Picture Book Basics - Sketches and Layout

In the second part of a series for illustrators starting out in Picture Books, Words & Pictures Illustration Editor John Shelley takes a look at planning images and layout.



So you have a story, and maybe some character studies and other sketched drawings. The next stage is to plan out the book and make a dummy. 

Storyboards

A common starting point for illustrators is to mark out a storyboard on a single sheet of paper, representing the whole book in small thumbnail sized squares. This allows the artist to pencil in the basic design of each page, plan how the story unfolds over the pages, divide up the text, see where the dramatic points are, and consider the rhythm of the images. As the sketches are thumbnail size and very simple it's an easy matter to rub out and redraw. Some illustrators draw tiny sketches or write the text on sticky notes which they can switch around the pages, though I find these have the annoying habit of curling up and falling off! 

storyboard for one of my recent books Jack and the Beanstalk, note the stickies!

Sketching and Layout

Having roughly planned the book it's time to make larger sketches for each page or spread. Personally I draw pencil roughs at A5 size per page (so A4 for a double page spread) scan these to make my dummy and later enlarge for the final artwork stage, but everyone will have their own method. 

All books (indeed all illustrators!) are different and the variety of style, composition and design is much too big a subject to summarise here. However here are a few commonly accepted pointers:

Boxed, Vignette, Spot and Full Bleed

(This may sound somewhat obvious, but it's worth clarifying!) 
In classically constructed books, a "boxed" illustration has straight defined edges, possibly with a border or frame, and sits within the confines of the page, so there is a gap between the image and the trim (i.e. the edge of the page). The illustration might be cropped from a loose-edged original, or painted to a ruled edge. As the border encloses the scene these are particularly suited to images with a considered, balanced composition. 

Boxed in illustration from Levi Pinfold's Greenaway award winning Black Dog. Notice how the dog's paw breaks the straight line to bring the illustration out of the page. Pinfold also includes a small Spot by the text. (© Templar Publishing)

Vignettes are illustrations with faded or loosely defined edges. The loose edges incorporate the white of the surrounding page to give the image space, lightness and draw the viewer into the scene.

Quentin Blake is a master of vignettes, the background is minimal but loose borders encourage the reader to mentally fill in the rest. (© Quentin Blake)

A spot illustration is a small free-floating motif, usually with no background. In picture books spots are particularly useful as visual addenda to the main narrative.
 
Bleed refers to part of an illustration that runs off the page edges, 'full bleed' means an image that entirely fills the page and is cropped by the trim. Nowadays very many picture books are full bleed throughout, however it's particularly effective when suddenly brought into play for the most dramatic and panoramic images. 

Axel Scheffler double page showing a full bleed illustration and two vignettes
(© Alison Green Books)

 

Big or Small?

A small image on a page surrounded by white space focuses on detail, so it might suggest quiet intimacy, or a key-hole view of a drama about to unfold. Some books begin with smaller images, then gradually open up to full bleed as the drama unfolds. The reverse can work too - big to small. A classic example of this approach is Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, where the first and last illustrations are small, with very wide white margins, while the central fantasy spreads are full bleed.

Another use of small images is to break up a series of actions into details on a page. So for example, a piece of text might describe a character putting on a coat, then shoes, then tieing on a hat... one single image would suffice to cover all these actions, but by separating each into a series of vignettes or spots on a page a sense of time and motion can be introduced. 

sequential images from Emma Chichester-Clark
(© Emma Chichester-Clark)

 

Crescendos and Patterns

Picture books are a little like songs in that there is usually some kind of pattern or structure that the whole book follows, a regular rhythm flowing through, with choruses of loud, dynamic pages at key stages. It's equally true of both text and illustration. An image near the front of a book might be reflected with a similar design later to create a resonance. 

Two spreads from my in-the-pipeline book Stone Giant, the top image is page 06/07, the lower is page 26/27. I designed these two spreads with their sequences of square blocked in images to mirror each other, though they're at opposite ends of the book.

 

Page Turning

A key element of picture books is the need to move the narrative forward - the reader should always be encouraged to turn the page. This can be done by building tension and expectation in the image or text, ensuring plenty of movement from left to right, and drawing the reader's attention to the page corners. 

Rules are Made to be Broken!

