Kids Book Illustrator

List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.

The answer is simple – Artist, Kids Book illustrator and Filmmaker. I wouldn’t just consider doing them, I’d actually do them and if money didn’t matter I’d be doing them all the time because they all bring me such joy.

I think pairing it down to one tho, kids book Illustrator wins out because it encapsulates the other two so well. To be a kids book Illustrator you have to be an artist. And I don’t think it has to restrict you as an artist, I think kids are accepting of so many styles. I think the narrative can actually be helpful in directing your art.

And to illustrate a kids book you are also being a filmmaker because you are virtually creating a storyboard for a narrative. Not only do you get to come up with the script, you get to choose what the reader sees. The perspectives and lighting the art department, you basically get to create entire worlds around your story. You can’t get much better than that.

Filmmaking in it’s traditional form is something that costs a lot of money. Because you are hiring a bunch of professional specialists to often work very long and very odd hours to help bring the collective vision of the film together. But with kids books you still get the benefit of being able to bring a story to life through your visual representation. And if you want to there’s nothing stopping you bringing it to life with an audio reading of the story as well.

And who knows a movie producer might bring it to the big screen one day. Just look a Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s books (The Griffalo and Room on the Broom etc) has had all of their books brought to the screen. So anything is possible.