that lets you scale your images without loosing the quality, it can be used to print a postcard or a poster and don’t look pixelated.
Another popular scam is AI-generated art. It gets harder and harder for normal, not art-related people to recognize it and scammers take advantage of it, selling it to you as an original art.
AI-generated Winnie-The-Pooh illustration, one of the scariest things i´ve seen in my life. The more you look at it, the scarier it gets.
How to spot it? Look for any weird features, like 6 fingers and hair growing from the wrong places. Ask for sketches, process pictures and videos of the process. If you’re not sure your artist is legit - ask for help in self-publishing groups or someone who has experience working with art.
Also check the history of their projects, if their style hasn’t changed since 2021, then it’s probably legit.
I know it can be intimidating and hard to work on a big project like a children’s book all by yourself. That’s why it’s so important to find the right person to collaborate with. I believe there’s always a little miracle happens when two creatives find each other and the best picture books are born in love and collaboration.