Author's Preface

A painting should be lovely, joyful and beautiful.

The world is full of beautiful things.
When we pay attention to beautiful things, more beautiful things appear before our eyes and we draw them.
A picture book author expresses it through pictures and words to create a picture book.

The key to drawing well is patience.

You have to overcome loneliness in your own world.
To become an artist, you must imagine within the space of a painting and make it your sanctuary.
When you can't draw, it's a good idea to take a break and go for a walk or a light trip.
Let's sketch what we see while traveling and express in words the impressions we get from nature.
A new fairy tale may be born, and a small picture book may be born.
Let's enjoy it with peace of mind.
If you keep in mind that you can only create great work if you can shake off all the temptations around you and work hard consistently, you will see good results.

A good picture book is a well-composed combination of concise text and pictures full of rich meaning and symbolism.
The most significant characteristic of picture books is that they convey diverse, specific, and powerful messages within a short volume, and contain a variety of symbolic elements.
The impression of the adult reading the picture book is remembered specially by the child, and the content of the picture book remains with the child for a long time as if it were the reader's.
--- p.13

To be successful as a writer, it is very difficult to balance daily life with the role of a writer.
You have to make plans and occasionally change your environment to immerse yourself in your creation.
Picture books should give a good impression by combining text and pictures without any awkwardness.
You should read a lot of picture books, study a variety of things about picture books, and be able to read and critique many picture books by other authors.
--- p.25

The text in picture books is written in a concise and compressed manner, like poetry.
If possible, write simply and clearly in colloquial language that is easy to understand and sounds like everyday conversation.
Fiction doesn't have to be fictional to be effective.
So it is effective to use colloquial language.
The lesson should not be written directly in a hidden manner, but should be studied so that it permeates the story and allows the reader to realize it for themselves.
--- p.41

When we imagine a painter painting, we usually think of oil paintings.
Most of the paintings we see in art galleries are oil paintings.
Oil paints can be said to be a representative coloring material that has been used for hundreds of years.
Oil painting is not popular because it is difficult to handle and dries slowly because it uses oil, but it has been loved for a long time because of its unique advantages.
--- p.66

The visual thinking required to produce picture books can broaden the creative method to include writing in the form of visual art, and it can be said to be a visual approach that allows writers to write through pictures without having to ramble on.
--- p.99

You can set the layout so that the background of the picture is cut off outside the cutting line.
Depending on the size and shape of the picture, enlarging it by 110-120% will have a positive effect when printing.
--- p.109

Before deciding on the format, cut out the actual size of the book on paper and make a mock-up to make the book shape.
We need to make it as complete as possible so that we can visually and accurately predict the entire appearance of the printed book.

--- p.159