From Script to Graffiti
Here's a brief article I wrote for the SCBWI Bulletin, March-April 2013, Art Tips page, edited by Alison Davis Lyne. She had posed the question of how text can be usefully incorporated into an illustration. Since, that's the sort of think I do, I replied:
Sometimes, in picture books, the words just have to be incorporated into the art. You might think this demonstrates a lack of skill by the artist. You might think that realizing his/her inability to draw the action or emotion or tone described in the manuscript, the artist in desperation injects a text prompt into the art to get the job done. Yet, if this were really the case, my characters on horseback would be riding the typeset word �horse�; such is my comfort level at drawing these creatures. No, usually text dances into the art to keep both art and words zipping along at the same pace through the book. Just as you never want your art to give away what�s coming in the text, you don�t want the pictures to slow the reader�s experience of the story. So, when the action calls for big shouts, or muttered rumblings I often choose to illustrate those words. It�s important in designing this hybrid sort of drawing that the illustrated words are still read as part of the text. Often, these words are some of the author�s most playful and should not be overlooked. Part of the idea of illustrating them is to make sure kids will repeat them over and over again to drive parents and teachers to distraction. This is the true measure of success for both author and artist.
The sample of my own work I have attached here is from THERE�S A WOLF AT THE DOOR by Zo� B. Alley (Neal Porter Books / Roaring Brook Press, 2008). It helps enormously to have the author working in the room next door to your studio.
Sometimes, in picture books, the words just have to be incorporated into the art. You might think this demonstrates a lack of skill by the artist. You might think that realizing his/her inability to draw the action or emotion or tone described in the manuscript, the artist in desperation injects a text prompt into the art to get the job done. Yet, if this were really the case, my characters on horseback would be riding the typeset word �horse�; such is my comfort level at drawing these creatures. No, usually text dances into the art to keep both art and words zipping along at the same pace through the book. Just as you never want your art to give away what�s coming in the text, you don�t want the pictures to slow the reader�s experience of the story. So, when the action calls for big shouts, or muttered rumblings I often choose to illustrate those words. It�s important in designing this hybrid sort of drawing that the illustrated words are still read as part of the text. Often, these words are some of the author�s most playful and should not be overlooked. Part of the idea of illustrating them is to make sure kids will repeat them over and over again to drive parents and teachers to distraction. This is the true measure of success for both author and artist.
The sample of my own work I have attached here is from THERE�S A WOLF AT THE DOOR by Zo� B. Alley (Neal Porter Books / Roaring Brook Press, 2008). It helps enormously to have the author working in the room next door to your studio.
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