©DON TATE ILLUSTRATION

GETTING THE CALL | AGENTS | RESEARCH | DEVELOPING CHARACTERS | THUMBNAIL SKETCHES | USING MODELS | FINAL SKETCHING | SUBMITTING SKETCHES/ GETTING APPROVAL | PAINTING | APPROVAL OF ARTWORK | THE PRINTED BOOK | GETTING REVIEWED Creating thumbnail drawings Thumbnail drawings are tiny sketches that are put down quickly just to get your initial thoughts onto paper. Many of them are so sketchy that they may even be hard to interpret, but they are mainly for my own personal use and to generate discussion between me, the art director and editor. I find that images or concepts that come to mind immediately after reading the text are my best. No one will see and judge these sketches until I submit them, so I'm free to do what I want without criticism. By the time I get to a final sketch stage, I become more concerned about what an editor might like or or how a reviewer might interpret something. Reviewers comments can be off-the-wall leaving me to wonder, "What the hey?!" This is not good for creativity, so this thumbnail stage is essential. I created an actual tiny-sized thumbnail dummy book to submit. In this case I went as far as laying it out with type and images. I think the time invested up front will be worth it. Because my images are so sketchy, I also submit a detailed description of my ideas. NEXT--->