Introduction to Children's Book Illustration - Short Course

The course will be structured as follows:

• Week one: drawing, materials and mark making exercises
• Week two: creating characters – an introduction to methods of creating a character (you'll research and create several animal characters in different shapes)
• Week three: creating characters – explore facial expressions, simple methods of drawing children and character consistency
• Week four: materials one – create characters using watercolour and coloured pencil and pen and ink
• Week five: materials two – create characters using oil pastel and collage
• Week six: narrative – break down a simple story into eight images then, using a story you want to work with for the rest of the course, you break the story down into a 32-page story board
• Week seven: layout and composition – select a page or double page spread from the story board and sketch out and plan a final illustration
• Week eight: you'll work individually on your final illustrations
• Week nine: overview and discussion of contemporary children's book illustration market, with you continuing your illustrations
• Week ten: group critique of final illustrations and final questions of the course

Please note course structure is subject to slight change.

By the end of the course, you'll be able to:

• understand the relationship between illustration and text
• explore and develop character, narrative and research strategies
• generate ideas in response to a given brief
• use a range of relevant media
• understand some of the varying demands of publishers in relation to age range, gender and markets