Personality in Action: How Effective Characterization Inspires Main Character Design

Happy Thursday! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, picture book illustrator and soon-to-be-published author-illustrator. I’m happy to join you as the guest blogger for the SCBWI Blog this month.

Last week, I shared how a few short lines in John Schu’s This Is A School inspired my first sketches for the book, and helped me create the visual narrative. This week, I’ll be going inside the process of creating the main character and one of my favorite illustrations from Jennifer Swanson’s Up Periscope: How Engineer Raye Montague Revolutionized Shipbuilding.

Up Periscope!: Personality in Action

Up Periscope! was a delightful manuscript to read and a fun book to research. Another American “hidden figure,” Raye Montague (much like Katherine Johnson) was a brilliant Black woman whose mind for math and computers helped push engineering forward. She was the first person to design a U.S. naval ship using a computer.

In reading both the manuscript and Raye Montague's biography, Overnight Code, I learned that Raye was gutsy, tenacious and spirited, which informed the way I designed and applied action to her character. One of my favorite details is that Raye took a job at the Navy as a typist, fully intending to teach herself the skills to become an engineer (whether her bosses liked it or not!). 

Jennifer captured Raye's ambitious spirit in her writing, demonstrating her tenacity as Raye tackled several obstacles throughout the story. The author emphasized Raye's moxie with this refrain: "Raye knew she could learn anything, do anything, and be anything!" So my goal was to bring that pluckiness to every piece of artwork. (Raye's bright eyes and gap-toothed smile made that an easy task!)

Character design for young and grown-up Raye Montague

The other “character” in the book is the UNIVAC computer, the first American computer designed for commercial business use. This thing was massive and intimidating. The interface was complicated, with all sorts of buttons, switches and knobs, and the rest of the equipment took up entire rooms. I collected just as many research images of the UNIVAC and people using it as I did of our heroine, Raye.

Image via Wikipedia.

Image via Wikipedia.

A spunky main character and a formidable piece of computer equipment come together in one of the turning points in the biography. Raye, who hadn’t been able to use the UNIVAC in her office but had been secretly taking classes at night, suddenly needed to jump in for a whole staff of engineers. Jennifer Swanson writes it like this (emphasis mine):

One day, all the men who ran the computer were too sick to come to work. Raye jumped up and took over. Although she’d never touched the machine before, she knew which buttons to push, which levers to flip, and which instructions to type to get the UNIVAC to solve calculations.

What would it look like for one woman to take over for a whole team of engineers? While my research photos showed multiple people working on the computer at once, I imagined Raye, with her boundless ambition and energy, “jumping up” (in Jennifer’s words) to fill all of those roles. The verbs “push,” “flip,” and “type,” led me to the different actions Raye could be doing around the computer, in a flurry of activity.

The original thumbnail sketch for this scene.

A smidge more detail. Emphasis on "smidge."

When it came to deciding on color, I wanted to use a more limited palette than my previous projects. Starting with my personal faves, cobalt and phthalo turquoise and naples yellow, I developed a range of hues and shades. The olive and chartreuse tones weren’t used in the book; I added pops of lilac and orange (complements of yellow and turquoise) instead.

Color swatches from my sketchbook. Acrylic paint was used here.

So for this spread, I thought orange was the perfect color to emphasize Raye’s flurry of movement around the aqua-colored UNIVAC equipment.

The final artwork!

The idea of Raye independently moving around the UNIVAC appears one more time, later in the story. This time though, she’s on deadline and exhausted. Dark purple is the predominant color here, and the color scheme is mostly monochromatic, as Raye is essentially living in this room and has become one with the UNIVAC. The one pop of color comes when the telephone rings with an important call.

Same idea, different scene, different stakes.

It was fun to play with this concept - one woman doing many jobs - in different scenes with different emotional states. And it was all inspired by the way the author used her words to describe a tenacious young woman proving how capable she is.

The bright-eyed and ambitious Raye Montague!

SCBWI Resources: Awards & Grants

Hello all!

I'm back with another entry where I share and highlight some of the fantastic resources that SCBWI has to offer to its members. Since joining in 2020, I still find new and exciting ways to engage, connect and grow as a member of SCBWI and the greater KidLit community. 

Today, I want to highlight:

AWARDS & GRANTS

With so many awards and grants, there is something for everyone. From the Emerging Voices to Featured Illustrator, there are awards and grants geared toward all facets of the community. 

Some of the awards are reoccurring, with some fast approaching, so be sure to visit the Awards & Grants page to check them out!

