> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://brookevitale.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide - URL: https://brookevitale.com/blog/how-to-illustrate-a-childrens-book/ - Published: 2021-02-02T03:40:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T20:15:33.000Z - Description: A guide to children's book illustration: Learn how to illustrate a children's book, work with an illustrator and the elements of picture book illustration. - Author: Andrew Vitale - Tags: Illustration ## What is children's book illustration? Children's book illustration is the creation of art specifically for a children's book. It is important to know that a children's book illustration is not same as a stand-alone drawing such a portrait or landscape. In order for a children's book to be properly created, illustrations must follow certain conventions including but not limited to leaving room for text, being aware of the book gutter, and being created with extra bleed. ## What is a children's book layout template? Before you hire an illustrator, work with a book designer to create a children's book layout template. This is a visual representation of how text fits on the page, at the correct trim size. By supplying an illustrator with a children's book layout template, you are telling them how much space they have to work with, which illustrations go on each page, and what the illustrations should show. Prior to creating a children's book template, you will need to decide where page turns should go. You will also need to create art notes telling the illustrator what to draw, and decide what type of illustration layout you want to see on each page. > Pro Tip: Art notes are your way of telling an illustrator what you envision in a scene. Be as specific or vague as you want, then be prepared to discuss the notes with your illustrator. It’s possible he or she will have a totally different suggestion for what to draw, and that’s fine. Artists can see things like no one else can! But if there’s something you really feel needs to be shown on a page, add it into an art note so you don’t forget it. Not all illustrators want art notes, but it’s a great jumping off point for discussion. For more information on creating a children's book template, check out my article [A Template for Children's Book Layout and Pagination](https://brookevitale.com/blog/childrens-book-layout/). ## What is the children's book illustration process? When illustrating a children's book, all illustrators work differently. Some illustrators go straight from a rough sketch to a piece of final art. Others follow a longer illustration process, with more stages involved including character sketch, thumbnail sketch, rough sketch, line art (or pencil art), rough colors, and final art. When hiring an illustrator, ask how many stages of art are included (and how many revisions your contract allows at each stage. Need more tips on hiring an illustrator? Check out [How to Hire an Illustrator for a Children's Book](https://brookevitale.com/blog/hire-an-illustrator-for-a-childrens-book/)). It also helps to know what *kind* of art is needed: spot art, vignettes, single-page images, or full-bleed spreads. All of this informs what kind of work the illustrator has to do, and ultimately impacts the illustration cost of a book. ## What are the elements of creating a children's book illustration? ### Character sketches The first step in illustrating a children's book is nailing what the protagonist (or protagonists!) look like. That means the first thing an illustrator will work on will likely be a **character sketch**. This is an author's chance to provide an illustrator with any art notes or suggestions about what the character should look like. What color is their skin? How do they wear their hair? Do they have buck teeth or a big gap in their teeth? What does their clothing look like? Is there something about your character that impacts how they move? (For example, a character with a limp might have one foot that drags slightly behind the other.) This is important information in nailing who your character *is*. For a children's book, character sketches are a key part of character development. So much of what children think about a character is based on how they look. Below are two character sketch examples for Peter Pan and Captain Hook, as drawn by illustrator David Hillman: ![CharacterSketch — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_CharacterSketch2.jpg) Character sketches may start out rough and get refined, or they may be refined from the start. Either way, the character sketch is the author's chance to make changes to how a character looks. These sketches serve as the jumping off point for the rest of the book, and will determine how a character looks throughout, so it is important to be happy with them. An art change now is easy. A art change once the whole book has been illustrated is a lot harder! ### Thumbnail sketches Thumbnail sketches are the roughest form of illustration, often looking like not much more than a bunch of swirly lines. But the good news is, thumbnails aren’t meant for reviewing art, so it doesn’t quite matter *how* they look. What matters is *where they go*. Thumbnail sketches are often strung together across a storyboard—a visual representation of a book layout. Putting a thumbnail storyboard together helps an artist figure out story pacing: where page turns go, how text fits on the page, and whether a page should include full-bleed art, vignette art, or a piece of spot art. This art is called a "thumbnail" because it is often put into the book layout at a very small size—roughly the size of a thumbnail. Below are two thumbnail sketch examples from David Hillman. In them you can see a rough composite of how the character’s bodies fit together, along with a basic estimation of text layout. ![Thumbnail2vertical — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_thumbnail2vertical.jpg) ### Rough sketches Having nailed a basic idea of page layout, it’s time to move on to story illustration. Most artists begin this stage with what is called a **rough sketch**. This is a rough drawing of the characters and background scenes. A rough sketch allows an illustrator to see how the design elements fit on the page. Rough sketches are rarely refined. The point is not to look at every detail of how a character or how background looks, but to get a sense for the overall picture. Will text fit, are the characters interacting in a way that works, is the scene engaging enough. And in the case of a children's book where many moments take place in the same location, is the scene offering enough differentiation from the pages around it? Take a look at the rough sketch examples below: ![Lineartrough2vertical — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_lineartrough2vertical.jpg) The rough sketch is an author's first chance to comment on the illustration, and an author would be wise to do so at this point. Study each piece carefully to provide any necessary art notes. Is the scene coming across the way you envisioned, or is there something you’d like to change? Odds are an author won’t catch everything that needs to be adjusted at this stage, particularly because the scene hasn’t been finessed yet. That means small things may still pop up later on. But pay attention to the big