How to Edit Illustrations for a Children's Book

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Angela Sage Larson. Today, we’re going to talk about publishing your own children story. Please visit my web site at petalwinkthefairy.com. If you’re illustrating your own storybook or even if you are not, editing your illustrations are just as important as editing your story. As much as I like to stick with all my original paintings, they didn’t always work as the story evolved. This was the first spread, the first two pages of my story about Petalwink Learns to Fly. I had the other characters all flying around the forest and my point was to show that everyone else was flying but that Petalwink wasn’t. Then I didn’t really like the feel of the illustration, so I changed the trees and some of the colors and went to this illustration. So you still have the characters flying and here is the little bird, and here are the text boxes. But then as the story evolved, we realized that the most important point of the story was the fact that Petalwink couldn’t fly. Petalwink isn’t even in the picture, so it was back to the drawing board. I still thought of the elements that I liked in the story, that is the other characters flying, kind of an overview of the forest. Then we ended up with this illustration. The first thing you see when you turn the page is Petalwink, and you note that the other characters are still present and they are still flying, but Petalwink is standing on a branch. You can see that editing your illustrations and the willingness to do that to support your story, is just as important as the text you’re going to write for your story."