How to Illustrate Books for Children: Expert Tips from a Professional, Part One

Illustration from book three of “The Conjurers” Middle Grade Fantasy Series

Illustrations for book three have set sail! Currently, I’m working on chapter six. The manuscript is complete and the cover (oh wait until you see it!) is almost ready to reveal. To be honest, after I finished book two, I did not know where book three was going. I lost sleep thinking the third installment couldn’t possibly live up to the previous books and would leave readers unsatisfied with the ending.

And just when things couldn’t get worse, my editor suggested we needed to pull the villain from book three. Her backstory was a lot. Like several large suitcases of backstory that stretched back decades. To pull it off, the book would expand to over four hundred pages (probably). Doom, doom, doom with a side of doom. 

Every story has that “dark night of the soul” moment. This was mine, except it wasn’t fiction. But just like fiction, I had that wonderful revelation. You know the bit that was there all along, but you didn’t notice it? A character from “The Conjurers” webcomic got the call to the big league. Yep, I recast Latiff from a side story to the top of the call sheet for book three. And she didn’t disappoint. You’ll see. 

Back to the illustrations, as that is what my next several posts will focus on. I’ll try not to expose any spoilers from the art. As you can tell from the drawing above, book three picks up shortly after book two. Our heroic team setting sail on the sea of Dedi! Where are they going? Just you wait. You’ll get some hints from the next few drawings. All I will say for now is that they will encounter one of my favorite creatures I’ve ever conjured. The magician in me made sure that, like any excellent trick, this creature has some serious surprises. More on that next time.

I’ve stepped up the art game in book three. I wanted more intensity in the drawings to match the break neck action in this installment. I’ve added more intense shading and made the watercolor washes heavier. I think it adds more visceral reality and maturity just like the characters have matured through the story. Alex and Emma will face their greatest challenge yet and the art will match that intensity. Book three opens in a storm and that will be the calmest it gets. 

Book Review: Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball

Let’s start with the illustrations. They are fantabulous! They are what drew me to the books initially. If you’re a fan of Tim Burton or Edward Gorey, you’ll fall in love with these characters before reading a single word.

On to the story. It is a riotously fun, silly, touching tale, littered with disgusting details one would expect from a world populated by monsters. The attention to detail in the characters, their clothes, homes and food is astounding and endlessly entertaining. You can feel the joy the author must have had creating it all.

A gothic romp full of wit that will please anyone that wishes Halloween could be year round.

Writing and Illustrating Middle Grade Fantasy Books

Another peak at “The Conjurers” book two. Another double page spread. The text will be overlayed in white on the dark, crosshatched top half of the illustration. It’s technique I love and try not to overuse. Too much can be annoying to the reader methinks. But it is a fun way to blend the prose with live action shots.

I think this is from chapter nine. Can’t tell any details, although it is a big moment in Emma’s character art. After all her struggles, it was cool to come upon a scene in which, while everyone else was running from danger, she was running straight at it.

Aesthetically, I once again employ using deep perspective to make the drawings lift off the page and add drama. Perspective is an amazing tool and one I encourage young artists to work with. It can be terribly frustrating and I rarely get it close to correct, but the effects are worth it. I think I’ll include a simple perspective lesson in one of my live-streams.

Illustrations from "The Conjurers" Book Two

Here’s a two page spread from the end of chapter eight. I love ending chapters with a cliffhanger illustration. It’s fun to switch from text into a cinematic envisioning of the story. Plus, it keeps pulling readers along into the next chapter.

This drawing features the main setting in book two, Plomboria, the Jimjarian city. You meet several Jimjarians in book one, but it’s not until the second installment when you get to see more of their culture and a hint of their history. A history that plays a major part in book three. Can’t say too much. What I can say is that when you start writing a tale, you rarely see all the interwoven histories and characters. Things seem almost too simple, but you trust your gut and plug along. Then like magic, this entire world unravels before you. It’s like an archaeologist finding a pottery fragment in the dirt, then digging carefully away, almost on blind faith, in hopes of finding a lost civilization.

The Ups and Downs of writing Middle Grade Books and Webcomics

Read “The Conjurers” webcomic from the beginning here. Or click here for the latest episode.

The Conjurers Webcomic is back! Yep, I’m posting about it again. And I’ll be posting a lot more often. From the beginning, the webcomic was a simple, quick exercise while I was writing the books. It was a small break from plotting, writing and rewriting (and rewriting and rewriting…), and illustrating the novels. Over the years I’ve learned you need creative outlets on the side to keep your main work fresh. At the same time, that outlet can't eat up all your time.

So I compromised. I would do another comics project so long as I could do it quickly and it was related to “The Conjurers”. A webcomic was the perfect medium. I could take secondary characters from the book and send them on their own adventures. It was more beneficial than I could have ever imagined. It helped make two dimensional characters more 3D. I got to see how they behaved when they were the focus of the story. So while the comic was done in a rushed (and admittedly sloppy fashion), the characters became more real and those little details made their way into the books.

In this latest story arc, one such character became even more important. If you’re all caught up on the comics, you know a bit about Latif. She was created strictly for the comic. Cut to writing book three. My main antagonist (one of my favorite characters to date) had a complex backstory that was interwoven with other characters in the book. In order to pull it off, that meant there was a lot more story which meant a much bigger book. Too big. My editor suggested we had to cut her out of the story. That’s the kind of story note you want to ignore or fight or stomp your feet until you get your away. Except that she was right (as usual). 

What does one do with a first draft of a book which has suddenly had the main bad guy ripped out? You could toss it. That of course is a bit drastic considering there are two books that come before it. Or you freak out for a few days until suddenly, yo remember that little side experiment you’ve been scratching away at once a week. And you realize your have the perfect antagonist ready to go: Latif. 

Yep, the cold, mechanical Dr./Pharmaceutical billionaire that came out of nowhere in a webcomic story that was not related to the books was suddenly the star of book three. Her backstory was not as complex or intertwined with the previous plots of books one and two. Which meant she could fit perfectly into book three. On top of that, she’s my kind of villain, in that she does not see herself as a villain. Latif believes she is the hero. 

Now I can’t go on too much more without giving away spoilers. I can say that my former antagonist, Mekinda, will have her story told one way or another. Maybe in the webcomic, or maybe, hopefully, in future books. In the end it’s another valuable lesson that telling stories is not always a clean, straightforward process. Sometimes the biggest hurdles become the sweetest moments of inspiration. 

Return of "The Conjurers" Webcomic

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Yep. Finally. Now that all three novels are written, I’m slicing off a smidge of time to bring back the webcomic. There’s still a lot of work to be done on books two and three. A ton of fine tune editing and all the illustrations. However, with book one coming out next July, I wanted the webcomic to revived and breathing well before the launch. Mostly because, even though it’s a rag-tag experiment, I love it. I love getting to visit the cast of “The Conjurers” books outside of prose filled pages.

Also, I know as a reader, it’s always cool when yo can visit a fantasy world in multiple mediums. And it’s super cool when you can visit that world while waiting for the next book to release. Besides, there are so many people and creatures and places in the Conjurian that I want to see. The best way to do that is an ongoing comic.

The next installment will launch on Halloween, which falls on a Thursday this year. There’ll be a new episode every Monday after that. If you have no idea what I’ve been rattling on about, you can read the comic from the beginning here: https://www.gocomics.com/the-conjurers