Considering a Picture Book Making Class?
If you are creative and enjoy making something from start to finish, picture book making classes may be perfect for you. Picture book making refers to writing and illustrating children’s or adult’s books. These books can include children’s stories, how to books that feature directional pictures alongside the instructions and much more. The good news is there are tons of picture book making classes currently available. The best part is the classes are available in part-time and evening class options, making it easy to fit your dream course into your busy schedule.
A Brief History of Picture Book Making
From very early on, we both learn and intuit the language of pictorial representation, and for a majority of modern adults, the picture book was our first dictionary of this visual vocabulary. Although the picture book – defined by its narrative framework of imagery and minimal text to convey the meaning or tell a story, and different from the illustrated book in which pictures play a secondary narrative part, improving and decorating the narrative – is a surprisingly nascent medium.
While pictorial storytelling dates back to the earliest of the cave wall paintings, the true picture book harks back 130 years ago, when illustrator and artist, Randolph Caldecott first began to elevate the picture into a storytelling vehicle as opposed to a mere decoration for text. Maurice Sendak is widely recognised as the greatest author of visual media. The picturebook did not fully blossom until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when changing attitudes towards childhood, new developments in printing technology and a new class of exceptional artists captured it into a golden age. The first three decades of the twentieth century germinated such timeless classics as the Babar stories and Curious George.
Who is the Course For?
Picture book making classes are ideal for aspiring illustrators or writers who wish to learn the fundamentals behind creating a picture book. Courses are suitable for complete beginners in addition to those who have already written picture book texts but wish to expand their knowledge and enhance their skills. It is also well suited for those who have previously written in various different forms, such as novels for adults and older children, and for people who have taken creative writing courses. While picture book making classes cannot promise to get you a publisher or agent, they aim to demystify the world of picture book publishing and help you comprehend what publishers look for in a submission.
What Will I Learn?
You can expect to study the market and learn from the work of other book illustrators and writers and discover ways to find inspiration and develop your story ideas into text. Students will also find their artistic inspiration and learn how to develop their ideas into illustrations. Characters and settings will be explored for both writing and illustration in terms of learning how to create your characters, make the settings stand out and bring to life vivid settings and worlds with your illustrations.
Picture books use a minimal amount of text and as a result, finding the right words is crucial so you can expect to learn how to write short text while still having impact. You will explore illustration techniques since there are tons of ways to create a picture, from paintings to pencil drawings to digital work and much more. Therefore, you can expect to explore a wide range of different media. The course will teach you how to plan the writing of your story and the illustrations through spreads and rough sketches. Finally, you will learn how to create your own portfolio and present that to agents and publishers.
If you’re serious about doing picture book making classes, check out courses near you in the Nightcourses.co.uk national course finder.
