19 Best Children’s Book Illustration Styles for Your Book
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Let’s be honest. When you think of a picture book, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? When you look at a book on the shelf, what often makes you decide if you want to buy it? If the answer to both questions is THE ART then you’re not alone.
While every word in a picture book matters, it’s the illustrations that bring the story to life in a vibrant, exciting way—especially for children who can’t yet read the words on the page, but still enjoy flipping through a book! A big part of that vibrancy is an illustrator’s style, which sets the overall tone for the book. Some illustrative styles are bold and bright, which evokes a lively, happy tone. Other styles might be more muted, giving a book a more serious feel. Either way, illustration style can play a big role in how well a children’s book comes together.
But as an author who is creating your own picture book, trying to find an artist and trying to decide on what art style speaks to you can be daunting. After all, there are so MANY different kinds of art out there. How can an author even figure out what to tell an artist they are looking for? By understanding the different kinds of illustration styles and mediums!
What is a children’s book illustration style?
Much like authors have their own voice or writing style, illustrators spend years mastering and honing their own specific artistic style. An illustrator’s style encompasses all the nuances and characteristics they use to make their artwork uniquely their own. This might include the specific mediums an artist uses, a well-defined color palette, unique brush or pen strokes, or anything that sets their work apart from others in the industry. Take Dr. Seuss, for instance; his bright, bold, and exaggerated illustrative style is easy for readers to recognize. So what are the different art styles available to an author? Let’s take a look!
Photorealistic illustrations
Sometimes an author wants to truly show what a subject looks like. But how can that be done without photographs, which can be challenging to use in a picture book? With an artist who specializes in realistic art. This illustration style is so precise that it almost looks like a picture itself. Photorealistic portrayals can make a reader feel closer to the story, as if they are right there. This style is more frequently used in nonfiction, but occasionally it pops up in fiction, too, as in the examples below by artist Chris Van Allsburg.
Realistic illustrations
Not to be confused with photorealistic art, realistic illustrations accurately depict the world around us, usually in vivid detail and without exaggeration, however they are clearly meant to be seen as illustrations rather than photographs. Realistic illustrations are one of the most popular illustration styles for children’s picture books.
Sketches
Usually done in black-and-white, sketch illustrations are most common in chapter books and middle grade novels. These illustrations may appear as full-page illustrations (often kept to one or two per chapter) or can be used as smaller spot art or chapter opening art.
Vintage illustrations
These classic illustrations, usually created through traditional methods like colored pencil and watercolor, are designed to evoke a sense of nostalgia in the reader. Often these illustrations are partnered with a book that portrays a moment or personality from the past.
Cartoon illustrations
Perhaps the most popular illustrative style used by children’s book artists today, cartoon illustrations speak to children in a fun, engaging way. Bright, bold colors enable an artist to bring a character to life, usually through the use of exaggerated facial expressions.
Fantasy illustrations
Fantasy art veers more toward whimsical, encouraging young readers to tap into their imagination as they read.
Abstract illustrations
These exaggerated, bold illustrations are more conceptual artwork than exact replicas of real things. Abstract art veers toward more organic or geometric shapes, bold prints and patterns, and perfectly clashing color palettes. Though nice to look at in an art gallery, this kind of art can be hard to make work in a children’s picture book.
Muted illustrations
Characterized by muted colors, these illustrations are most common for serious topics in picture books, from heartwarming to sad.
Exaggerated illustrations
These illustrations go over the top, stretching reality by exaggerating shapes, colors, and expressions. This style is most often associated with Dr. Seuss.
Line drawings
Rarely seen in traditional children’s picture books, this style of drawing is most popular in activity and coloring books, as well as other low-content books.
Popular illustration mediums
Now that you’ve had a chance to see some of the most popular illustrative styles used in picture books, let’s talk more about the tools and mediums that artists use to create their distinct artwork.
Graphite or charcoal
Primarily for artwork that’s black and white in tone, this medium is perfect for drawing illustrations that use shading and shadows to create a gripping, distinct look.
Colored pencil
Surprisingly, many children’s book illustrators use colored pencils in their designs because of its versatility. Plus, pencils can be manipulated to create extremely detailed art, not only through color, but through black and white sketches.
Markers
This medium is known for creating bright, bold illustrations with colors that pop. Not only that, but artists are able to create art with fine point tip precision to include stunning details.
Watercolor
Wildly popular among artists, this traditional method of illustrating is a versatile medium for creating a diverse portfolio of art. Manipulated by water, pigments can be bright or muted, while edges can be soft or harsh.
Acrylic
A go-to medium for illustrators who prefer paint to pencil, acrylic provides bold colors and doesn’t take long to dry.
