Illustrators Share: How Writing Inspired Their Picture Book Art

Hi there! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, and I’ve been the SCBWI guest blogger for the month of March. I’m a picture book illustrator, and my author-illustrator debut, The Stories In You: Inspired by the Wisdom of Toni Morrison (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) will be released later this year.

This month I’ve been blogging about how great writing can inspire the illustration process. I started by going behind the scenes of the first book I illustrated, A Computer Called Katherine, written by Suzanne Slade. Then I dove into the artistic process behind This Is A School, written by John Schu. Last week I talked about how I developed the main character design for Up Periscope! How Engineer Raye Montague Revolutionized Shipbuilding, written by Jennifer Swanson.

This week, I reached out to some illustrator friends to ask them how great writing inspired their book projects. 

Selina Alko - The Keeper of Stories

I met writer and illustrator Selina Alko when we both served on the board of ICON: The Illustration Conference between 2016 and 2018. Selina is a powerhouse - a prolific, award-winning picture book maker who creates vibrant, stunning artwork. Her latest book, Otherwise Known as Judy the Great, is an illustrated collection of poems celebrating author Judy Blume.

When we served on the ICON board together, I was working on my first picture book and stressing out a little – okay, stressing out a lot. Selina gave me the best piece of advice: “Let go of perfection.” That was permission enough for me to loosen my grip on my work and get back to having fun with creating, and I’ve carried that with me ever since. Any time I get stuck on a project, I come back to our conversation from all those years ago. So thank you, Selina!

Selina shared with me her process behind creating the art for The Keeper of Stories, written by Caroline Kusin Pritchard.

A passage from the manuscript that inspired Selina's artwork:

The people looked up at the wounded building, the one they had trusted for years.

They knew the truth.

That this keeper:

their keeper,

trusted them, too.

They couldn't let it down.

Hundreds of students and teachers, rabbis and pastors,

neighbors and strangers became "Operation Booklift."

They wound up the staircase like the flames had before,

forged together by stories.

Hand

over hand

over hand

over hand

they passed one drenched book down, then the next.

For two weeks, they lifted and reached, together:

An unbreakable human chain.

   Outstretched hands, keep our stories alive.

How Selina approached the art for this passage:

I depicted a diverse human chain in the cross-section of the charred building–- purposefully making the image almost abstract so the eye could focus on the zig zag of the staircase following the flow of helping humans. I wanted to get the feelings of seriousness and urgency across by using somber colors and rusty, burnt textures in the mixed media art. 

Interior spread for The Keeper of Stories, illustrated by Selina Alko.

Alleanna Harris - Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids

Alleanna is my tri-state buddy (I live near Philadelphia, she’s in Southern New Jersey) and is a veteran illustrator of picture books about Black history and culture. Alleanna’s work is imbued with warmth and connection, and celebrates all corners of the Black diaspora.

Alleanna’s latest book, Prayer Is, written by Tameka Fryer-Brown, introduces young readers to prayer and its many different meanings. And her author-illustrator debut, O Holy Night: A Modern Day Christmas Carol, debuts with Bloomsbury Kids this fall!

Here, Alleana tells us about her work in Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids, written by Adiba Nelson.

A passage from the manuscript that inspired Alleanna:

“The cowrie shells told Oshún how to help the people she loved. And because I love you, I put the cowries in your hair so you carry her protection with you. When you’re scared or sad, you can just touch your cowrie shell, and it will give you the strength and power of Oshún, the most beautiful and loving goddess.”

How Alleanna approached the art:

Creating the art was a straightforward, yet fun process. I wanted the illustration to be a literal representation of Adiba’s words, so I had to show little Yadira touching her cowrie shell and Oshún showing up to protect her. However, It was the very first time in the picture book where Yadira and Oshún interact directly, so I also looked at the passage as the perfect chance to symbolically show Oshun’s strength. 

I ended up illustrating Oshún behind Yadira, and touching her shoulder as if she was actively supporting her. I wanted to show Oshún’s power and strength as a sun-kissed, glowy, enveloping space, so I decided on having a golden yellow and orange background. I painted light emanating from Oshún’s gold gele, but I wanted the light to have movement and rhythm, so I sketched in a geometric pattern based on Yoruba Adire textiles. I also illustrated sunflowers growing around them because Oshún is always associated with sunflowers.

Interior illustration for Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids, illustrated by Alleanna Harris.