Well, some of them perhaps. It's not necessary to mix image sizes in a book - regularity works well if the story has a strong rhythm. Full bleed images don't have to be panoramic. Within these basic patterns all kinds of fun can be had by breaking up these types and inventing ways to combine/contrast layouts. In fact this is what makes picture books so interesting. Go wild, be clever, be crazy! But remember, however mad the page layout, the narrative has to move forward, it has to be understandable as a book. 

The key thing is to follow instincts suggested by the text, do what the story conjures. 

challenging design and typography from Sarah Fanelli (© Phaidon Press)

Things to be careful of:
Remember the gutter (the book's hinge)! Avoid putting busy elements in the part of the book closest to the spine, they'll be lost in the final product. Be especially careful not to place key characters in the gutter! 

Consider the text - where will it lie? How much space will it require? Will it run over the illustration or be separate on the page? Likewise, leave a good gap between text and the gutter and page trim.

Page design is a big topic with myriad aspects. It's a good idea to peruse a lot of picture books and examine how other artists solve the challenges of page layout. There's also a lot of inspiring stuff on the Web if you dig around - for example Design of the Picture Book is a useful resource.

Dummies

Some illustrators make very elaborate dummies before submitting to publishers, but editors frequently say that a dummy that is too polished can actually make it difficult to consider the story. It's often recommended that artists sketch out spreads in simple black and white roughs, nothing too complicated, overlay the text, and draw just one or two finished images in colour to give an indication of the final look. 

One of my pencil roughs for Halloween Forest, from the first dummy. The finished image is here

Personally I sketch all my dummies in pencil on loose sheets, scan in to Photoshop, adjust, then lay out using InDesign, adding the text. I might spend a long time tweaking, changing around and so on before I'm happy with the result. Finally I'll save as a lightweight .pdf which I can then either email to my agent/art director or print out, clip into a plastic file and show as a physical dummy. 

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John Shelley is the Illustration Feature Editor of Words & Pictures and current Central East Network coordinator. 
He's illustrated over 40 books for children, many of them published in Japan where he lived for many years. His next title The Stone Giant is scheduled for release by Komine Shoten in Tokyo this autumn, and Charlesbridge in the US in Spring 2014.   www.jshelley.com

Picture Book Basics - Understanding Format

In the first of a series of articles on picture book basics, Words & Pictures Illustration editor John Shelley offers some beginner guidelines to format.



One of the first problems picture book illustrators and writers face is - how long should my book be? How much text, how many images, how many pages, what proportions and size? 

Text versus Illustration

What we generally refer to as a "picture book" covers everything from pop-ups to e-books, graphic novels to non-fiction, baby books to sophisticated. But whatever the format, they fit into one of two types - story books, where the text tells the whole story and can be logically read without images, and true picture books, where the pictures and words combine together to tell the story. Folk tales (old and new) are a good example of story books as, being designed to be read aloud, they don't require illustration in order to be understood. The illustrations are there to reinforce and enhance the reading experience. But in true picture books the text is pared down to just the narrative, illustrations fill in the description, and may include wordless sub-plots. Thus to understand the story fully the reader has to read both the illustrations together with the text, words alone would be insufficient without the images. 

Here are double page spreads from two very different books:

STORY BOOK: Michael Morpurgo The Pied Piper of Hamelin (illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark) © Walker Books 

PICTURE BOOK: Oliver Jeffers The Incredible Book Eating Boy  
© Harper Collins

Publishers have their own unique requirements for picture books based on the age group, type of book and the markets they target, in the UK 900 words is about the accepted maximum, but this is getting shorter as many houses pursue US co-editions where current trends are for no more than 500 words, and frequently less. There are exceptions and cross-overs, this year's Greenaway Award winner Levi Pinfold's Black Dog is a 32 page picture book with relatively full text. David Fickling once told me not to worry about word count, "just write what the story needs!" Story books have been tough to sell for a long time, but I like to think there is a growing revival of longer texts, nevertheless be aware the project is a harder sell if it's outside commonly accepted formats. 