Collage
So much more than your mom’s scrapbook, this unique medium is easy to spot. It exhibits a layered, 3-D feel and fuses together various paper blends to craft a story.
Multimedia
Today, it’s not surprising to see illustrations created through multimedia, which means an artist used more than one medium to create a piece of art. Rather, artists use a combination of mediums, such as watercolor, acrylic, pastels, markers, or pens.
Digital
Perhaps the most common (and affordable) medium available for illustrators today is digital painting, which can mimic some of the most popular tradi
Vector illustration
A type of digital illustration, commonly created in Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Animate, vector artwork can be easily styled and layered on the page. The big benefit to vector art is that it can be easily sized up without losing quality if you change your trim size. Take a look at the example below from my upcoming book, The Shell. This image shows the open vector file, including all of the clipping paths that can be adjusted as needed.
How to choose a children’s book illustration style
As tempting as it can be to just pick a style you like and go with it, there are implications to different art styles. Some things to consider include the age range of your audience, the cost to create art, and your ability to make changes.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors to consider.
Traditional vs. digital illustration
Children’s book illustrations can be created either traditionally (on paper) or digitally. As technology evolves, it is getting harder to tell the difference between the two. Many of the tools digital artists use today can mimic those used by traditional artists, and it’s important to know that the creation of digital illustrations doesn’t make the work any less “real” or valuable than traditionally created art. Still, some authors prefer traditional illustrations to digital ones, so let’s take a look at both.
Traditional illustration
Traditional artists use mediums such as pen, pencil, markers, and paints to create illustrations. Once finished, the illustrations are either professionally photographed or scanned in order to be placed on the page. Traditional illustration methods can be more time-consuming and costly, but they do produce a beautiful book. Keep in mind with digital art that once an illustration is complete, it cannot be changed, so it is important to make sure that you carefully review sketches before approving.
Pro Tip: If scanning traditional art, be sure to scan it as CMYK at a minimum of 300 DPI. I prefer to scan at 600 DPI to allow for higher quality art.
Digital illustration
Digital artists create illustrations on their computer or tablet using programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Procreate. This method is less time-consuming and costs less to produce, which is why it’s quickly becoming a preferred method for children’s book illustration. The benefit to digital art is the ease with which changes can be made. Lines can be moved or redrawn with the click of a button and colors can easily be adjusted. Digital art also allowed for layered files, meaning that it is easy to separate one element from another. This can make it easier to reuse certain elements of an illustration for marketing purposes.
Target audience
Children’s book illustrations appear in all kinds of books, not just picture books. But not all books use the same kinds of illustrations. Where picture books tend to use full-bleed full-color art on every page, early chapter books tend to use full-color art scattered throughout while older chapter books use black-and-white line art.
Before selecting an illustration style, it’s important to understand the book’s target audience. Full-color art in a book intended for older readers can be off-putting as readers may feel the book looks too babyish, while sketch art in a picture book may make a book appear more mature than is intended.
How formatting impacts illustration style
Children’s picture books typically use four different types of illustrations: spot art, vignettes, single-page full bleed illustrations, and full-bleed spreads.
Spot illustration
Spot art—or a spot illustration— is a standalone piece of character art, usually with no background behind it. Pieces like this are often used to pull in on a character when an illustrator needs to showcase a certain emotion or action, but doesn’t need anything else around the character to show what’s going on.
Vignette
Vignettes are small scenes on a page. Often they are used in conjunction with each other to showcase more than one story scene playing out at a time. Vignettes most frequently appear when a series of actions is being shown one after another. These give a page the breathing room and white space that a full-bleed piece of art does not, allowing the illustrator to combine several story moments onto a page.
Full-bleed page
A full-bleed page is an illustration that fills the entire page. These pieces have complete backgrounds and are usually used for story moments that need to be highlighted.
Pro Tip: When using full-bleed art, consider how the pages will sit side-by-side. It is best to avoid two scene crashing together. For this reason, full-page art is usually set against spot art or a vignette to allow for white space and breathing room on a spread.
Full-bleed spread
Full-bleed spreads take up two full pages of a book, or a full book spread. These pages are commonly used in picture books to convey moments of heightened importance and story moments that really need to stand out. When deciding on a full-bleed spread, consider whether the scene is worthy of drawing such attention to it, or whether the decision is based solely on ease of pagination.
Pro Tip: Chapter books often include a piece of art called a “chapter head” illustration. This may be a full scene or a piece of spot art. The chapter head illustration sits above the chapter title or chapter number.
Hiring an illustrator
Before hiring an illustrator, be sure to have not only a basic understanding of what art style you want and what type of illustrations you’ll need, but also of how many illustrations you’ll need. Be sure to look over illustrator portfolios and ask for sample illustrations before making any decisions.