Here are a few with approaching deadline! 

 Karen Cushman Late Bloomer Award

Award info

The Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award is for authors over the age of fifty who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field. The grant was established by Newbery Award winner and Newbery Honor Book recipient Karen Cushman and her husband, Philip Cushman, in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  The award is open to unpublished children’s book authors or author/illustrators over the age of fifty, and one winner will be chosen from the pool of those who have submitted material for the SCBWI Work-in-Progress Awards. The winner will receive $500 and free tuition to any SCBWI conference anywhere in the world.

(Conference tuition includes tuition to the general conference, and does not include transportation, hotel, and expenses.) SCBWI reserves the right not to confer this award in any given year. 

Submissions NOW OPEN through March 31, 2026.

Work-in-Progress Awards

Award info

The SCBWI Work-In-Progress (WIP) Award assists children’s book writers and illustrators in the publication of a specific project currently not under contract. One winner per category will be selected. SCBWI reserves the right not to confer this award in any given year.

SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!

Submissions open March 1--March 31, 2026.

Don Freeman Grant

Award info

To assist illustrators in the completion of a book dummy or portfolio.

Don Freeman was a renowned illustrator and an early supporter of SCBWI. He established this award to enable picture book illustrators to further their understanding, training, and work in the picture book genre. Two grants of $1,000 each will be awarded annually. One grant to a published illustrator and one to a pre-published illustrator. The money may be used in any way to help you complete your project. Acceptable uses include: purchasing art supplies, enrollment in workshops or conferences, courses in advanced illustrating or writing techniques, travel for research or to expose work to publishers/art directors, or childcare. In any given year, the SCBWI reserves the right to withhold either or both of the grants for that year.

Submissions NOW OPEN through March 31, 2026.

Words That Evoke Emotion and Inspire Illustrations

Hey there! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, picture book illustrator and soon-to-be-published author-illustrator (!). I’m happy to be the guest blogger for the SCBWI Blog this month.

Last week, I kicked off this series by sharing how Suzanne Slade’s writing in my first book project, A Computer Called Katherine inspired how I developed the art. This week I’ll be discussing the process of illustrating my book with the wonderful John Schu, This Is A School.

This Is A School: Leading with emotion

John Schu’s This Is A School is a loving poem that celebrates the school community and the spirit of learning. In this text, there is no narrative; instead the words describe the kinds of people a young student meets and the emotions they may experience as they connect and learn with others.

When I read the manuscript, I was reminded of that warm, first-day-of-school excitement by this passage:

Some days we get so excited,
We can’t wait to try something new.

These two lines inspired my first sketches for the book. I created a character (inspired by childhood photos of my husband) who is unabashedly excited about learning. My initial drawings show him bounding up the steps toward school and enthusiastically raising his hand in class. 

Top: Initial sketches of the character "DJ" in This Is A School. Bottom: A newspaper clipping of the real-life DJ in elementary school.

From there, I created a character map, brainstorming words to describe his personality and traits, and how he would react to different situations throughout the book. Mulling over the phrase “can’t wait to try something new,” I decide this character would be a budding scientist, who is awestruck as he tackles his first experiments (with safety goggles, of course!) in the classroom.

When I started work on This Is A School, I was in the middle of a couple of creative explorations. First, I had been experimenting with a collage technique that combined traditional and digital tools. I created swatches of colors and texture using watercolor and acrylic paint, then scanned those swatches into my iPad so I could build collaged illustrations in Procreate. 

Secondly, I had come across the charming work of French illustrator and author Alain Gree. I was absolutely enchanted by his warm, joyful colors and adorable, cut-out-like characters. 

An illustration by Alain Grée.

When it came time to send a piece of sample art to Candlewick, I created an illustration of my first character that combined my hybrid technique with my newfound source of inspiration.

A sample character illustration I created for This Is A School.

Once I was clear on my visual direction, I fleshed out the visual narrative of the book by creating more characters. As mentioned above, the text for This Is A School is an ode to the universal experiences of starting school as a young child; the artwork would create a cast of students, each of whom would have their own journey throughout the book. As I did with my first character, I brainstormed the traits and personality of each subsequent character. 

Though they are not shared in the book, each character has a name. (Some of them have changed since the initial sketches.) It’s fun to watch Mr. Schu reveal the names when he discusses This Is A School in his presentations.

There’s Noah, who is shy and anxious about his first day of school, and who finds his gifts as he makes friends.

There’s Callie, modeled after my niece, who is super-friendly and outgoing, and faces a challenge when she needs to stay home from school for a few days.

