Starting from SketchInside the Picture Book with Will Hillenbrand

Get a little helpI can’t always paint from myimagination or memory. Often, I needto find an example of the subjectI want to illustrate, somethingartists call a “reference.” OnceI adopted a dog so I couldunderstand dogs better. Most of thetime, however, I just look at toys,photographs or books.

For Down by the Station, I startedwith the toy trains below. ThenI found photographs of a puffer-belly

and a trainstation. Thesephotos became

the basis for the pictures in the book.References help you make pictures

that are recognizable to other people.But you don’t have to copy yourreferences exactly. Use yourimagination to embellish or transformyour reference.

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Look at thephotographs of thetrain and thestation. Look atthe sketches.

Some thingsare the same, butsome aredifferent. Can youfind the changes?

1 ¡ I based my first drawing on the toy train.I liked the way the giraffe stuck out of theroof. ™ I drew an engine based on the toytrain, and opened the car up to show theanimals better.

£ I found a photo ofa puffer-belly in thelibrary. ¢ Referringto the photo,I revised the engine,opened the carcompletely andadded toy trains atthe end to show“puffer-bellies in arow.”

´ My first sketch ofthe train station wasjust a figment of myimagination!§ My next sketchmore closelyresembled a photoI found of an oldstation. Note thepenny in the corner;it shows how smallthis sketch is.

¶• The final station retained the simple linesin the reference photo, with the addition of aclock and arched windows.

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Draw, draw againI keep a journal with me all thetime. It is a book of blank pagesthat I fill with drawings as I’mworking on a book. I may draw acharacter or a scene over andover in my journal before I’mhappy with the look. Sketching andresketching help me to develop thepictures in my head and on thepaper before I paint.

My journal sketches tend to bequite small. That allows me to workfaster and do many sketches.Sometimes, the sketches are, well,sketchy. I call those thumbnails. I justroughly draw the elements in thepicture, rather than worry about thedetails. When I do thumbnails, I’mtrying to figure out how things aregoing to work together on the page.

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Think about a sceneyou’d like to draw.Quickly sketchwhere each elementwill go on the pageand how big it will be.Try sketching the scenesmaller than the finished drawing willbe. Then make a final drawing based onyour sketch.

In these sketches, I played withthe arrangement of theelements for this page in DownBy The Station. Compare thesketches to see thearrangements I considered.

Look all aroundAnother way to convey meaning in astory is to use a different perspectiveor viewpoint.

In The Biggest, Best Snowman, Nell isdescribed as little. I could justdraw her smaller than everyoneelse, but there are other waysto make her look small. Oneway is to have her alwayslooking up at her mother andsisters. Another is to have themlooking down at her, even leaning overto talk to her.

Later, when the snowman is finished,I used a bird’s-eye perspective (seebelow) to show just how big thesnowman, and Nell’s accomplishment,really is. By looking down from above,Nell and her friends seem very small.

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Stand in your room and look around.Now lie on your back on the

floor and look around, upand down. See how

different things look?When would you wantto draw a picturelooking up from the

floor or looking downfrom the sky?

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¡ First I made a quick thumbnail sketch to test the perspective for thispage in The Biggest, Best Snowman. ™ A bigger, more detailed drawingfollowed. £ As the final painting takes shape, I add more details.

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Looks do countWhen I draw a character, I think a lotabout the person or animal. I askmyself many questions about howthey look and how theybehave. I draw and I redrawthe character in differentposes in my journal.

As I was developing BIGLizzie for The Biggest, BestSnowman, I drew her faceover and over again, tryingto get the expression justright.

But characters aremore than just facialfeatures. I wanted thereader to see Lizzie asflamboyant, selfish andrather lazy. I did thisby making her wild hairmulti-colored, puttingher finger on her chinand giving her adoughnut to eat.

In contrast, Lizzie’ssister, BIG Sarah, ismore sophisticated, asevidenced by herperfectly arranged hair,jewelry and makeup.

Think about someone you know,perhaps a friend or a teacher. Describethat person – what they mean to youand how they behave towardothers. Now thinkabout how you coulddraw that person toconvey yourdescription. Wouldyou draw them intheir favorite place– a golf course, thekitchen, a park?Would they be wearingsomething special – a hat,an apron, a fluffy coat? What wouldthey be doing – golfing, cooking, birdwatching?

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4 ¡ My first smallsketch captured thebasic look for eachcharacter. Nell lookssmall and defensive;Sarah is elegant;Mama is so big shedoesn’t fit in thepicture.

™ On one page, I played with Lizzie’slook. In the lower left corner, I drew herwith big eyes. Just above, I tried closedeyes. Finally, bigger still, I drew her inprofile. £ Here, Lizzie’s eyes closed anda bite came out of her doughnut. ¢ I alsoexperimented with how much I showedof Mama. ´ The sketches all cametogether in the final painting.

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Get a move onMost picture books are 32 pages. Tokeep readers interested, I look forways to make them want to turn thepage. One way is to introduce anaction on one page and have it pay offwith a second action on the next.

In Down by the Station, the elephantis drinking from the pond on one pageand, on the next, he’s sprayingeveryone with water. The action flowsfrom one page to the next.

When you page through Down by theStation, you’ll see a red balloon, alwaysin different positions on the page.Using an element in this mannerthroughout the book adds extrainterest and action in a subtle way.

Think of situationsthat can be drawnin two parts to

show action. Onone page, show the

first step. On a secondpage, draw the next step. You

might show someone with a hand on adoorknob, then the scene behind thedoor when it is opened. Or you mightdraw a cat sniffing a vase, then runningfrom spilled flowers and water.

