Maggy Roberts, our Illustrating Children’s book tutor, asked if Jenny could write something for our college news blog. Jenny passed the Illustrating children’s books course with distinctions and she is in the process of writing children’s stories for publishers. Below are Jenny’s experiences from the course.
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For as long as I can remember I wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. It took me a long time to work up the courage to really give it a go, but I finally took the plunge and began to write. It’s taken a lot of reading, a lot of writing and many rejections and tears, but I’ve finally had success, which is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.
I still wanted to know more about the illustrating side of things, so I was thrilled to come across the ‘Illustrating Children’s Books’ course. It not only covers some of the technical aspects of illustrating, but it gives you the opportunity to be creative by following the set briefs. I’ve never been an overly confident person, but Maggy’s constructive feedback and encouragement was wonderful and when you doubt yourself, you really appreciate that support. I found all the activities loads of fun, and I know I will continue to use some of the different techniques that I experimented with a long the way.
Probably the most important things I learned doing the course is not to play the comparison game, and to have more confidence in my own work, and as I couldn’t imagine not drawing or painting it has inspired me to do further study in illustration which I’m really looking forward to.
I’d recommend this course to anyone who has a passion for children’s books, it really gives you an appreciation of what our many wonderful illustrators do to complete a story and bring characters to life, and as Maggy told me in the very beginning, you might achieve your own dream.
Jenny (Illustrating Children’s Books Diploma D6)
Below is one of Jenny’s pieces of artwork she completed on the course.
I am also a student of Maggy’s on the Illustrating Children’s Books course and I find Jenny’s words really inspiring. I love drawing and painting but often lose confidence in my own skill when I look at the work of other illustrators. I hope to get published one day, so it’s really lovely to hear of Jenny’s success. Well done!