There’s the first character created, DJ, who is enthusiastic about learning and loves science.

There’s Evie, who I like to think of as a future president - confident and determined, and born to be a leader. She’s inspired by the daughter of a good friend.

There’s Imani, who is comfortably introverted and observant, and doesn’t mind going on solo explorations. 

There’s Nate, who is sweet and energetic, but has some learning challenges. He blossoms when he learns he can count on his teachers and friends.

There’s Ava, whose curiosity gets her into a bit of a pickle in the classroom.

And there are the twins, Sam and Nat, who I had so much fun animating in each spread. You can get a sense of their infectious energy whenever they show up.

The last ingredient was developing the color palette for This Is A School. As mentioned above, each time I read the manuscript, I became enveloped in that warm, happy, first-day-of-school feeling. So I chose colors that would be warm, saturated, bright, and welcoming. I experimented with different color mixtures, and then created larger swatches of paint that I scanned into my iPad.

Color palette blobs.

While I started with an intention to use primary colors (including my favorite, Naples yellow), it wasn’t long before turquoise and orange emerged as the main colors for our school community. They appear in almost every spread - at the front entrance of the school, in the hallways, in the library, and in the gym.

Turquoise and orange are also the main characters in the endpapers, where, as I mentioned in my previous post, I admittedly have a lot of fun. 🙂

Ahhhh, endpapers! :)

So there you have it! A poetic line about a familiar feeling inspired a journey of creative explorations that coalesced into the artwork for This Is A School. My hope is that young readers recognize the different emotions that they feel when starting a new school year, and that for them, school becomes a place of learning, curiosity and acceptance.

SCBWI Resources: SCBWI University

From SCBWI:

We're excited to announce the launch of SCBWIU this April-a brand-new learning series designed exclusively for SCBWl members! Kicking off with a dynamic series of online classes via Zoom, this is an exceptional opportunity to learn from top industry experts and elevate your skills in children's literature.

Over the course of three consecutive weeks, we'll explore a different genre each quarter, beginning with Picture Books. The first mini-intensive will feature three 90-minute sessions, focusing on refining your writing craft and deepening your understanding of the genre. 

Led by renowned industry professionals, award-winning authors, and celebrated illustrators, our dynamic program empowers you to hone your craft, build meaningful connections, and gain the confidence to bring your stories to life. These sessions will leave you well-equipped to prepare your work for submission or publication by the end of the series.

Every quarter, we'll introduce a new track of three classes, each carefully designed to take your writing and/or illustrating to the next level.

The full three-week course is available to members for $199. Please note that the series is not available for individual class purchase. Don't miss out on this fantastic chance to invest in your creative growth with SCBWIU!

How Impactful Writing Can Inspire Illustrators

Hi friends! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, illustrator of three picture books, one middle grade novel, and an adult fashion memoir. My first author-illustrator title, The Stories In You: Inspired by the Wisdom of Toni Morrison, will be published later this year by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (yay!). I’m excited to be this month’s guest blogger for the SCBWI Blog.

Picture books, as we know, are a fantastic medium where words and images work in a beautifully symbiotic fashion. As an illustrator, I create my favorite work when the text of a manuscript immediately inspire images to form in my imagination. And when an image is strong and exciting enough, it can set the tone for the whole project!

This month, I’m sharing a few things that can make a manuscript irresistible to an illustrator - or at least, to this illustrator.

A Computer Called Katherine: When word choice adds up to inspiration

The first picture book I illustrated was A Computer Called Katherine, written by Suzanne Slade. At the beginning of the project, as I read the manuscript, this particular passage, describing a young Katherine Johnson entering high school, instantly inspired the first image I would create for the book: 

…she took an exciting math class called geometry.

She learned how points and lines made shapes—triangles, trapezoids, and perfect parallelograms.

And her love for math grew exponentially!

In just a few lines, Suzanne’s writing gave me so much to work with! This passage made me visualize how young Katherine's imagination might look like a colorful swirl of mathematic exploration.

First, “triangles, trapezoids, and perfect parallelograms” provided a treasure trove of shapes and forms to play with. I time-traveled back to high school geometry to mine for other images, like diagrams of circles, cylinders and right triangles. 

My favorite part of this passage is the adverb “exponentially.” How perfect is that word choice?! With it in mind, I designed the layout of the spread to mimic the movement of an exponential curve, starting small on the left and growing with a dramatic upward slope to the right. The equations followed suit, beginning small and transparent on one side of the spread, growing big and bold on the other.