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¡ Most of the story in Down By The Station is told not in the words, but in the pictures. Each page contains multiple actionsand mini-subplots. This picture was inspired by a trip to the zoo I took as a teen with younger children. I remembered how thechildren were always getting into mischief. Here, it’s the animals that create movement through merriment. ™ As the pageturns, each character’s action corresponds to the previous page. Compare what each character is doing in this picture ascompared to the one above.

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Talking picturesTo be a true picture book, thepictures must be “readable.” A readershould be able to look at the picturesand understand what is happening inthe words. When I illustrate a story,I make pictures that match what thewords say. I also take the readersbeyond the written word, to helpthem get a better understanding ofthe story.

Sometimes a picture can tell anotherstory, in addition to portraying whatthe author wrote. This enriches thestory and makes the pictures evenmore captivating. You can see asecondary story unfolding in TheBiggest, Best Snowman as Nell and heranimal friends are making thesnowman. On each page, the actionshows a letter, starting with S.Eventually, the pages spell outS-N-O-W-M-A-N.

Take a simplestatement, such as“It was a beautifulmorning,” and drawwhat that lookslike to you. Thinkof ways you can makea picture that goes withthe statement, but that says muchmore to the reader. What season is it?What is the weather doing? Where areyou? What do you see around you?

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6 In The Biggest, Best Snowman, I had seven pages to show Little Nell andher friends making a snowman. The challenge was how to make a basic,repetitive action interesting. I thought about how a mark is left in thesnow as you roll it into a ball. I made those marks into letters that spellout a word, creating another level of interest and learning on these pages.

Color your worldAfter I’m happy with my sketches,I scan them into my computer. NowI can make them bigger (or smaller)and arrange them on the page withthe text. I can move the text aroundto see where it fits best. When I likewhat I see, I print out the pages.

I don’t always get the page to lookexactly the way I want on the first try.By using the computer, I canexperiment with different angles andsizes. Sometimes I work and work andstill don’t like anything I’ve done. Then,I put it all aside, get a good night’ssleep and try again the next morning.

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¡ A piece of vellum,a heavy type of tracingpaper, is taped overthe computer printoutthat shows mysketches and the text.Using a pencil, I tracethe sketches onto thevellum. ™ On thereverse side of thevellum, I put down abase coat of color.£¢ While my finalsketches are fairlycomplete, many detailsare added asI color. Sometimes, likewith the tiger cubshere, I flip the sketchand make it face theother direction.

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Now it’s time to paint. I use anunusual technique I’ve developedthrough trial and error.

I tape a piece of vellum, atranslucent sheet of paper, over aprintout of the pages I’m going topaint. Then I redraw the picture onthe vellum.

Flipping the vellum over, I startcoloring the reverse side, creating anunderpainting. The vellum gives atexture to some of the color and letsme leave the pencil marks undisturbedon the front.

Later, I turn the vellum back overand dry-mount the vellum to posterboard (you could use a spray glue tomount yours). Then I can lighten ordarken areas and add morecolor, detail and texture.I don’t just use oil paint,however. I use anything thatwill give me the look I wantfor the page – watercolor,crayons, colored pencils, chalkpastels and pencils.

Included in this book is a piece ofvellum. It’s the see-through paper inthe front and back of the book.Carefully pull it out.You’ll have twoletter-sized sheetsthat you can use toredraw your ownsketches.

Color part of yourdrawing on thereverse side of thevellum. Turn it over. Seehow the translucency of the paperaffects the color. Now finish coloringyour drawing on the front side.

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´ Sometimes my drawing board doesn’t seem big enough to holdeverything I need for a final painting! At the top of my drawing board aresome of the tools I use to add color to the final drawing. Artists call thismixture of different ways to color – paint, pastels, crayons, pencils - inone painting “mixed media.” § My paintings are created at the samesize as you see them in the final book.

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Looks do countHow can you portray your character?Is it funny or sad? Is it an adult or ababy? Does it wear clothes? Is itmessy or neat? Sketch different looks.

Get a move onHow can you put action into yourpictures? Think about ways tosurprise the reader by creating twosequential drawings to communicatepart of the story.

Talking picturesMake your pictures tell a secondstory, one you can see only in theillustration.

Color your worldCarefully remove the vellum from thefront and back of this book. Redrawone of your drawings on it. Useanything you have to add color to thepicture – crayons, colored pencils,watercolors, tempera paint.

Get a little helpYou may need to find a reference forparts of your drawings. Look for anexample in your own books or at thelibrary.

Draw, draw againTake your time and draw lots ofsimple sketches to get an idea ofwhat your final illustration willinclude.

Look all aroundConsider the perspective for yourdrawing. Are you looking straightahead, or from above, or maybe frombelow?

Start from sketch

Ta-da! Now you’ve madeyour first bookillustration. You can see

how much fun I have atwork everyday. Even if you

don’t become an illustrator,remember it’s always interesting

to think about things in different ways.4

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Take your time

and think about

your work.

You don’t have to

rush – enjoy

yourself!

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Now that you are familiar with some of the steps that I take when illustrating apicture book, you’re ready to make your own illustration. You might even makeseveral and put them together in a book format.

Take the text from “This Little Pig,” just as Mrs. Siriano’s classes did on theprevious page – or from another story, maybe something you’ve written.Think about the text and what it means to you. Then, follow these steps toillustrate the story.

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