With some sketches for picture book NAKED! (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, author Michael Ian Black)
When I was first asked to illustrate my first picture book (I'm Bored) and I started researching picture book formats, I was confused. I knew a standard picture book had 32 pages, for example, but I discovered that these 32 pages might also include the title page and other non-story pages. Plus some books had the story beginning on the right-hand page while others started on the left.
WHERE SHOULD I BEGIN? My editor and art director helped guide me and even though I still get confused about terms like "self-ended" and "paste-down," I'm gradually learning. For expert explanations, see the resources I've listed at the end of this post.
How Many Pages? Here's What I've Learned So Far...
The number of pages varies in a picture book; it depends on the publisher as well as the project. If you're submitting a picture book dummy or paged out picture book mss, however, I'd suggest starting with the standard 32 pages. If you really need the extra room, go for 40...but keep in mind that the more pages a book has, the more expensive it will be to print. The reason that the number of pages in picture books tend to be in increments of 8 is because of the way they're printed; see resources at the end of this post for more info.
See below for the informal templates I've created for myself; I'm providing them here in case some of you find them useful in your own brainstorming process. The first two are templates I've used to brainstorm story layout for picture books. The squares are tiny on purpose, so I can squeeze the entire layout onto one page to make it easier for me to see overall visual flow. These early sketches are usually stick figures and only the essence of emotions and gestures; I don't bother with details.
Feel free to download/print any of the following for personal use:
 32-Page Template
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 40-Page Template I used for illustrating NAKED!
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I created the two bottom brainstorming templates for when I was coming up ideas on how to illustrate a particular spread. For example, suppose the first page text was "The squirrel was surprised." and the second page had "He ran away." My sketch ideas could be something like this:
For illustrations that are a full spread, I just ignore the gutter line.
For the final choice, I'll sometimes mix and match -- I may like the first sketch I did in Option #3 but prefer the second sketch from Option #4, so I'll combine them.
Anyway, this template helps encourage me to explore different ways of illustrating a spread and NOT to just go for the first thing that comes to my mind. When I've made my choice, I'll turn the thumbnail sketch idea and work it into a bigger sketch.
For more free print-ready material, see Debbie's Print-Ready Archives.
Other places where you can find more picture book layout templates and useful info:
If you know of other useful resources, please post them in the comments below, thanks!
An Illustrator's Guide To Creating A Picture Book - by Meghan McCarthy. No templates, but a good overview for those who are just starting out.
Picture Book Dummy, Picture Book Construction: Know Your Layout by Tara Lazar. Explanation of self-ended and colored ends picture book layouts.
Basic Book Construction by Editorial Anonymous. Includes info about why most picture books have 32 pages.
Picture book layout templates by Scott Franson. 32 page + endpaper in portrait, landscape and square formats.
Picture Book Standards: 32 Pages - by Darcy Pattison
I have been drawing my character out of my head. I thought it was going along rather well. Then, it was pointed out that I 'might' want to look at a REAL person. Luckily our cousins were just visiting from Spain with their amazing seven year old daughter. (The same age as my character)
She posed. I drew.
I think it helped!
Adios
The book will be black and white, except for the boy, Andrew. It felt funny to make a full color illustration for the opening spread given that every other picture is just Andrew and his pencil drawings. I'm thinking this makes sense to kick of a story. Will re-draw again, but it's interesting to see how this is unfolding. At least it is to me... Hopefully, you too.
What a long winter. There were seriously times when I started looking for another career this year. Publishing book after book after book seemed to come to a complete stop. That, coupled with the onslaught of digital books and ipads and tablets, I started to feel like the earth was losing gravity and everything as I have known it was floating away.
What is a picture book author/illustrator/singer/songwriter to do for work if none of those avenues are panning out? You DO NOT want me as your accountant! Never took medical classes, so being a Doctor is out. I don't have the legal skills to argue your case in court. I 'thought' about being an art therapist, but the thought of going back to school and doing thousands of hours in training wasn't sitting well with me. Art teacher! Do they hire them any longer? Music teacher? Same problem. Fireman? I think I'm too old!
Okay, so what makes me happy in the morning? (A LUXURY, I KNOW) I love to wake up and work on songs and stories and artwork.
Although my life seemed to feel like a scene from Inception, (picture skyscrapers crumbling into the sea) I found myself still waking up and going to work. I think you will find this type of behavior described in one of the definitions of insanity. So, you are a blacksmith making horse shoes? Cars have arrived and there are less horses on the road? How do you stay afloat? You go back to shoeing horses because that's what you know. That is NOT always a recipe for success!
In my case, things worked out. I sold three books from shear tenacity and a seemingly bleak winter. eBooks? Enhanced eBooks? I am LOOKING FORWARD to having a publisher to work with on these with me. I need their input. I need their support. I spend a great deal of time working on my own, and to have a enthusiastic editor and publishing company wanting both a book and the digital version to be successful is the future. My future!
Okay, you can turn down the patriotic music which built to a head for that last paragraph. So, now it's summer. It's in the air. We're even going to watch fireworks at the Hollywood Bowl! I like summer. It's hard to complain about winter when one lives in Los Angeles, but it was more of a metaphorical winter for me, even with all of the rain we had.
I just put on my shorts. I have plants to water and book illustrations to paint.
Adios.
When you finish writing and illustrating a new book idea, one needs to mock it up in a dummy format.
I have been spoiled by working with the same editors over the years and I haven't had to make a whole lot of formal dummies for a while. Sometimes I send storyboards without making a book dummy. I have decided that for the book I am currently working on, I needed to show it in the right size and format. I have made dummies where I just use 81/2 x 11 paper. (It's easier than cutting it up) But I have found that something is missing. I wanted this book to feel more square and it was important that I send a book with the look and feel of what I have in mind. Editors, contrary to popular belief, are not mind readers.
I made pencil and ink sketches and took them to the local copy place to make me two dummies. I have some minor paper engineering to do when they are finished but in the meantime, I thought I would post the cover concept.
I think I would paint finished art as opposed to just drawing it, but this should work to present the book. Hopefully the story will stand up enough to get the idea across and sell the book.
Now that I'm finished with the dummy, I have to go clean my studio which looks like it was ransacked by a gang of pandas. (There's a good band name.... Gang of Pandas)
Adios for now.
Barney
PS Just previewed this post and there is a white spot under the panda's arm. I will ink that in before sending this off. It should be black down there.
I've had horrible writer's/artist's block the last several weeks (my blog is growing cobwebs). Something about this article and wonderful cover illustration knocked me out of my slump. Thank you!
Paige,
THANK YOU for taking the time to write that. You never know what it will take to get bopped back into the groove. A note as simple as yours reminds me that I am 'not' writing into oblivion and occasionally, people are reading this. Keep going!