I have been hired by Isabelle Wilson, a young children’s book author, and ‘Wilson Publishing’- the publishing company which Isabelle Wilson associates herself with. ‘Wilson Publishing’, like Isabelle Wilson, is newly established, and their hope is to make their debut through publishing Isabelle Wilson’s newest and first book (BOOK NAME); promising to promote the narrative throughout the transition classes of Good Shepherd Lutheran College, 99¸£ÀûÊÓƵ Springs Junior Campus.
I have been hired by said author and publisher, to illustrate the images for Isabelle’s first book, which is also a special edition of the book. The book has not yet been completed, however the author has assured me that the story will include dinosaurs and the ocean, she has also promised to keep me posted on updates about the story, so I can prepare my skills and start thinking about the art style that would be most appropriate to the story. Isabelle Wilson and ‘Wilson Publishing’ have agreed to put me completely in charge of the visual elements of the story. That includes, coloring, cover page, storyboards, narrative formatting (this doesn’t include which part of the narrative is on which page), character design, choosing the medium for the illustrations, and illustrating the book. If the author or publisher have objections to any of the choices, they have the authority to overrule them and request changes to be made.
The specifications for this project include: the illustrations must follow the narrative and make sense to it, all while molding around the words assigned to the pages. ‘Wilson Publishing’ and Isabelle Wilson, also want me to keep them posted on any progressions in the illustrations, even wanting me to send them my thinking process, and rough drafts every month. They are specific when saying that the color pallet must have some form of green and blue in either the character design or environment.
The colors used for each of the environments must reflect the concept of the story, e.g., a boring surface world and an interesting, fun cloud world; the boring surface world would use very dull, grey/saturated colors, portraying to the audience that the surface world is boring, uneventful and gloomy, while the fun, exciting cloud world would have bright, ‘fun’ colours that evoke happiness and anticipation, conveying to the audience that the cloud world is ‘better’. They also stated that like all font cover page’s, it must have the title and one or all of the story’s characters. The rest of the project, however, has been left to the creative liberties of the illustrator (myself); some liberties have already been mentioned above.
The importance of visual aids is that in adding them in children’s books it enhances the understanding and the engagement of the audience. By having illustrations, children can make sense of the concept or words they do not understand, they can use their current knowledge and the pages illustrations to comprehend what they (or an adult) are reading (Seeing is Believing - The Benefits of Picture Books for Building Reading Skills | EBSCOpost, n.d.). Without this the target audience will bore as there will be nothing to engage them in, they also will most likely not understand the narrative due to their young age and lack of visual aids. To summarize, including visual elements such as pictures increases the enjoyment and the range of the target audience.
