Illustrating and Writing a Children's Book

Start by discovering how your teacher Valentina Toro made her way into the world of picturebooks and why she chose this profession. She shares some of her biggest influences and describes the final project you’ll be working on throughout the course.

In the next unit, learn the fundamental approaches to writing a story, including searching for references, creating characters, brainstorming, and other creative techniques. This method helps you gradually build up the confidence to transform your ideas into stories.

Then, inject life into your ideas: develop your characters, plan out scenes and settings, and watch as everything starts coming together. Valentina shows you some techniques to help with this process, like how to create a storyboard, as well as some tips for tackling your first illustration.

Once you’ve thought through all the details, it’s time to illustrate. Learn how to turn your sketch into a final illustration and how to digitalize it to be used as the first image of your book. Lastly, get all your materials in order and create a mock-up to present to a publisher.