From Sketchbook to Picture Book: How I Created My Own Picture Book Dummy as a Children's Book Illustrator
Every picture book begins with an idea that will not leave you alone. For me it was a dragon, a tiny bird, and a bedtime story rooted in my own experience as a mother. In this post I take you behind the scenes of how I developed my original picture book dummy — Hush, Little Dragon — from the very first charcoal sketches in my sketchbook all the way through to cover illustration and book mock-up. This is what the picture book illustration process really looks like from the inside.
Where did the idea for your original picture book come from?
It started with daily sketching practice — something I do every single day as a professional children's book illustrator. I had been exploring charcoal drawings, paintings, and illustrations in my sketchbook for months without sharing them anywhere, quietly building a bank of ideas, characters, and worlds.
From all of those sketches, one pairing kept coming back to me — a dragon and a tiny bird. The more I developed them on the page, the more a story started to emerge naturally from the dynamic between them. A big, fire-breathing creature. A small, gentle singer. What could possibly connect them?
Going back to my own experience as a mother gave me the answer. My three year old daughter — full of energy at all times — and the memory of my son as a small child gave me the emotional core of the story. A restless young dragon who simply cannot settle to sleep. A tiny bird whose lullaby might just be the thing to find him.
That is how Hush, Little Dragon was born — a whimsical bedtime tale full of fire-breathing giggles, sleepy-time mishaps, and a secret lullaby only the reader can hear. It is targeted at children aged 3 to 6 and filled with gentle humour, cosy surprises, and magical bedtime moments.
What is a picture book dummy, and why is it so important for a children's book illustrator?
A picture book dummy is essentially the complete blueprint of a picture book — a full sequence of rough illustrations and text laid out across the traditional 32 page picture book structure. It is the document that a children's book illustrator or author-illustrator sends to a publisher or literary agent to pitch a picture book idea.
Think of it as the difference between describing a film and showing someone the trailer. A dummy makes the book real and tangible. It shows a publisher not just what the story is, but how it moves, how it breathes, how the illustrations and text work together across every spread.
For a children's book illustrator, creating your own picture book dummy is also one of the most powerful portfolio pieces you can have. It demonstrates everything in one document — character design, sequential narrative, layout thinking, colour and mood, and your ability to sustain a consistent visual voice across an entire book.
How do you approach the sequential narrative of a picture book — how do you plan the 32 pages?
This is where my background as a full-time storyboarding artist for an animated TV series becomes enormously useful. Sequential narrative — which animators call storyboarding and picture book illustrators call a book dummy — is something I have been practising for years in a professional context before ever applying it to picture books.
The principle is the same: craft a visual roadmap that tells the story. But picture books have their own specific rhythm and discipline. With a 32 page structure, a limited word count, and the need for every spread to feel both intentional and magical, the challenge becomes one of rhythm and clarity.
I start with tiny thumbnail sketches — rough, fast, gestural — working through the full story arc before committing to any single image. I experiment with camera angles, zoom-ins and zoom-outs, double spreads, half spreads, vignettes, and spot illustrations to keep the visual pace varied and engaging.
The most important question I ask at every stage is: does the illustration tell the same story as the text, or does it add something the text cannot say? The best picture book illustration does not just decorate the words — it runs alongside them, sometimes ahead of them, adding a layer of humour, tenderness, or surprise that makes the book richer on every re-read.
How did you develop the cover illustration for Hush, Little Dragon?
The cover is the hardest single illustration in any picture book — it has to do everything at once. It has to capture the character, the mood, the humour, and the heart of the story in one image, while also working as a standalone piece of design that makes a child want to pick the book up off a shelf.
For Hush, Little Dragon I worked from traditional sketch through to digitally developed final illustration. The process began with charcoal — a medium I love for the way it creates atmosphere and drama through light and shadow — before transitioning into digital development where I could refine the composition, colour, and detail.
The cover needed to communicate the gentle, cosy humour of the story immediately. A fire-breathing dragon in a bedtime context is inherently funny — there is a natural visual tension between the wildness of a dragon and the quietness of bedtime that I wanted to capture in a single image. I also created a book mock-up just to see how it would look as a physical object in someone's hands — and I have to say, seeing your own illustrated book as a mock-up for the first time is one of the most extraordinary feelings as an illustrator. It makes the dream feel very, very real.
What makes a picture book illustration work for both children and the adults reading to them?
This is one of the questions I think about most deeply as a children's book illustrator — because a picture book is almost always a shared experience between a child and an adult, and the best picture books speak genuinely to both.
For children, the illustration needs to be immediately readable — emotionally clear, visually engaging, and full of the kind of detail that rewards looking closely. A child should be able to follow the story entirely through the pictures even before they can read a single word.
For adults, there needs to be a layer of warmth, wit, or tenderness that makes reading aloud a pleasure rather than a chore. The best picture book illustrations have small details tucked into corners — a character's knowing expression, a background joke, a visual callback to an earlier page — that make adults smile even on the fifteenth read.
With Hush, Little Dragon, the secret lullaby that only the reader can hear is exactly this kind of layered device. It invites the adult reader into a private joke with the book, creating a shared moment of warmth and play between the adult, the child, and the story itself.
As a children's book illustrator represented by Amy Milligan at Illo Agency, are you available for picture book illustration commissions?
Absolutely — picture book illustration is at the very heart of what I do and what I love most as a children's book illustrator.
Whether you are a publisher with a picture book manuscript that needs an illustrator, an author looking for the right creative partner to bring your story to life, or an editor developing a new picture book list, I would genuinely love to hear from you.
What I bring to a picture book project:
✦ A vibrant, warm, expressive illustration style rooted in traditional media with a strong handmade quality
✦ Deep understanding of sequential narrative and the 32 page picture book structure
✦ Strong character design — emotionally expressive, visually distinctive, consistent across an entire book
✦ Experience developing original picture book dummies from concept through to finished cover art
✦ A collaborative, process-transparent approach that makes working together a genuine creative partnership
Please visit gunjabhatt.com to view my portfolio and get in touch via Amy Milligan at Illo Agency.
Where can we see more of your picture book illustration work — and what is coming next?
The full development of Hush, Little Dragon — including the inner page illustrations, character design process, and behind the scenes of the book dummy — is something I will be sharing right here on this website. I will also be submitting the complete dummy to publishers in the coming months, so watch this space!
In the meantime, the best place to explore my picture book illustration range — from character design and cover illustration through to full spreads and sequential narrative work — is my Picture Book Illustration page right here on gunjabhatt.com
Looking for a children's book illustrator for your picture book project? From whimsical characters to full sequential narratives — explore my picture book illustration work and get in touch.
