Tips For Creating Visually-engaging Book Illustrations For Children

By Author: Tanisha Williams
Total Articles: 11
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Children’s books are a unique genre which requires not only expert storytelling, but also captivating illustrations and images. These illustrations ultimately add visual appeal for children and help them understand the words of a story. However, illustrations are meant to be much more than just pretty pictures. Whereas novels geared towards adults can interest a wide range of readers, illustrated children’s books have to focus on very specific topics targeted at specific age groups. It can often be a challenging task to create illustrations that appeal to a specific audience when writing ebooks for children. There are a few tips you should take into consideration when contemplating how to create visually-engaging book illustrations for children.

Show and Tell
A blank page can be very intimidating when you’re first pondering what to draw. For starters, re-read the words you’ve used to “tell” your story, and then decipher the best way to “show” what those words mean. Remember, ebooks for children should provoke a child’s mind and spark their interest in the material being read. So use your imagination ...
... and don’t be afraid to reconnect with your inner child. There’s a good chance that the same types of images that stimulated your interest when you were young are the very ones that will intrigue and captivate your little readers today.

Think about Color and Movement
Another tip is to create illustrations that are colorful, varied, and full of movement. Ebooks for children should be bright and vibrant. Lively colors help to establish the mood, tone, voice, and setting in children illustrated books. A children’s book that successfully uses illustrations will have surprise elements of art on each page. Adding effects such as glitter and sparkles can easily illuminate your art and create an exciting experience for your young readers.

Design Your Characters
When creating ebooks for children, every main, supporting and background character should be carefully thought out before you start to draw. Each character needs to be unique – representing its own individual position and purpose in your story. Consider what each character sounds and looks like—is the character slow, fast, short or tall. Are the characters fat, fluffy and fun, or does your story’s message require characters that are a bit more stern and serious. The point is, you need to know your characters well enough to draw them in any position, mood, or situation without compromising each one’s individual uniqueness.

One of the most appealing aspects of creating illustrated ebooks for children is the ability to tell stories and convey messages through both words and pictures. A good children’s book should be visually engaging and provide the right balance of content and illustrations. If after trying you come to the conclusion that you lack the skills to create illustrations that are above subpar, or if art just isn’t your thing, don’t be afraid to seek out a professional illustrator with whom you can collaborate. You want to do whatever it takes to ensure that each page of your book captivates your “little” audience so they’ll beg “mommy” to read it every night.

Tanisha Williams is the author of two non-profit e-books “501c3 In 12-Steps” and “Simple Internal Controls That Protect Your Assets”. Her desire for more interaction with readers was the key inspiration behind the development of her latest business venture ChatEbooks. ChatEbooks, launched in October 2014, harnesses the strengths of social media in order to help authors and their readers engage and connect within the context of the selling/reading experience.