Illustrations give the reader’s mind a concrete idea on what to picture. While it is true that you cannot judge a book by its cover, you also have to admit that people fall for books’ aesthetics. In the 1400’s, people etched illustrations that were woodcut.
In this case; however, illustrations become vital with children who read the books. Illustrations come in different styles; companies like iLustra have many illustrators who specialize in many different styles to suit diverse stories. With so many illustrators out there, how do you choose the best illustrator if you need one for a children’s book?
Choose One Who Colours For Children
A study by Cole, Donenberg, Agunga, and Rutledge (2001) says that children react better to colours than adults. An illustrator must be able to contrast the colours needed in the illustration with bright colours that can help readers remember the good parts of the story and without leaving out the supporting details. Also, children need colours for good mental health, as per Marilyn Read, associate professor of design and human environment at Oregon State University, once concluded in an experiment with white and red walls. She said that children are more cooperative when they are taught with the red ones, yet anxious and overexcited with multicoloured ones. In this context, illustrations must be colourful, yet uniform in distribution so as to not divert from the story, but rather support the mind with vivid illustration of colour.
Choose One Who Can Catch a Child’s Attention
To be able to actually make a child look at something with their full attention, you must first catch a kid’s attention. Children’s attention spans go lowest when things aren’t interesting; a maximum of 10 minutes without adult supervision is their limit. It can be quite difficult for an illustration (something that cannot talk) to make a child look at a picture since children’s attention spans are very fickle and differ from child to child. Kids, aged two to three years, would love to see simple stories with detailed and vivid imagery while those aged four to five would prefer comical pictures; it is generally about knowing which age group you will target. The best illustrators can put themselves in the children’s shoes and think of what they would like, and for that, you should choose illustrators who visit schools, day care centres, and even playgrounds to have a great concept of what children will actually like.
Choose One Who Knows Your Stories’ Goal
Illustrations that are out of context will get children to ask and doubt the real moral of the story. Most importantly of all is the ability to convey that idea in a single picture that says a thousand words without any text at all, especially if it is very relevant. “Hear a piece of information and, three days later, you’ll remember 10% of it; add a picture, and you’ll remember 65%,” said John Medina, on visual presentations.
