How to Create a Picture Book with Benji Davies
By Malin Hamilton Backer
How does an idea occur? And how can you get inspired to get an idea for a story? Benji Davies, an illustrator, author and animation director, gives us a quick rundown of his 4 top tips for creating a picture book and where he normally looks for inspiration for a story.
- Imagination:
Use your imagination to come up with a story. The Ideas can come when you least expect it.
- Ideas on paper:
Once you’ve got an idea type it up. It can either be with pen and paper or even the computer. It’s easy to forget an idea once you’ve come up with one, so it’s very important to write it down quickly.
- The Order:
After writing down the ideas it’s good to plan what order the pictures and the words would go in. Make sure it make sense and creates a story.
- Colour it in:
The last thing I do is to colour the pictures in. I always start out with a rough drawing of what I want, then when everything is almost finished I colour it in!
Top Tip for Inspiration:
Analyse different photographs. Each photo has a story. Ask qustions! What are they doing in the photo? Why are they there? What kind of place is that? Is there someone else making the individual be there?
For example: A picture of a tunnel of trees: where is it going? Who would be going down there? A picture of under the sea: What does it look like? Does the plants look like a forest? Maybe there’s an underwater city with lots of characters. Who would live there?
You can also take your own photographs. If you are in a place with a cool building that you like. Take a photo of it and draw it up, you can use it in your story!
