How to Illustrate a Children's Book: Complete Guide for Artists 2025
Learn how to illustrate a children's book from start to finish. This complete guide covers character design, portfolio building, finding publishers, and self-publishing options for artists who want to break into children's book illustration.
Introduction: Your Journey into Children's Book Illustration
Have you ever read a children's book to your kids or grandkids and thought, "I could do this"? Many artists dream of illustrating children's books, but they're not sure where to start. The good news is that with dedication, practice, and the right approach, you can turn that dream into reality.
Illustrating a children's book is different from creating standalone artwork. You need to tell a story through your illustrations, create consistent characters, and work within the constraints of a book format. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from building your skills to finding publishers or self-publishing your work.
Whether you want to illustrate professionally for publishers, create books for your own family, or explore self-publishing, this comprehensive guide covers all the steps you need to take. You'll learn about character design, portfolio building, industry resources, and how to avoid common pitfalls that trap many aspiring illustrators.
This Guide Is For You If
You're an artist who wants to:
- Illustrate children's books professionally
- Create books for your own kids or grandkids
- Expand your artistic skills into storytelling
- Build a portfolio for children's book illustration
- Understand the publishing industry
Why Illustrate Children's Books?
Before diving into the how-to, let's explore why artists are drawn to children's book illustration. Understanding your motivation will help you stay focused as you develop your skills and navigate the industry.
Children's book illustration offers a unique form of creative expression. While you might create standalone paintings that tell a story, illustrating a children's book requires you to bring a scene to life from just one sentence or a few words. This challenge pushes you to think creatively and develop your storytelling abilities.
If you're building a professional career, children's book illustration can help you expand your audience. Many artists who create children's room decor or baby animal paintings find that having a children's book complements their existing work. You might target young parents, grandparents, or educators who appreciate your artistic style.
For personal projects, creating a children's book for your own kids or grandkids can be incredibly rewarding. You can create a keepsake that tells a story meaningful to your family, whether it's about a visit to the farm, a special adventure, or a beloved pet. Having a specific goal in mind, like "Harper and Frankie Visit the Farm," gives you a clear starting point.
Professionally, children's book illustration can be another income stream. Whether you work with traditional publishers, find an agent, or explore self-publishing options, there are multiple paths to earning money from your illustrations. However, it's important to understand that building a career in this field takes time and dedication.
Start with a Personal Project
If you're just beginning, consider starting with a personal project. Create a book for your own children or grandchildren based on something meaningful in your life. This gives you a clear goal, helps you practice the entire process, and creates something special for your family.
Learning the Basics: Essential Skills for Children's Book Illustration
You can't just create a beautiful picture and expect it to work in a children's book. There are specific skills you need to develop, and these take time to master. Don't expect to create a picture, send it off, and get published immediately. Plan on spending several years developing your abilities.
Improve Your Drawing Skills
Strong drawing skills form the foundation of good illustration. You need to be able to sketch confidently and create characters that look consistent across multiple pages. Practice drawing from life regularly, whether that's sketching animals at the zoo, children at the park, or scenes from your daily life.
Unlike creating art from reference photos, children's book illustration often requires you to draw characters in different positions and from various angles. You need to be able to draw your character sitting down, standing sideways, looking from behind, and in many other poses. The more you practice, the more naturally these positions will come to you.
Set aside dedicated time for practice. If you're serious about this path, try to practice at least once a week, ideally more often. Even just 30 minutes a day or an hour a week focused on storytelling skills, character design, and drawing will make a significant difference over time.
Master Color Theory
Color plays a crucial role in storytelling through illustration. Colors can convey emotions and set the mood for different scenes. If you want to show a rainy, cold day, you'll use cool colors like blues and grays. For a sunny, happy scene, you might use warm yellows and oranges.
Understanding how color affects mood helps you support the story through your illustrations. A sad moment might use muted, cool tones, while a joyful scene could use bright, warm colors. Study how other illustrators use color in their work and practice applying these principles to your own illustrations.
Develop Character Design Skills
Character design is one of the most important skills for children's book illustration. You need to create characters that children can connect with, and this goes beyond just drawing a person or animal. Your characters need personality, expression, and the ability to convey emotions clearly.
