Talking with Children's Illustrator Matt Buckingham

Today I had a good chat with the talented children's author and illustrator, Matt Buckingham ( http://www.mattbuckingham.co.uk/ ) . He gave me some valuable advice about how to become an illustrator. He was good enough to look through some of my own illustrations and give me constructive feed back on what I need to do to make them suitable for my target audience. One of the key things Matt mentioned was that illustrations for children tend to have a traditional look about them, even if they are done digitally. He suggested that I try incorporating more traditional mediums within the colouring process of my illustrations, that way I can add more texture and depth and then mess around with the colours in Photoshop . I really like this suggestion as I love traditional media and it is nice to be told that I don’t have to feel like computer images are always the way forward. It was wonderful talking with him and I now feel more clued in with what I need to do to be in with a chance of being successful as an children's wirter and illustrator.

This illustration was the one Matt liked best out of the images I showed him. He said that the colours and textures were lovely and added depth to the image.