Children’s Illustration Class

I’m taking a children’s illustration class and it’s scary.

It’s class hosted by our local arts center, the North Hills Center for the Arts.

The teacher isn’t scary.

Our instructor is Jeanine Murch and she does some lovely work! I’m especially excited to learn about lettering from her.

The other people in the class aren’t scary. In fact, my friends Beth and Jessica are in the class.

What’s scary is that I don’t have any confidence in myself as an illustrator. I love to doodle and draw and feel I’ve painted and sketched a few nice things lately. But I haven’t achieved something that feels like an illustration to me. I want to create something COOL.

What if I can’t do it?

Do It Anyway

Our homework for next week is to bring in a two page spread that illustrates either a story from a list Jeanine provided, or illustrates something of our own. I have an idea of a story of my own that I might tackle, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it looks better in my mind than it will on the page.

A lot the art I create feels very static, like a photograph capturing an image. But for illustration, I want there to be action and emotion. I want an illustration that tells a story.

I’m pretty confident about my writing. When I go into workshops, I feel connected with words and my ability to craft a sentence that evokes emotions and tells a story. But can I do this with art? I’m just not sure.

It’s ok to be scared, though. Taking this class will be good for me, because if you don’t ask questions, you can’t learn new things.

I’m glad that in addition to this class, I’m also doing #kidlitart28 because having the daily task to create some art is keeping me honest.

In addition to me learning about illustration for myself, I do hope that this class will help me as RA for our SCBWI region. I want to do my best to support all of our members, not just writers.

It’s scary trying something new like this, but I’m going through with it because I know it won’t hurt me. I know I will learn a ton. I may even find that I can create something I’m proud of in the end!