Illustrator Joanne Friar Here are a few of the first sketches the illustrator, Joanne Friar, made for The Shape of Betts Meadow. Joanne starts out with very rough drafts on tracing paper. This sketch shows Gunnar with a camera, an image which she used for the introduction. Below, Joanne explored where the text might be placed on the page with her art work. You may notice that some of the sketches presented on this web page did not appear in the book. Illustrating, like writing, is all about revising one's work. Some ideas are tossed while others are saved. Like Gunnar's blueprint for his wetland, the author and illustrator made a rough plan for Betts Meadow called a "story board." Before painting the final illustrations, Joanne sketched the whole book out by two-page spreads to see if her pictures complimented the tale. Picture books are often sixteen pages. The author must write enough words to cover those pages, offering images that change for each spread so that the illustrator has something to show. The editor reviews these sketches and sometimes the author does too. If a problem turns up with the words, stanza structure, or pictures, it's easier to fix it at this stage than after a color picture is painted.
 For more information about children's book illustration, feel free to contact the illustrator: jhfriar@cs.com mailto:jhfriar@cs.comshapeimage_1_link_0