My Entrance into the World of Children's Books Illustration

I've been an author for a while now, it's been almost three years since my first book was published. But I've taken up art again, too. It was a long dormant passion of mine, and now I've begun scribbling things down like I used to. It would come to no ones suprise, then, that I'm eager to combine the two. I already illustrated my own fantasy novel, Erisseth, and drew the cover and house maps for another, Darius.

Unfortunately, being an author doesn't sustain me––in fact, taking advertising costs and sheer unpaid time spent writing into account, it loses me money rather than attract it. It's a good thing it's my passion, otherwise I'd be a fool to continue. Besides the fact that people read my work––which in and of itself is still a crazy thing to wrap my mind around––unless I get a tiktok-viral book or get a wild stroke of luck, it's unlikely that writing will be my full time career. That is why I plan to make art my more permanent career. On the one hand by applying to study to be an art teacher––as with any of these kinds of fields, teaching it is still the safest way to gain an income that's actually steady––and on the other to freelance. That is where my newest venture comes in.

Creating illustrations for children's books is something I'd not have considered as a serious pursuit until I found an old book that I'd read during my childhood. The sense of whimsy and magic that I'd gotten from it then was unrivaled, the nostalgia that came over me was a wild thing. Then I started looking up book covers for children's books, and before I knew it, I'd found a child like wonder that'd already been slowly coming back, but was now flooding in all at once. Only children's books could do such a thing.

I had already been planning to offer my services as an illustrator in general––after all, I'd illustrated my own works, people liked them––but these children's books illustrations were a new branch to that. I started creating some works to show as a portfolio, to show the kinds of illustrations I can do––which is mostly using physical materials. I feel like there is already so much for kids these days that's artificial (god damn AI and cocomelon) that they don't need more of it. Kids are the most impressionable of groups, and to show them brainless slop is immoral. I'm not saying that digital art falls in this category, just to be clear––I know plenty of fantastic artists who create art using predominantly or only digital tools––but I feel like art for children's books is just a tad more whimsical and grounded when created physically.

So on I went, with my watercolors and pastels. I'm still building my portfolio, and it may be a silly thought to think that I can succesfully make it as an artist, let alone one for kids, but it brings me a joy like no other to be creating like this again. With colors, joy and crazy images that could only exist in children's books. So even if I don't get anything out of this pursuit, the fact that it brings me a sense of whimsy is enough.

If you're curious as to what I've already gathered, simply take a look at my portfolio. There's an entire tab for illustrations, and children's book illustrations is a category there. For quick access to the children's books illustrations, click here.