Children's Book Research

Before I go any further with my book illustrations, I want to research some children's books to get a better idea of how to layout a more professional looking book...

The 'Little Tiger Press' Publishing House (http://www.littletigerpress.co.uk/) represent alot of illustrators that I find have a similar style to my acrylic paintings - for example: Alison Edgson, Jane Chapman, Tina Macnaughton, and Caroline Pedler.


Caroline Pedler

Here are two different layout examples of Caroline Pedler's work for Little Tiger Press.

This first image, a character sketch for the book 'Little Bear's Big Jumper', demonstates a stand alone image (no background) - much like my illustration of the Hedgehog for Page 1 of my book. I must also consider where to place my text alongside my image, like in this sketch.

Character sketch from 'Little Bear's Big Jumper'
Illustrated by Caroline Pedler

The image blow is a double page spread for the book 'A Friend Like You'. This is a good example of how a page layout can be kept interesting by mixing a full page illustation alongside a half page illustration. 

Each page has a different angle that the characters are viewed from - this again makes for an interesting composition for the audience to look at, something I too must consider for my own book! 

Page spread from 'A Friend Like You'
Illustrated by Caroline Pedler

Tina Macnaughton

Here are some photographs of a book called 'Time For Bed Little One', which was illustrated by Tina Macnaughton.

I've used this book as an example as I think it covers a variety of different ways to layout illustrations in a book page - from full page spreads, to double page spreads, to smaller action shots.

It also displays a good example of how to layout text alongside or within an image - something I will look back on once I'm at the stage of adding in the text to my book.