DIY - How to make a picture book

How I made the story An Elf Erased My Picture:

The idea

Every book begins with an idea. Perhaps even just a few words on a napkin. An Elf Erased My Picture began with me finding a greeting card that one of my sons made when he was 7 using lino-cut.

Believe it or not, I usually write the whole text in one sitting. Of course, this is only a draft. The text goes through a ton of editing before it can be published. However, the main story I usually write from start to finish no matter how long it takes. Like a dream, I worry that if I don’t get it out of my head, it will disappear.

The Storyboard

Once I have the main story down, I begin to draw a storyboard with all of the ideas that I have for the book in sequence.

The Text

Once I have my text finished and I’ve done as much as editing as I possibly can, then I send my text off to my editor. Luckily, this happens to be my mother. She’s brilliant at cleaning up my text and telling me what phrases just don’t work. Once she has finished adding her touches, I then send my text and a few sketches off to a few more people to get their opinion as it is never a good idea to just trust your family as they have a tendency to be overly kind.

The Illustrations

After my text is finished, I begin illustrating. You should never begin this process earlier as texts often change a lot during the editing process. I update my storyboard with any changes and ideas, and then I choose my main character and start drawing some sketches. Once I am happy with them, I pick an image from my storyboard and start sketching.

Here is the sketch of the back of the boy’s head which was used in the book. Once I had my final sketch, I used my lightbox to copy the image of the boy’s head onto watercolor paper. Then, I painted this image, photographed it, and cut it out in Photoshop.

Sometimes I like to cut up my sketches in Photoshop to see if a design looks good on the page. In this situation, I took the sketch of the boy’s head and put it together with the background image that my son drew. Here is a side by side of the original idea and the final page.

The Layout

Once I have all of the illustrations finished, I scan them into Photoshop and cut away the background. Using Photoshop has changed the way that I paint traditionally. Because I know I will cut out all of my images later, I now paint as many images as I can onto each sheet. Here is one of my finished watercolors for An Elf Erased My Picture, a bunch of elves including an elf riding on Rudolph. I typically use InDesign for layout as once you understand it, it is great for combining illustrations and text in layers. Plus, it is easy to make a final pdf for publishing.

Typography

Unfortunately, a lot of self-published authors forget this element. I had a fantastic typography professor when I was at the Cambridge School of Art who taught me the value of understanding fonts. Now, I sometimes even make my own. Adding various fonts and changing up the size and spacing of letters can add a whole new dimension to a simple story. Here I decided to add eraser marks to the letters.

Publishing

I self-publish my books using both traditional and print on demand methods. The process isn’t too difficult, but requires a bit more explaining than I can do here. If you would like to know how to publish your own children’s book, please consider joining one of my webinars about the publishing process. I also offer consulting for those who would like one on one help.

Webinars

Are you ready to make your own picture book? Would you like to know a bit more about self-publishing. Come join in one of my webinars.