Practice creating different expressions on your characters' faces. Something as simple as adjusting eyebrows can dramatically change whether a character looks happy, sad, or angry. Work on drawing the same character with various emotions so you can use them throughout your story.
When creating animal characters, you often need to give them human traits to make them more approachable for children. This might mean making them stand upright like humans, giving them larger, forward-facing eyes, or adjusting their proportions to appear cuter. The goal is to make characters that children can relate to and care about.
You can find free resources online for learning character expressions and design. Look up character expression guides on YouTube or Google, and you'll find plenty of reference material showing how different facial features convey different emotions. Practice drawing these expressions until they become second nature.
Character Design Practice Exercise
Try this exercise to improve your character design:
- Choose one character (human or animal)
- Draw that character with 10 different expressions
- Draw the character in 5 different positions (sitting, standing, running, etc.)
- Practice drawing the character from different angles
- Create a small sketchbook dedicated to this character
Understanding Your Audience: Age-Appropriate Illustration
Children's books vary dramatically based on the target age group. What appeals to a one-year-old is completely different from what appeals to a five-year-old. You need to research what works for different age levels and decide who your audience will be.
Younger children's books focus more on simple pictures with basic shapes and minimal detail. These books might show just a car or a child on a bike with little or no background. The images are straightforward and easy for very young children to understand.
As children get older, the illustrations become more detailed and complex. Older children's books include full backgrounds, multiple characters, and scenes that tell more of the story. The illustrations work together with the text to create a richer narrative experience.
If you're creating a book for your own kids or grandkids, look at books that match their age. If your grandkids are three years old, study books made for three-year-olds. Pay attention to the level of detail, the complexity of the scenes, and how the illustrations support the text.
Visit your local library or bookstore and spend time looking at children's books. Analyze what makes successful books work. Notice the style, the pacing, the interplay between text and images, and how much text appears per image. The more you study existing books, the better you'll understand what works for different age groups.
Study Popular Children's Books
Take time to analyze picture books you love. Notice how illustrators vary between double page spreads, single pages, and spotlights. Pay attention to when they use each format and how it affects the pacing of the story. For more on illustration formats, see our complete guide to types of picture book illustrations.
Regular Practice: Building Your Skills Over Time
Consistent practice is essential for improving your illustration skills. Set aside dedicated time each week, ideally every day if possible, but at minimum once a week. Don't let more than a week go by without practicing your storytelling skills and character design.
Practice sketching from life regularly. Go to the zoo and sketch animals, visit a local park and sketch children playing, or simply go outside and sketch what you see. Pay attention to how bodies move and how different positions look. This practice will make you a better artist overall, not just for children's books.
Work on drawing different expressions on your characters' faces. Practice showing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, and other emotions. Remember that small adjustments, like changing eyebrow position, can dramatically alter a character's expression.
Experiment with different illustration styles and mediums. When you look through children's books, you'll notice that artists have distinct styles. Some use digital tools, while others create hand-drawn illustrations that are scanned. Hand-drawn work can stand out in today's market where digital illustration is common, but excellent digital work can also look hand-drawn.
Consider which medium works best for you. Pastels might not be ideal for book illustration, but acrylics or watercolors could work well. Some successful books use simple black ink drawings. Research different styles and experiment to find what suits your artistic voice.
Building Your Portfolio: Showcasing Your Work
Once you've developed your skills through practice, you need to build a portfolio that showcases your abilities. Publishers want to see that you can create consistent characters, tell stories through illustrations, and work in a style appropriate for children's books.
Start small by creating single illustrations that tell a story. Consider illustrating common scenes with children or animals. As you improve, move on to complete illustrations of whole scenes or short stories. You can find inspiration by searching for short sentences for kids or looking for picture book illustration challenges online.
Your portfolio should showcase variety in subject matter, themes, age appropriateness, and character types. Include illustrations showing different expressions, various characters (humans, robots, animals), and complete scenes. Demonstrate that you can illustrate a whole double-page spread or work with just a few sentences from a book.
Create a professional digital portfolio that you can easily share with publishers. You can create a dedicated page on your website, or use a portfolio platform like Adobe Portfolio, which offers free portfolio templates. Keep it simple with just your artwork front and center, a brief about section, and contact information.
