I've been thinking a lot about what "illustration" and "visual storytelling" means to me personally for a while now, and seeking out different thoughts about how pockets of the illustration industry define themselves. Picture Books, Middle Grade, Chapter books, New Readers, Young Adult, etc etc etc... Today, I stumbled upon a couple links regarding different types of "books with pictures".

And it was really eye-opening. I had no idea there were so many options... I keep running into more and more examples of books and other products that don't fit neatly into specific categorization. For example, the "new hybrid" of Illustrated Novels seems to be delineating itself in recent years from the more comics-originated Graphic Novels genre (i.e. the work of Brian Selznik or Jeff Kinney or the Folio Society Vs. Frank Miller or Mike Mignola, for example), but it has actually been around for a very long time (Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince are two prime examples).

Anyway, I thought I'd share. They're fascinating reads and quite encouraging (well for me, anyway) because there are so many more potential opportunities for "storytelling" illustration than I ever thought...

http://greatstorybook.com/picture-book-types/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/bring-back-the-illustrated-book

@Lee-White OH, man, I cannot wait for that class!! That's gonna be so helpful! Thank-you thank-you thank-you!!

As a newer explorer of the world of illustration, I will admit to being deeply confused about conflicting advice regarding "style"... It's a heady topic. For people like me still at the beginning of developing their skills, it's both heartening to hear that one doesn't have to be cemented in a particular "style" once they develop it, and disheartening to hear from so many in other corners conversely express trepidation at too much experimentation. I think it all depends on where you are in your career development and the particular field of illustration you're trying to fit into.

In some ways it might be too easy for beginning illustrators to misunderstand and infer that it's okay to just keep exploring and never really develop or settle on a style. Constantly trying new things is certainly a developmental necessity, but at a certain point one hopes to make that deep soul connection with one's own expressiveness where "style" is a natural extension of one's self. I'm... discovering that's a real journey and a half... hehe... And it requires a lot of research, self-examination, diligently aware choice-making and perpetual risk. I sometimes wonder if everyone is waiting for some magical epiphany to happen to them, and if they just keep trying new things and different methods their style will just magically happen naturally (is that contradictory?!?)...

To me, this podcast has taught me that style is not only about inspirational emulation and discovery but it's also about evolution. One has to first reach a point of stylistic awareness and consistency in order to embrace changing it. Confidence and commitment come before change.

I also wonder if it's really a "change" as much as it's a "progression"? It could be argued that many of the artists with different "periods" were actually developing and maturing their creative capacities. It's clear that's easier to do in the world of Fine Art than in the world of Illustration where commercial risk is assumed by a wider number of involved parties...

I'm not sure this podcast made a significant impact on my personal educational journey where I am now, but I know it will stick with me for a LONG time and it's nice to know you all are also providing thought-provoking material for mid-career illustrators at different junctures in their lives. It's encouraging to know that SVSLearn can serve a lot of different levels in a lot of different ways. Thanks so much for doing what you do, guys!!

Welcome to the forums, @Passion-Hart!

I teach theatrical Costume Design at the University of San Diego. There are a variety of texts that are commonly used in Costume Design classes that directly address what you're talking about. Even though they're mostly about live performance, the fundamentals of designing key costumes for a theatre or illustration are essentially the same.

You might find The Magic Garment by Rebecca Cunningham to be highly useful. She breaks down design Elements and Principles and literally walks you through charts of of how they are manipulated to elicit different information in costume renderings.

As an aside, the very successful children's illustrators, Janet and Anne Graham Johnstone, lived their entire lives with their mother--who was a professional Costume Designer--and their work became known for its lovely use of historical accuracy and detail in their characters. They were highly influenced by their mother's work. Just an FYI.

As always, Chip, you've done a lovely job! Thank-you so much!!

San Diego, CA

I just completed a series of animal portraits that I'd been working on. I'm imagining these as a collection of small posters for for preschool-1st grade students. They were all done in Procreate. I learned a lot!! It was an opportunity to practice some different types of fur and play with Procreate's symmetry tool. I also got to dabble with Will Terry's "glow effect black color dodge layer", which was fun.