Number of Pages

Picture books are constructed from signatures. Pages are laid out and printed together on large sheets, which are cut in half (giving 4 sides), then half again (8 sides), then folded, making a bundle of 16 pages called a “signature”. Many picture books consist of two signatures sewn together, resulting in a 32 page book. It's the most common format, and as common is generally easier to produce, it's best to submit dummies with a 32 page plan. However for slightly extra cost an extra half sheet (8 pages) can be added, making 40 page (2.5 signature) and 24 page (1.5 signature) books. Three signatures would create a 48 page book, four a 64 pager and so on. Even more confusingly, on rare occasions sheets are removed too - my last book in Japan, a version of Jack and the Beanstalk, is an irregular 44 page separate ended book - that's three signatures with one sheet (4 pages) replaced by separate endpapers. 

Construction of a hardcover 32-page separate-ended book. Jacket flaps are quite unusual for picture books in the UK now, but still very common in the US and many other countries.

How many pages are actually usable for the story depends on whether the book is “Separate-Ended” or “Self-Ended”. 

Separate-ended books have two separate sheets (usually in a coloured cheaper paper) as blank endpapers. That means all sides of the printed signatures are available to use, page 1 and page 32 of a 32-page book are the first and last pages. Commonly page 1 just carries a simple Half Title (i.e. A plain page with just the title), pages 2-3 are a more elaborate Title Page or frontispiece and p.32 can be used as the last page of the story (though often it just has a vignette motif or is left blank). If the text starts at p.4-5 that makes up a maximum 14 and a half spreads (29 pages) available for the story. 

32 page separate ended layout. The brown pages are the plain endpapers in a coloured paper; yellow indicate those available for use for the story.

Self-ended books however are pasted directly onto the cover boards with no separate endpapers. So, in the case of a 32-page self-ended book, page 1 and page 32 are glued down and never seen, pages 2-3 and 30-31 are used as the endpapers, and pages 4-5 are the title pages. That leaves 12 spreads (24 pages) available for the actual story, or just 11 if a half-title page is included. Self-ended books often have illustrated endpapers because the pasted side is the same paper as the rest of the book. 

32-page self-ended picture book with no half-title. Brown pages are pasted down on the boards, the ochre pages can be (though not always) used as printed endpapers. Yellow pages are those available for the story and illustrations

By the same token, if the publisher uses all 32 pages but still wants illustrated endpapers then the coloured paper is replaced by printing paper, which then classifies the work as a 40-page self-ended book. 

Confused? Have a look through your bookshelf and check the endpapers of your picture-books – blank ones in a different paper are separate ended. 

But hold on! You say - what about e-books? surely they can be any format and page count we want? Yes that's true, but consider that most publishers produce traditional paper editions alongside ebook versions, so the old rules still apply!

Page proportions

Another common conundrum is what size and proportion should the paper trim be? For dummy submissions it's not usually necessary to determine exact page proportions - if the book is taken on by a publisher eventual sizes will be amended. Some publishers will have specific requirements for page size, especially in the case of series. Other times it's a matter of consultation between illustrator and art director. The most important thing in the first sketch stage is to decide whether the book will be portrait (i.e. taller than wider) or landscape (wider than taller). The pictures may dictate this - common sense suggests that stories including a lot of wide background vistas may work better in landscape format, those with lots of vertical elements like buildings, trees and full figure characters work best in portrait. Exactly square formatted books are uncommon, usually seen in titles for the very young, publishers are less keen however for older age groups. 

My book The Boat in the Tree was set by a river, which suggested a lot of horizontal panoramas, so I used landscape proportions. This book was conceived as a 32 page separate-ended book, but was increased to 40 page self ended when I was asked to illustrate the endpapers

Jack in the Beanstalk however is all about vertical beanstalks, tall ogres and soaring castles, so portrait format was an obvious choice. I actually planned the book to be even taller and narrower, but my Japanese editor felt it would be awkward on the shelf and requested more width. 44 page separate ended story book

For sketched dummies, one way to decide format is to focus on the key images you want to draw for the book, take some page measurements from published books you think fit the same proportions and base your planning on those. If they like the dummy, an editor will soon tell you of any amendments.

Some books use unusual size or proportions as a key element in the design/storytelling process, however consider that the book has to fit comfortably on the shop shelf. As ever, the more challenging the format, the more difficult it is to get it published!

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John Shelley is the Illustration Feature Editor of Words & Pictures and current Central East Network coordinator. 
He's illustrated over 40 books for children, many of them published in Japan where he lived for many years. His next title The Stone Giant is scheduled for release by Komine Shoten in Tokyo this autumn, and Charlesbridge in the US in Spring 2014.   www.jshelley.com

Duck & Bear Episode 2

It's rolling! Episode 2 of Amanda Lillywhite's exciting tale of Duck and Bear is now online.

