What importance do you place on illustrations in a children’s picture book?
I think Fransie Frandsen, Artist, art psychotherapist and author/illustrator, says it best in this quote:
“Where the narrative sets the scene, describes the characters and sets out the story line, the illustrations bring the story to life and serve as a visual guide to the reader. In fact, the illustrations are the gateway to the story, inviting the reader in and enticing him or her through colourful visual clues to engage with the story.”
Like Fransie, I consider the artwork I create as being an integral element of the story itself. Like dance partners, they should move seamlessly together, weaving across the pages, the narrative telling a story, and the illustrations bringing that story to life, visually.
Also like Fransie, I not only create illustrations to narrate the story visually, I want to interlace each illustration with enticements of “colourful visual clues to engage with the reader”.
I want to create children’s picture books that make children wonder, laugh, imagine, that encourage conversation and provide a scaffold for learning.
I want to create children’s picture books that surprise and provide an element of the unexpected. Books that have a sense of whimsy about them, even when they’re about serious topics like anxiety.
But most of all, I want to create books for children that they want to keep coming back to!
So, in summary, I think the illustrations in any children’s picture book are very important. They help drive the story forward, pulling the reader through the page turns, and making them eager to know what will happen next.
I hope that’s what I’ve achieved in “Kitty and I”. I would love to know your thoughts.