When presenting your portfolio, make sure your artwork is the focus. Publishers don't want to navigate through multiple pages and tabs to find your work. They want to see your illustrations immediately and get a sense of your style quickly. A clean, simple portfolio that showcases your best work is more effective than a complex website with many distractions.
You can also create a physical portfolio for in-person meetings or interviews. If you go this route, make sure it's professionally bound and presents beautifully. However, digital portfolios are generally more practical and cost-effective for most illustrators.
Stand Out from the Crowd
The children's book illustration market is highly competitive. You're competing with thousands of other artists, so you need to be unique and excellent at what you do. Hand-drawn illustrations can help you stand out in a market saturated with digital work, but quality matters more than medium. Focus on developing a distinctive style and creating work that publishers can't find elsewhere.
Ready to Start Creating Your Children's Book Illustrations?
Now that you understand the fundamentals of children's book illustration, put your knowledge into practice. Our children's book illustration service helps you create professional, consistent illustrations with age-appropriate designs perfect for your story.
Getting Feedback: Improving Your Work
Feedback is crucial for improving your illustrations. Share your work with people who will give you honest, constructive criticism, not just praise. While it's nice to hear "that's amazing," you need feedback that helps you grow.
Share your work in safe, supportive communities where other artists can provide helpful critiques. You might join online groups, share with fellow artists, or participate in illustration challenges where you can get feedback from peers.
Take feedback seriously and use it to improve your work. Don't get defensive when someone points out areas for improvement. Instead, consider their perspective and determine how you can apply their suggestions to make your illustrations stronger.
Remember that feedback is subjective, and not every suggestion will be right for your style or vision. Learn to distinguish between feedback that will genuinely improve your work and feedback that might not align with your artistic goals.
Promoting Your Work: Building Your Presence
Once you have a portfolio you're proud of, start promoting your work and building your presence in the children's book illustration community. This helps you connect with potential clients, publishers, and other professionals in the industry.
Use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to share your illustrations. Create Pinterest boards focused on children's book illustration and engage with content from writers, publishers, and other illustrators. Building an online presence helps people discover your work.
Attend industry events like book fairs, workshops, and conferences. These events provide opportunities to network with publishers, authors, and other illustrators. You might meet someone looking for an illustrator, or you could collaborate with a new writer who's just starting out.
One of the best resources for serious children's book illustrators is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). This global organization offers conferences, awards, grants, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube content. Joining SCBWI can help you immerse yourself in the children's book industry and connect with other professionals.
Consider reaching out to writers who are just starting out. Collaborating with new authors can be a great way to build your portfolio and gain experience. You might find a good match with someone who's also building their career and looking for an illustrator.
Join Professional Organizations
The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is the premier organization for children's book professionals. Membership provides access to conferences, networking opportunities, grants, and industry resources. Even if you're just exploring the field, checking out their website can provide valuable inspiration and information.
Contacting Publishers: Finding the Right Fit
When you're ready to work with publishers, start by researching which publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations. Many large publishers require you to work through an agent, but smaller and independent publishers often accept direct submissions during specific periods.
Research thoroughly before submitting. Make sure the publisher aligns with your book's style and theme. If you're pitching a book for two-year-olds, don't submit to a publisher that only does young adult novels. Check their submission guidelines carefully and follow them exactly as specified.
Understand that most publishers have their go-to illustrators, and they often match authors with illustrators from their existing roster. However, if you can get your work in front of them and they like your style, they may keep you on file for future projects that match your abilities.
Some publishers to consider include Allen and Unwin (Australia), Penguin Random House (though they typically require an agent), Scholastic (which occasionally opens for submissions), Candlewick Press, HarperCollins (UK branch sometimes accepts unsolicited manuscripts), and Chronicle Books. Always check their websites for current submission guidelines and deadlines.
Be prepared for rejection. Like applying for a job, you may submit your work and never hear back. This is normal in the publishing industry. Don't take it personally, and keep improving your work and submitting to different publishers.
If you're serious about working with major publishers, you might want to consider getting an agent. Agents have relationships with publishers and can help you navigate the industry. However, agents typically take a percentage of your earnings, so weigh the costs and benefits carefully.