Initial sketch of the first spread I completed for A Computer Called Katherine

In conveying Katherine’s “love for math,” I knew our main character would be wearing a joyful, almost awestruck expression as she explored equations in her imagination. And to communicate math as “exciting,” I decided the color for the spread needed to be bright, bold and energizing. I did a few small (and very rough!) color tests to see which hues worked best. I landed on the blue and teal combination, which are complementary colors to the character's glowy, warm brown complexion.

A few color tests I did for this spread. The blue and teals won out!

Just to punctuate how much I was inspired and excited by this passage: this image was not only the first I sketched, but also the first I painted in full color, and I was so thrilled when the editor and art director chose it as the cover!

The final product: The first spread I painted for the book, which also became the cover.

With this first image as an anchor, I now had a visual language I could play with in the book. The blobs and blooms of the watercolor background became a main texture throughout the spreads. And with the help of art director Saho Fujii, we found more ways to incorporate math equations and diagrams into the artwork. As Katherine grows in age and experience, the math in the artwork becomes more complicated. In the book, you can see the progression from a very young Katherine counting and adding, to a professional Katherine using highly advanced computations to help send rockets to space.

The math and geometry get pretty complicated by the end of the book!

The blue and teal spread, where young Katherine is inspired by geometry, also serves as the basis for a callback. Later in the story, a grown-up Katherine is facing some uncertainty about the task at hand, and imagines a worst-case scenario if the math and science aren’t quite right. For this scene, the layout is similar, with an older Katherine also looking up, this time with a worried expression. “What if this all goes wrong?!” (Thankfully, it doesn’t.)

A callback to the earlier spread.

Finally, the geometry of it all is echoed in the endpapers. (Confession: As a surface pattern designer, endpapers are among my favorite parts of a book project.) Again we see the constellation of geometric shapes, but this time, they float on a shimmery watercolor painting of space.

I had a blast creating the endpapers.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at A Computer Called Katherine, and learning how a well-written text can inspire so many images. Next week we'll talk about words that convey emotions and universal experiences. See you then!

SCBWI Resources: Member Benefits Series Videos

SCBWI Resources: 

Member Benefits Videos: Maximize Your Membership

Happy Tuesday All!

Back again with some more resources that SCBWI provides for our members! Did you know that there are Member Benefits Videos, available to you all! SCBWI offers so much and this is a great way to learn what there is to offer.

"Dive into a treasure trove of insider tips and expert advice designed to help you make the most of your membership. Whether you're a writer or illustrator, these exclusive videos will show you how to unlock powerful SCBWI resources, level up your craft, and take your creative career to exciting new heights!"

"Hosted by TeMika Grooms, SCBWI's Manager of Design and Illustration, and Jolie Stekly, a published author, educator, and former SCBWI Member of the Year, these sessions are tailored to help you succeed."

Member Benefits Videos

These videos cover a range of topics, from "AWARDS & GRANTS" to "EVENTS" to features that you can utilize as a member to enhance your experience as users and professionals in the children's publishing community. Click the link above to check them out!

If you aren't a member yet, consider joining the community, HERE! You won't regret it!

The Power of Community - Tita Berredo

  

Tita Berredo at the Bologna Children's Book Fair with fellow SCBWI volunteers

Wow, I can't believe this is our last post. This has been such a great part of my last few weeks. Thanks for beeing here with me. =D

I think I'd like to close this series with an ode to my years with SCBWI, and to all of the wonderful people I met (including you – even if we've been meeting indirectly). So let me just say this: never underestimate the power of community. In the case of this very special community, power comes in different shapes. It comes in the shape of emotional connection, shared memory and values, persistence, compassion, and most of all kindness.

Have you ever changed schools? Do you know that feeling of entering a new environment that already functions completely without you? Where you feel like you have nothing to add, and people are not only already settled without you, but your sudden arrival seems to cause strangeness and disturbance in other's looks? As you can probably tell, I never had much luck with changing schools in my childhood. I was a small weird kid, and hardly ever fit. Well, how the tables have turned... I never had the chance to feel that new school awkwardness from the moment I arrived in this community, nor was I ever seen as a small weird kid by it. Despite of experience or career level, the feelings we share here are pretty much the same: fear of rejection, self-doubt, all compensated by the warm generosity and the utter joy of being part of something that feels authentic.

