Yesterday, at Border’s Bookstore on Broad street, a lightbulb went on. I read a book called “Illustrating Children’s Books: Creating Pictures for Publication” by Martin Salisbury. This book really turned the light on for me. It talked about Picturebooks and Storybooks and the difference between the two.
While the picture’s in Storybooks are there to reinforce or bring light to a specific part in the story, Picture books are somewhat the opposite. The true story is in the Picture, and the words are there to simply say what the picture cannot. The stories in Picturebooks are told through a mutual relationship between words and pictures.
The question I had to ask myself was… “Am I creating a Picturebook or a Storybook?”
I ultimately decided that I am creating a Picturebook. And so, I need to begin designing the layout of the book to understand what parts of the story will be told through the words, and what part will be told through the pictures. Because there is no point in both the words and pictures saying the same thing. I have to make them work together.
