You do not have to find your own illustrator.
If this is news, you haven’t been doing this very long. HA! This is news to all of us in the beginning, but the truth is that the ‘house’ that publishes your text will choose the illustrator for you.
Picture books are a DUAL artist medium. Notice I didn’t say COLLABORATIVE. You never meet them. You never talk to them. You get NO INPUT other than the text of your book.
If you’re not okay with that, you have three choices:
1. Get really good at art and design so you can be an author/illustrator.
2. Go with a really small publisher that will let you choose your own.
3. Write novels.