Character Design Tips for Children’s Book Illustration

One of the first steps when developing a story is to get to know your characters . You want to make sure that your character design is appealing, timeless and has a unique style.

Here are a few tips for developing a character design for children’s books:

• Develop your character’s personality

You want to know everything there is to know about them: what they like, what they don’t like, what is their motivation, what is their conflict, etc.

I greatly recommend to check out this article by illustrator Dorothia Rohner where she talks about Character Bibles.

• Silhouettes/ Negative Space

I like to start sketching my characters by making basic graphic shapes as silhouettes. This process helps so that we are able to recognize the character even if we don’t see too many details. When doing this make sure that the proportions of your character are varied so that the design is more interesting. Play with your designs so that the silhouettes are also asymmetrical. This could also help to create more dynamic shapes, you can use their costume, hair or other objects to play with the negative space and to play with the silhouette overall.

Character studies for "The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra", written by Marc Tyler Nobleman, 

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017. Brush pen, pencil and watercolor on paper.

• Refine/details

Once you have the basic shapes from your silhouette you can go ahead and add the details. Some of these may be facial features, costumes, etc.

Character studies for "The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra", written by Marc Tyler Nobleman, 

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017. Pencil and watercolor on paper.

• Consistency

Be consistent with the style that you’re using for your characters. For example if you’re using a more cartoony style make sure that all of your characters have the same style or if you’re going for a realistic style make sure that you are using this one and that it is accurate. Push the style so that it remains consistent and try to avoid staying in the middle of two very different styles. 

Illustrations from "The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra", written by Marc Tyler Nobleman, 

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017. Ink, watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper.

• Style & personality

Creating a personal style takes years in the making. If you have found something that you enjoy doing and that you could spend 4, 8, 12 hours working non stop, then this is what you should be doing! -and you should continue developing it.

Illustration from "The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra", written by Marc Tyler Nobleman, 

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017. Ink, watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper.

• Do not hide the hands of your characters

When drawing your characters make sure not to hide their hands on their back or in their pockets. We can tell a lot about a character’s personality by their hands.

• Using Photo Reference

This is great for figuring out complex poses or to find out which poses are more interesting than others. You can use photo reference from either Internet or pictures taken by you. I love illustrator Kelley McMorris’ blog posts about doing your own reference pictures material, check them out!

Ranger in Time: Hurricane Katrina Rescue

Photo References

• Do what you love/share the love

Have lots of fun and explore things that feel right to you!

If you found this article helpful please feel free to share!

How do you create character designs and what is your process?

Thanks for stopping by!

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Ana Aranda writes/illustrates for children and creates murals. She recently illustrated "The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra", written by Marc Tyler Nobleman, Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books (2017), "Plus Fort Que Le Vent", written by Julia Billet, Éditions du Jasmin (2018) and "Our Celebración!", written by Susan Middleton Elya, Lee & Low Books (Fall 2018)
You can find her work at these different locations:

Website:www.anaranda.com

Twitter: @anaranda2
Instagram: @Anarandaillustration

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anarandaillustration

Blog: http://anaranda.com/my-blog/