Avoid Freelance Platforms for Serious Work
Be cautious about using freelance platforms like Fiverr or Upwork for children's book illustration. These platforms are highly competitive, and many listings offer extremely low prices (sometimes as low as $9-$17) because they're using AI to generate images rather than creating original illustrations. You don't want to compete at these prices, and the quality expectations are often unrealistic. Focus on direct outreach to publishers or working with authors directly instead.
Self-Publishing Options: Taking Control of Your Work
If you want more control over your work or prefer to bypass traditional publishers, self-publishing offers several options. However, be aware that self-publishing can be costly, and you need to ensure you can sell your books to make it worthwhile.
For digital books, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is the largest ebook retailer in the world. It allows you to publish both ebooks and paperbacks for free, offering a wide reach across Amazon. You can earn up to 70% royalties depending on your book's price and territory. For more on self-publishing, see our complete guide to book illustration for self-publishers.
Other digital publishing platforms include Apple Books for Authors, which reaches anyone with an Apple device and pays around 70% royalties, and Barnes & Noble Press, which offers up to 65% royalties on ebooks priced at $2.99 and above.
If you want to create a mockup of your book to visualize the layout, you can use free tools like BookWright by Blurb. This program helps you work out where you want text and images positioned, which can be helpful before you create your final illustrations.
Remember that self-publishing requires you to handle marketing, distribution, and sales yourself. You'll need to invest time and potentially money into promoting your book. Make sure you have a plan for how you'll reach your audience before you invest in printing or publishing.
Start with Digital Publishing
If you're new to self-publishing, consider starting with digital publishing through Amazon KDP or similar platforms. Digital publishing has lower upfront costs than printing physical books, and you can test the market before investing in print runs. You can always add print versions later if your digital book sells well.
Using Public Domain Stories: A Starting Point
If you're not confident in your writing abilities but want to practice illustration, consider using public domain stories as a starting point. Public domain works are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, been forfeited, or are inapplicable. In most cases, this means works published over 70 years ago, though the timeframe can vary by country.
Classic stories like Aesop's Fables, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, and Little Red Riding Hood are all in the public domain. You can rewrite, adapt, and illustrate these stories without facing copyright issues. You can change the setting, update the language for modern readers, or create entirely new illustrations while keeping the core story.
While the original story is free to use, any new content you create, such as additional text or new illustrations, becomes your own copyrighted material. This means others can't use your contributions without your permission, even though the underlying story is in the public domain.
You can find public domain works through resources like Project Gutenberg, which offers over 60,000 free ebooks, or the Internet Archive, which provides access to millions of free books, movies, and other media. Always verify that a work is actually in the public domain before using it.
Using public domain stories can be a great way to practice illustration and build your portfolio. Aesop's Fables, for example, are short stories that you could adapt into full picture books. You could modernize the language, create new illustrations, and develop your own unique take on these classic tales.
Public Domain Resources
Check these resources for public domain works:
- Project Gutenberg - Over 60,000 free ebooks
- Internet Archive - Millions of free books and media
- Google Books - Check publication dates to verify public domain status
Key Takeaways: Your Path Forward
Illustrating children's books is a rewarding but challenging path that requires dedication and practice. Start by developing your fundamental skills in drawing, color theory, and character design. Understand your target audience and create age-appropriate illustrations that tell stories effectively.
Build a professional portfolio that showcases your ability to create consistent characters and tell stories through illustrations. Get feedback from other artists and use it to improve your work. Promote your illustrations through social media and industry events, and consider joining organizations like SCBWI to connect with other professionals.
When you're ready, research publishers that accept unsolicited submissions and follow their guidelines carefully. Consider self-publishing options if you want more control over your work, but be prepared to handle marketing and distribution yourself. Remember that building a career in children's book illustration takes time, so be patient and keep improving your skills.
Whether you want to illustrate professionally, create books for your family, or explore self-publishing, the most important thing is to start. Begin with practice, build your portfolio, and take steps toward your goal. Every successful children's book illustrator started where you are now.
Ready to Create Your Children's Book Illustrations?
Now that you understand the process of illustrating children's books, put your skills into practice. Our children's book illustration service can help you create professional, consistent illustrations with age-appropriate designs perfect for your story.