With author Caryl Hart at the UK's Picture Book Retreat

Illustrating live for SCBWI in Bologna - BCBF 2023

SCBWI has played a defining role in my life and career, becoming far more than a professional organisation and evolving into the community through which I really found my footing. More than that, I was able to develop my identity in the children’s book community in the way I envisioned it. If I were to tell myself that emotional grounding has been as important as the professional support I received. It connected me with writers, illustrators, editors, and organisers across the country and beyond, giving me a wide network that has supported my growth and opened doors to collaborations and opportunities. The organisation became a place where I could both learn and lead, and where I could help others navigate the same uncertainties I once faced. The roles that I played gave me visibility, responsibility, and a platform to contribute to the field in ways that extended well beyond my own creative work. "Extension" is the precise word here, because it did come from within and keeps feeding my core, i's all connected and symbiotic. What I receive I transform and give, and so on.

Receiving the SCBWI Outstanding Contribution Award with Words&Pictures colleagues

2022 at the SCBWI BI Picture Book Retreat

In Brazil, there was this urban figure known as Profeta Gentileza, the "Kindness Prophet". Almost like a mythical entity, he was a long bearded poet who dressed in white robes and would fill Rio's street walls with his philosophy. His most know work, that gave him his nickname, was: "Gentileza Gera Gentileza", which translates to kindness begets kindness. Simple words that he would write in repetition to illustrate his meaning. Kindness begets kindness begets kindness begets kindness, and so on. His scriptures would fill kilometres of concrete across the city, inviting people to view kindness as a transformative thing rather than a gesture. This often comes to my mind when I look at our community. Every act of kindness that reached me was transformed within me and then shaped into another given to the next person. I used to think that if you are kind to someone they will be kind to you, but despite having positive comebacks it was never really about return. He meant that kindness is generative and ignites reciprocity.

With Amy Sharp, my mentee who won best portfolio at the SCBWI NY Conference 2025

With the talented and Fabulous Justin Campbell 

Just like Gentileza’s murals softened the hard edges of urban landscapes, the kindness within this community softens the often competitive grounds of creative work. It turns comparison into collaboration, insecurity into belonging,  sole effort into shared purpose. No gesture ends with the receiver, it multiplies, rippling outward. It shapes how we show up for others, and becomes part of ourselves. In a field built on generosity (of time, encouragement, and care), I learned that kindness becomes the soil in which creativity takes root.

With Ed Vere at SCBWI BI Conference

With beloved SCBWI colleagues Mike Brownlow and Paul Morton

SCBWI British Isles Conference 2023

With the wonderful US team at SCBWI NY Conference 2025

Lovely friends from US team at SCBWI NY Conference 2025

"Duelling" with Temika Grooms at the BCBF 2025

Taken together, all of SCBWI (UK, US, Brazil, International) has been essential to my journey. It offered me peers when I was new, structure when I was finding my path, and a platform from which I now can give back to the community. Volunteering helped me integrate into the UK children’s literature community more broadly, and then grow it beyond to the point that now I am confident to move back to Brazil and not lose a single bit of what I've built. I will be continuing my legacy overseas – in fact, I'll be bringing in more sunshine! Now that my career is ascending and I am a stablished writer-illustrator, I can see my colleagues proud of my hard work over the years and share my achievements with people who watched me grow. This is not incidental but foundational, and it curiously has been at the same time my anchor and my rudder.

We are all sailing together, chasing our dreams, supporting each other, and we are fortunate enough to express our true self within play. This... is the power of community.

Me \o/ at the SCBWI stand in Bologna, BCBF 2025

Well, this is it. My last piece of writing for this series. It's been an honour, and as I said before... I hope it's been as special for you to read what has been truly special for me to write. I'm sure we'll meet again!

Feel free to contact me at any time and with any purpose, I am fun and kind and kinda funny! Muitos beijos! (lots of kisses) 

Read the full series in order here:

Part 1 - Changing Careers to Fulfil Your Dreams

Part 2 - Entering the World of Children's Books

Part 3 - Finding Your Footing

Part 4 - The Power of Community

Tita Berredo is a Brazilian children’s writer and illustrator. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature and Illustration from Goldsmiths UOL and a BA in Marketing from PUC-Rio. Her work has been recognised internationally, including a London's House of Illustration award and selection for the Bologna Children's Book Fair. She has illustrated books for the US and Brazil, and is making her author–illustrator debut with a Seuss Studios early reader published by Random House Children's.

Tita is the Illustrator Coordinator for SCBWI International Central, and a Picture Book reviewer for My Book Corner. 

Find Tita's work at www.titaberredo.com follow her on Instagram: @titaberredo