Will Duck complete her edits and finish the novel? Where is she going in the rain? And what's on Bear's mind? Find out here!

A Picture Book in Graphic Format

By Gillian McClure

Zoe’s Boat will be launched this weekend at the SCBWI Mass Book Launch in Winchester.

In this picture book, I wanted to introduce the very young child to a graphic format while at the same time offering a good read-aloud text.    

Originally Zoe’s Boat was not in graphic format. Above, is a first draft in picture book format with just  two moments in time; Zoe and the Dog sitting on the river bank and then a close-up of them talking.

After that came this version which is in graphic format; five frames with speech bubbles and the text at the top . Some graphic stereotypes are also included: thought bubbles and a question mark.

Finally I arrive at this where there are no speech bubbles, just text frames with a story an adult can read aloud to the child, making Zoe’s Boat part picture book, part graphic novel.

In the finished spreads like the one above, the text frames were done with about 70% opacity so that they would recede on the page allowing the pictures to take precedence in the story telling process. The graphic layout of the frames vary in this book and hopefully develop the child’s ability to read pictures, navigate the page and follow a pictorial narrative sequence with the correct eye movement from left to right which will, ultimately, help with the process of learning to read. The arrangement of the images has to be logical and intelligible so in the first couple of spreads I ease the child into the graphic form using a straight forward layout: the child’s eye must move down the left hand side of the page, back up and across to the right-hand side of the page and finally down to the bottom of that page. The action in the frames needs to be easily understood by the child – here a simple head movement – Zoe and the Dog on the left- hand side looking this way and that as things pass by, then on the top right hand side Zoe and the Dog focussing on each other and below this, a close up, like a camera zooming in, when they find themselves in a situation where they're at odds with one another.

I’d hoped the emotional dilemma on the previous spread would catch the child’s attention enough to sustain the interest here on the left-hand page where the child needs to be able to read the body language of Zoe and the Dog in order to understand what they’re feeling, for there’s no clue in the text. Once the story has caught the child’s attention it must retain it, so on the right-hand page, I have Zoe unwrapping her boat – like unwrapping a present - knowing the child will be more interested in this than what the dog is doing or feeling. Like Zoe, ‘But Zoe doesn’t hear’, in these frames, the child probably won’t be paying much attention to the Dog either . 

I relied on Zoe’s ‘special things’ to further retain the child’s interest in the spread above. This seemed to work when I showed the book to a six year old girl who was particularly interested in all the ‘stuff’ shown here, along with the list in Zoe’s neat hand writing ( in contrast to the Dog’s hand writing on his list.)

    Meanwhile, there's a new arrangement of frames to further develop  the child’s reading-eye movement. It’s not too different from the previous two spreads; the bottom left-hand frame is simply split into three smaller ones that have to be read from left to right. On the next spread there will be another more complicated variation in the arrangement of frames…

Here, the left-hand page is the same as that of the previous spread but the right-hand page is introducing a new vertical movement for the child’s eye (down to the duck then back up to the Dog) before moving across to the two smaller frames on the far right which read from top to bottom.

Perhaps this spread is one of the more demanding pictorial sequences for the child to read correctly for the eye has to navigate from left to right three times down the page on the left-hand side before moving across to the single climatic frame on the right where the child can pause a moment and take in the Dog’s indignation and shock at being left behind.

Zoe’s Boat is a story with a lot of action and this lends itself to the graphic format. In this and  the following two spreads the flow of action in the pictures and the rhythm of the sea take over the dynamic of the story. Here the sea creates a rocking movement on the right-hand side in contrast to the static pier where the path abruptly ends.

And here, again, it’s the pictures rather than the text that create the dynamic of the page. The drama is unfolding in the images and the text is minimal. On the three wordless frames on the right-hand side, the child’s mind has to supply the words of the unfolding story. Having no words also accelerates the pace of the narrative and speeds up the page turn.

In fact, I could have omitted the text together from this spread but as I’d built into this book the voice of the adult reading aloud to the child I didn’t want to silence this voice altogether. For it’s the adult’s voice reading aloud to the child that makes Zoe’s Boat different from a comic or graphic novel where, in their paper form as opposed to their electronic form, there is never any actual sound.