Thank you Selina and Alleanna for sharing your work and process with us! And thank you to the good folks here at the SCBWI Blog for hosting me as your guest blogger for the month. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experience as a picture book illustrator and talking about the creative process with other artists. Until next time... keep creating! :)

• • •

Veronica Miller Jamison is surface pattern designer, fashion educator and illustrator of picture books. She is the illustrator of A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on The Moon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019), This Is A School, written by John Schu (Candlewick Press, 2022), and Up Periscope! How Engineer Raye Montague Revolutionized Shipbuilding, written by Jennifer Swanson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2024). Veronica’s author-illustrator debut, The Stories In You: Inspired by the Wisdom of Toni Morrison, will be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in Fall 2026. Veronica lives near Philadelphia, PA. You can visit her at veronicajamisonart.com.

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.

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!

Let’s Talk About…References!

Hi again SCBWI fam! It’s me, Sibu TP, and I wanted to think out loud for a bit with you about references. 

My author-illustrator debut, Home, Home, released recently through Viking Press, and a great deal of the imagery in my book was based on references. The vast majority of these references were photos that I took while traveling to India, and some were from old family photographs that my parents keep in yellowing albums at home. 
 
I use references a lot in my work. For my previous project, A Taste of Home, I photographed a lot of references in the lower east side, NYC, where the story takes place. Reference usage is super important for telling stories. Having real-world references injected into your work not only adds an element of legitimacy and ethos to what you’re making, but it also grounds your work, allowing your brain to then think beyond those details to ideas you may not have otherwise gotten. 

I mean where do we get ideas for our stories? They don’t just come from nowhere. Even the most outlandish brainstorm session yields ideas that are filtered through our brains before they end up on the page. So it's always colored by our personal thoughts and experiences and would thus come from a place specific to us. It has to be both. It's an accurately depicted illustration, yes, but it's also a fuzzy message from your memory and imagination.

And to me, that’s key to reference use. It’s not always a 1 to 1 type of situation where you copy something down. References are like a sturdy guide post upon which your ideas can lean. They’re meant to inform and aid, not to necessarily be the primary content of the artwork itself. That's why I always try to use references as a supplement to flesh out my ideas, not as the end goal.

Here are two illustrations I did for my last book, A Taste of Home, written by the wonderful Richard Ho, and published by Roaring Brook Press. Below each illustration is a reference photo I used for them.

In both instances, I started by drawing out the composition, placing my characters and deciding on the lighting. Only after those decisions were all made did I implement changes based on the references I shot. In fact, the reference photos I took were also informed by the composition that I worked out for the spread. So there was a lot of synergy between illustration and reference informing each other.

I'm going to end off here. Does this one look familiar? If it doesn't, then you probably blocked it out of your memory because I spent SO much time (too much?) talking through the process in my last post. I didn't, however, talk about how I used reference for it. This illustration is from Home, Home, and it represents what I feel is my personal ideal for good reference use.

Just like I did with the two illustrations above, I made all of the decisions for this piece before using my references. The composition, the subjects, the perspective, the light source, etc. were all decided and loosely drawn. Unlike the two illustrations above, I actually had this reference photo for a couple years before I worked on the book. So I actually had to search for an appropriate reference from my library (Yes, I have a reference library. And also Yes, it is disorganized and impossible to sort through :) ).

The reason why I feel like this particular illustration process is my ideal for reference use is that there's a looseness in how I worked on it. I was able to work with openness and use reference that worked for the composition, and not just the other way around. Because I used the imagery that was in my mind as the north star for where to end up, the reference worked to serve that image. And in those moments that the real-world implications of the reference photo necessitated change in the illustration, I was able to make those changes because the process is so malleable and allows for alterations without negotiating the essence of that ultimate image. And in the end, that's exactly where you want to wind up: that beautiful and abstract message from your imagination.

Until next time, happy art-making, friends!

If this post interested you, please reach out and let me know!

You can find me as @sibutp on all the things, mainly Instagram.

Sibudraws.com

sibup.art@gmail.com

About Me

I'm a storyteller. I make cultural and societal picture books that are rich, colorful, and touch on universal stories. I work through the belief that we're all connected by those small moments in life that I try to capture in my illustrations.

Born and raised in New York, I am a first-generation child of immigrants from Kerala, India. I spent a great deal of my childhood years scribbling and sketching, dreaming and imagining. I studied English Literature at Stony Brook University and received my MFA in Illustration at the Hartford Art School.