Guides & Tutorials

Illustration

Twelve deep-dive guides for illustrators — picture-book craft, character design, colour, composition, client work, contracts and self-publishing.

How a manuscript becomes a picture book: pacing text across pages.

Small, fast sketches that expose structural problems while they're cheap.

Silhouette, appeal and readable shapes that carry personality.

Using temperature, value and saturation to set emotional tone.

Focal points, eye flow and what to leave out.

Building mental models of anatomy so you can draw from imagination.

Codifying your own rules so book two looks like book one.

Feedback loops, revisions and keeping the collaboration sane.

Usage, territory, exclusivity and why the words matter as much as the art.

Bleed, resolution, colour space and formats publishers expect.

Editing, layout, printing, distribution and launch — solo.

An online presence that brings clients to you instead of the reverse.