Every Picture Tells A Story

One of the very best parts of being a self-published author is that I get to choose and work with the illustrator of my books!  I’m told that in traditional publishing, the publisher matches the author and illustrator with no input from the author.

I met Vicki Killion Guess in April of 2013 after I called her about illustrating my story, “The Button Box”. After she read the story, she said it “brought her to tears” and made her think of her mother’s and her grandmother’s buttons. Since then, we’ve become close friends and created six books together. We are currently working on our seventh book which will be published later this year.

While every book begins with a story, the illustrations make reading the story even more enjoyable. Whenever we begin work on a book, Vicki and I discuss how the pictures should look, both in style and in the colors to use. I always have an idea of how I want the finished book to look. Sometimes, I know before we begin, and other times my vision comes into better focus as we discuss different possibilities.

For  “The Button Box” I asked for realistic pictures in the basic eight Crayola Crayon colors. I even gave Vicki a box of eight crayons, so she would know what colors I envisioned for the story.

When we began our second book, “Which Came First?” we agreed that the story was less serious and called for more whimsical, almost cartoonlike illustrations.

We have repeated our discussions before beginning work on each book, and we always seem to agree on the type of illustrations the story should have. Vicki will often create some sketches on the spot to show me what she is thinking. She will ask me if I see any particular pictures in my mind to go with the story and of course, I always do.

In my view, the illustrations in our books enhance the story and help provide context and clarity for the concepts I write. Or to repeat a commonly used phrase, every picture tells a story. And Vicki’s illustrations tell wonderful stories!

Here are my favorite illustrations from each of our books.

I love this illustration from “The Button Box” because it looks so much like the actual button box. When my son saw it, he said, “Is that a photo or a painting?”

This illustration from “Which Came First?” is my favorite because it shows the girl in her make believe farm superhero costume being resourceful and brave and ready to face her fear of the chickens!

In “The Day The Turkey Came To School” the turkey has come to school and doesn’t want to budge. I like the different reactions of the people in this illustration. Some are amused, others are curious, and none of them know how to get a turkey to move!

This is an easy favorite. In “The Halloween Scare” Vicki painted all of our grandchildren in the pictures of the trick-or-treaters.

The illustrations in “The Christmas Church” are all painted in watercolors. I asked Vicki if she could make the pictures look like memories and she did! Although the story is fictional, the magical night in the attic actually happened. I told Vicki all the things I could remember from that night and she painted this incredible illustration. She also surprised me and painted the button box from our first book on the bookcase.

Since I’m a grandmother now, of course the illustration of the grandmother reading a book about love to her grandchildren in “Love Hearts” is definitely my favorite!

And here’s a sneak peak at one of my favorite illustrations from our next book which doesn’t have an official title yet!

We were working on the illustrations for “Love Hearts” in this photo.

If you would like to purchase one of our books, they are all available on my author website. I would love to sign one for you and I’ll also include a free bookmark! https://www.janetseverhull.com/cart/