TITLE: Picture This: How Pictures Work
AUTHOR: Molly Bang
ILLUSTRATOR: Molly Bang
COPYRIGHT YEAR: Revised version--2016
PUBLISHER: Chronicle Books
TYPE OF BOOK: General Illustration, How-to/Technique/Instructional/Tutorial
LINK TO PURCHASE : Amazon.com

ABOUT THE BOOK:

This is hands down a great book. It's a classic and a fundamental part of a lot of artist libraries. It uses the story of Little Red Riding Hood told with simply shapes, colors and compositions to discuss why we feel certain things when we see specific pictures and how we can use those principles to compose our own stories and elicit emotional responses.

I can't recommend this book enough. I sometimes give it away as a gift. My university's Theatre department uses it in their Fundamentals of Theatrical Design class. I urge every narrative artist to read it. It is full of wonderful concepts that can help you make strong choices to empower your storytelling. It seems so simple, but it is elegant in its simplicity, and powerful in its impact. There is an older version, but the newest 2016 update includes some additional small bits of new material by Molly Bang as well as retaining and reprinting all the old content.

I wonder if there are some reflections you can ponder to help answer some of your questions.

1. What is it about these specific inspirational images that help you achieve what you want that other inspirational images don't?

2. What is it about the specific texture/rendering technique that is absolutely required for you to help tell your narrative?

3. What is it about the inspiration's composition that helps tell your story, as opposed to a different composition?

I agree that the inspirational images are lovely. But I wonder if there aren't also other inspirational images that might potentially also jump out as strongly communicating your narrative. Might it be a good exercise to contemplate and articulate exactly what the narrative is? That might help you tell your story without relying upon the assistance of the inspirational imagery so strongly. Sticking so close to the inspirations may be a choice, but I'm not sure it's as strong a choice as you might make. The final image is indeed gorgeous, but is it you who is telling your story, or are you inadvertently deferring to your inspirations to do the storytelling?

Just some food for thought.

FYI, there is a great book called Picture This by Molly Bang. It shows how shapes and colors and composition are used to help elicit emotion. She breaks down the story of Little Red Riding Hood into a simple image, and uses shapes and colors to communicate relationships and narrative. It could be a helpful resource for quandaries like this. We use it in our Fundamentals of Theatrical Design class I teach at my university. It's well worth reading, and might shape how you think about solutions to challenges like this.

Here's a vid about the book, too.

I can't speak from experience, but I can speak from outside observation. So take this advice for what it's worth. Sometimes being on the outside can be good and sometimes it can be bad.

My 2¢ worth of advice is be prepared to go down the rabbit hole learning a couple different avenues for income streams. If you want to have a part time job and work freelance, devote yourself to Children's Illustration as much as you can but don't ignore other possibilities where your talents may be viable. Because the face of illustration keeps changing a LOT. Decade by decade. Year by Year. And to be honest, it seems to me that most of the successful artists nowadays may be eating from the pie in front of them but have their fingers in a couple of others at the same time.

Schoolism and Gnomon are really good for Gaming and Entertainment education in my opinion. There are lots of online self-guided education sites like New Master's Academy and Proko that speak to the Fine Arts if that interests you. There are many MANY artists that have dabbled in video teaching in some way/shape/form/venue (Skillshare, Udemy, and even SVS for example, but let's not forget ArtStation and Gumroad as marketplaces for individual courses).

What you won't find out there is much about the specifics of what you need for a portfolio in specific fields in the way that Lee, Jake, and Will articulate it here at SVS. This podcast is a good one for explaining what needs to be in a Children's Illustration portfolio.

I'm feeling what you're feeling right now--I'm exploring new fields trying to find part-time work myself. So I empathize. It's never a comfortable feeling to have your life shift like that. But it sounds like you have a very very clear action plan--which is SO much more than so many other folks have. You're gonna do this.