Children’s Book Illustration Case Studies

Every case study here follows one book the whole way through: the brief the author arrived with, the problems the manuscript set, the pencil roughs sitting beside the printed spreads, and where the book ended up. Named illustrators, and the artwork at the stages before it was finished rather than only the polished end of it.

If you are deciding who draws your children’s book, this is the part of a studio’s website worth reading. The full portfolio shows what we can draw; these pages show how it gets drawn.

At a glance
Books illustrated, studio100+
By Amna Zaki50+
Years working7
Illustrators3
Typical picture book10–14 weeks
Drawn by handAlways

The books

Front cover of Sage Sails the World: A Little Girl’s Journey Across The Arctic, showing Sage, a polar bear and Benji the dog on the ice.

Picture bookBaby–7 years40 pages

Sage Sails The World

by Diamond Spratling

The polar bears Sage travels to meet have gone. Drawing that absence, and then the children’s campaign that brings them back. The whole book storyboarded before a single page was painted, thirty-six pages of artwork, and the pencil roughs sit beside the printed pages.

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More case studies are being written, one book at a time. If you are an author we have worked with and you would like your book here, tell us and we will credit you and link to wherever the book is sold, free.
Thinking about your own book?

Tell us the reading age, roughly how many pages, and whether your characters recur. We will come back within one business day with a timeline and a price.

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