Illustration Prices
Children's Book Illustration
Firstly thank you for coming this far to seek out the approximate costings for a children's book designed and illustrated by me, as this is the part of my job that I really enjoy.
I use a combination of hand drawn characters, paint textures and digital techniques to create bright bold illustrations for story books. Please take a look at my portfolio to see which of my styles you would like me to use for your story.
If you would like me to illustrate your story, please send me your story and brief and I can draw up a first draft plan for you to look over.
1. Say hello and send me your story. I will read it several times, making little sketches as I go along. If you have any ideas for characters or a specific scene please let me know.
At this point I will you if you have a preferred style in which I work and any pieces you like that I've done - please see my portfolio.
2. I create a storyboard and some character sketches.We have a chat and find out what works for you and any changes.
3. I begin illustrating, this can take between 4-6 weeks but can work to deadlines. When I've finished illustrating I edit the pages and import the text.
4. I send it to you for a proof read and to check you are happy with everything. I make the final edits.
5. I send the pages to your chosen printer or I can help you find one.
6. We wait for the printer to work his magic
FAQs
How long will it take to complete?
Your story is unique and awesome, and working on a illustration project as big as a story book takes up a lot of my thinking and drawing time.
I mean to say, I have been known to dream about some of the projects I've worked on, (with excellent results).
Anyway what I'm trying to get at is that if you have a deadline I will work towards it and I haven't failed to hit one yet. Be realistic though an A4, 44 page fully illustrated book will take me 4-5 months, while a smaller A5, 16 page book has taken me around 2 weeks.
If you let me know your page dimensions and story length I can give you an fairly accurate idea of how long it will take.
Amend policies
I genuinely care about getting your story perfect for you and making sure you are happy with the final illustrations. I do have a few guidelines on amends, so the more information you can give me in the beginning the less amends I tend to need to do.
I usually give clients 2 rounds of amends on a piece or page. I can change colours and increase or decrease sizes on most of my illustrations and I consider these Minor amends.
For some illustrations I can move elements around, add or remove them from pictures quite easily. Dependant on the illustration I will let you know what is possible and what needs to be added on to the final invoice as extra amends
Major amends are whole page re draws or re colours. I usually allow some time and budget for one of these, but any more than that and I may need to ask for a deadline extension and invoice additions related to time spent on the amend.
What is the process?
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Check out my portfolio and let me know which style or techniques you like the look of.
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Send me your story along with your filled in brief form.
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I quote you and we talk about a time frame.
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I will send you a broken down version of your story with some illustration notes for you to approve or add to so we are both clear with what we are creating.
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Once a fee is agreed, I create a rough story board and 'mood board' for you with £50 fee.
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If you would like to go ahead then I ask for a 50% up front fee to cover my material and time costs.
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I start creating the illustrations
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Once the illustrations are done I send it to you for you to proof read and send your amends to me.
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I amend the illustrations according to my policies.
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The outstanding 50% is paid.
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We find a printer for your story and discuss how its going to be marketed.
Prices
Always a very important question.
Please think carefully about what you are looking for and your budget. Illustrating a book takes at minimum 3 - 4 weeks to get a quality book which you can proudly give to your loved ones or sell to the public. Illustrations are 50% of your book, and I am offering you quality illustrations at reasonable industry standard prices.
Long gone are the days when illustrators and artists work for a cup of tea and a pack of biscuits (though that would be a nice thing to do) or that word "exposure".
We are real people with real bills and families to support.
I am very open to creating packages to suit budgets and very open to doing speculative work for scripts with genuine publisher interest, or looking at the prospect of series work.
If you like my work then please get in touch as I treat each project on a case by case basis.
In general I work to these guidelines for full colour detailed illustrations:
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Single page half simple £40
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Single page full detailed £60
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Double spread £120 - £150
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Front cover £50 - 150
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2 x Fly pages free
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Publishing and title pages together £60
Zine and Comic Books
Perfect for:
- Small print runs
- Personal stories
- Short stories
- Comics
In 2018 I set myself a challenge to create illustrations for a 24 page A5 zine in 10 days, I managed it just about!
The smallest run of a zine is 25 copies and this came to around £70 printing costs for a high quality print with 200gsm paper. Full colour or greyscale illustrations on white or coloured paper are possible.
If you are looking for a small cost effective run for your story, then I can recommend this route. Zines are created with pages in multiples of 4 (including the cover). Send me your brief to get started.
Adverts
Illustrating an advert often takes more thought and time than a purely digitally created one. I hand draw the elements, using acrylics, inks and watercolours to create the textures. I compile everything and digitally edit it all to bring it together.
(please see my marketing examples for the comparisons with my purely graphic designs)
Prices are approximate and depend on the complexity, number and usage of your required advert.
One Off Commissions
If you would like a one off illustration please get in touch and I'll see how I can help you. I have done the following, the odder the request, the better!
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Pet portraits
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Toddler portraits
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Character concepts
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Blog illustrations
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Magazine editorials
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Wedding flower paintings as gifts
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or even designs for boat names
Approx prices, brief dependant on complexity
A5 original £25
A5 printed £20 plus printing costs
A4 original £65
A4 printed £55 plus printing costs
A3 original £75
A3 printed £65 plus printing costs
Map Illustration
Maps are brilliant fun to design and create.
This particular map was made from using references from a very basic OS map, one walk around the grounds with my camera and lots of tweaking.
I draw every element individually so that they can all be moved independently around the map until everything is in the right place. This map of the Stable House has over 100 individual painted pieces and layers. It took two weeks of intricate painting, scanning, editing and formatting, so as you can imagine, I'm chuffed with it.
Map prices are brief dependant, get in touch if you have your brief ready to go!