picture. If the illustration as a whole isn’t working, now is the best time to tell the illustrator, before they move on to the next stage and start cleaning up something you don’t like. ### Line art **Line art**, also referred to as **pencil sketches**, is the stage where scenes and characters get cleaned up. The illustrations are more finessed, providing a clear picture of exactly how a page will look in final art. Take a look at the line art examples below: ![Linearttight2vertical — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_linearttight2vertical.jpg) Notice anything strange about this art? Both illustrations are beautifully executed, but in reviewing how the page looked, David realized he had a critical problem: his gorgeous illustration had left no space for text layout! Beyond that, the pages are rather busy, leaving the reader not sure where to look first. Luckily, David caught this before he moved onto the next stage and was able to revise: ![Lineartrevise2vertical — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_lineartrevise2vertical.jpg) Here, the illustrations are more open. There is more breathing room for the characters and for the text. A reader's eye goes immediately to the characters, who should be the focus of the page, rather than to the background. As an author, line art stage is really the last chance to make any dramatic changes to illustrations. It’s also the moment to look at those fine details. How do the expressions on he character’s faces look? Are their eyes pointing the right way? Is their dress consistent from page to page? How about their hair? Is it swept to the left on one page and the right on the next? Anything sitting in the background scene that doesn't look right? Pay close attention and ask for changes now, because once the illustrator moves to rough color, art will be locked. ### Rough color With page layout and illustrations locked, some artists move on to final art, while others proceed to **rough color art**. Rough color is an artist’s chance to play with the colors of the page without digging too deep into finessing them. Here, there are no highlights on the characters. The sky does not appear in many hues of blue, but rather a single shade. This stage is meant to give you a last look at the page before final art is created. Take a look at the rough color examples on David’s art: ![Roughcolor2vertical — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_roughcolor2vertical.jpg) As an author, this is the moment to weigh in on the colors being used. Not a fan of the wallpaper in the background? Speak up. Wish the character’s hair was four shades lighter? Now’s the time to call that out. This stage is all about finding any place where the colors don’t work and getting it fixed before the illustrator applies the finishing touches. It’s also a good chance to make sure that text will be legible on the background! ### Final art The last stage of book illustration is **final art**. This is exactly what is sounds like: a final piece of art, delivered and ready for book layout! Take a look at the final art examples below for these pages: ![Finalart2vertical — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_finalart2vertical.jpg) While changes are *possible* at this stage, they are severely frowned upon. When thinking about changes at final art stage, ask this question: was there a chance to make this change at all of the other stages of art? If the answer is no—if the problem is just now appearing for the first time—then it may be worth addressing. But if the answer is yes—if the problem has existed all along and was never noticed,—odds are it’s not a big enough problem to address at final art stage. ## The types of children's book illustration layouts Book illustrations are usually presented in one of four ways: spot illustrations, vignettes, full-bleed pages, and full-bleed spreads. From a storytelling perspective, each of these serves a different purpose. Varying them also helps provide visual variety for the book. But what do each of these art terms mean? ### Spot illustration A piece of spot art—or a **spot illustration**— is a standalone piece of character art, usually with no background behind it. Pieces like this are often used to pull in on a character when an illustrator needs to showcase a certain emotion or action, but doesn't need anything else around the character to show what’s going on. For example, if the focus is on a single tear rolling down a character’s cheek, a spot illustration allows the artist to pull in on the character’s face without anything going on in the background to distract a reader. Below is a spot illustration example from another of David Hillman’s picture books. Notice how all we see is the character looking at her arms. This draws attention to what she is doing to make it the central focus of the page: ![Spot — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_spot2.jpg) ### Vignettes **Vignettes** are small scenes on a page. Often they are used in conjunction with each other to showcase more than one story scene playing out at a time. Vignettes most frequently appear when a series of actions is being shown one after another. These give a page the breathing room and white space that a full-bleed piece of art does not, allowing the illustrator to combine several story moments onto a page together. In the vignette example below, David has drawn two wildly different scenes, each of which showcase different story moments, but sit together on a single page. ![Vingette — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_vingette2.jpg) ### Full-bleed page A full-bleed page is one where the illustration fills the entirely of the page. These pieces have complete backgrounds and are usually used for story moments that need to be highlighted. Full-bleed pages often sit against a spot illustration or vignette to allow for white space and breathing room on a spread. Below is one full-bleed example: ![Single — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_single.jpg) ### Full-bleed spread Full-bleed spreads take up two full pages of a book, or a full book spread. These pages are commonly used in picture books to convey moments of heightened importance and story moments that really need to stand out. When deciding on a full-bleed spread, consider whether the scene is worthy of drawing such attention to it, or whether the decision is based solely on ease of pagination. Full-bleed art can extend off all four edges of the page, as with the Peter Pan moments above, or it can be faded out along the top to give the page room for text. This is often a design decision. In the full-bleed example below, to complete the walls of the kitchen and include cabinets would have left no clean place for text, so a piece of the kitchen is removed to provide an open space for text layout. ![Full — How to Illustrate a Children's Book: A Step by Step Guide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_full.jpg) **\*A special thanks to the fabulous David Hillman for so generously allowing me to use his art. If you liked what you saw, check David out at** [**https://davidhillmanill.com**](https://davidhillmanill.com/?ref=brookevitale.com)**/ or on Instagram at** [**http://instagram.com/dnahillman/**](http://instagram.com/dnahillman/?ref=brookevitale.com) All art copyright © 2021 David Hillman.