The first thing I do in the process of illustrating a book is to read the story several times, and then start imagining how to tell the story through pictures.  The words tell one version of the story, but the pictures tell an entirely different version which leaves room for lots of imagination on the readers’ part.  The illustration process initially, involves drawing many different thumbnail sketches.  The sketches are called “thumbnail sketches” because they are about the size of a thumbnail, and are very scribbled.  An important part of the process is drawing character studies, while imagining how the characters in the story might look.  It is interesting to research at the library and learn how characters from different time period might dress, live, also what the landscape looked like.

David Shannon