I have been concentrating on children’s books this year, the ones I have enjoyed most are the ones I have written myself but I think as much as this could be a strength of my practice I should also be looking for opportunities to work with authors. I found an article by an author and illustrator talking about the pro’s and cons of writing as well as illustrating. By doing both you can be more appealing to a publisher as you are effectively fulfilling two roles, the problem is if you are significantly better at one of those roles than the other. Your illustrations could be let down by you writing or vice versa. As a writer and illustrator you are hoping agents and publishers will want to take on your artwork and writing. I think I should be working on preexisting texts and trying to find authors to work with as well as writing my own stories. When illustrating your own story you can alter elements of either the story or the illustrations to make a more cohesive and immersive book but it is likely that professionally I will not have that luxury. It is important to be able to work to someone else’s story as a collaborative effort responding to feedback. This is another avenue of children’s book illustration I need to look into, it would be good to talk to authors about their experiences of collaborating with illustrators. I could ask;
- how they are usually introduced?
- what appeals to them about an illustrators work?
- what are the common problems encountered in collaboration?
- what makes collaborations run smoothly?
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