Children's book illustrators

The illustrations in a children’s book are just as important as the story itself, as children tend to gain just as much understanding and enjoyment from the pictures as they do the words. It's no surprise that finding and employing the right illustrator can be difficult. Thankfully, our experts at Advocate Art have put together a handy guide for choosing your children’s book illustrators, making the process quick and easy so that you can have your book published within a short time period.

As the author, you are the voice of your story, and as such, the illustrator you choose will act as the face of it. This means that the main messages of your book will be represented just as much through the illustrations as the words. When trying to find illustrators for publishing, it is important to gauge whether they will share the same vision for your book as you, to guarantee the book’s narrative and illustrations possess complete synergy. By connecting with an illustrator on a personal level, you can make sure they have the same passion and vision for the story. Advocate Art helps to facilitate this conversation flow, allowing both the writer and illustrator to quickly and easily synchronise on all projects, producing great quality art for your book.

With the mass communication afforded by the digital age and the internet, anyone can answer an advert posing as a freelance illustrator. There can be some difficulty in verifying their credentials and without proper checks you may find yourself working with someone who is less than professional. Equally, being over cautious might mean rejecting the best candidate and losing the opportunity to work with someone amazing. At Advocate Art we only work with vetted professional illustrators, establishing where their work has appeared before, the legitimacy of any work they have used as samples, and even analysing the ease of which you can work with them. This saves you huge amounts of time and effort and ensures that you choose from only the best quality artists to illustrate your children’s book.

Tailoring your book’s narrative to a particular age group may be difficult for writers, and the same is true with illustrations; it takes a special set of skills to be able to capture the essence of a story in illustrations that will resonate with your target age group. Very young children are more attracted to simple images with bright colours, whereas older children prefer detailed drawings that mirror the story descriptions and capture their imagination. Our professional children’s book illustrators will be able to take your targeted age group and create great illustrations tailed specifically for them. By having illustrators for specific age groups, and categorising our artists’ work as such, we at Advocate Art can ensure that your illustrator can provide age-appropriate illustrations that your readers, and their parents, will love.

Creating a lovingly crafted children's book is a collaborative process, with huge amounts of effort and passion going into the project. Choosing the right illustrator can take time, and it is sensible to gain a large collection of samples from different artists before making a decision about the best one for your needs. Advocate Art publishes two portfolios a year in May and November, specifically targeted towards the children’s book industry. In addition, they will send you postcards of available art throughout the year, to ensure that you have as much information as possible before making your final choice.