Coaching KidLit Episode 56: Creating Picture Books with Guest Claudia Rueda

Host Sharon Skinner chats with author and bestselling illustrator Claudia Rueda about her creative journey from political cartoonist and lawyer to picture book creator. They discuss Claudia’s process for developing characters, especially her latest series, the Smushkins, and explore the unique challenges of writing and illustrating picture books for young children. Claudia shares insights into crafting stories visually, teaching picture book creation, and the importance of trusting the creative process. The episode also covers how writers can collaborate effectively with illustrators and offers actionable advice for both aspiring writers and artists in the kidlit world.

Connect with Claudia Online:

Website: https://claudiarueda.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudiarueda

Topics Covered

07:06 Importance of persistence and staying true to personal creative vision
12:21 Discovering character personalities through drawing, similar to a writer’s process
15:04 Picture book creation and the importance of picture book dummies
19:08 How children engage deeply with picture books and illustrations
20:47 Picture books as a complex and challenging art form
25:23 Picture books and the development of empathy and critical thinking in children
28:26 How publishing contracts work for multiple books and ongoing series
29:59 Action items

Books Mentioned

Bunny Slopes Written and Illustrated by Claudia Rueda
Hungry Bunny Written and Illustrated by Claudia Rueda
Here Comes Cat (series) Written by Deborah Underwood, Illustrated by Claudia Rueda
Meet the Smushkins Written and Illustrated by Claudia Rueda
Nacho and Lolita Written by Pam Munoz Ryan, Illlustrated by Claudia Rueda
Let’s Play in the Forest While the Wolf Is Not Around Written and Illustrated by
Claudia Rueda
My Little Polar Bear Written and Illustrated by Claudia Rueda

Listen:

Transcript

Sharon Skinner: [00:00:00] Welcome to Coaching KidLit, a podcast about writing and publishing good kid lit. We dig into various aspects of writing craft through a kid lit lens and provide inspiration and clear, actionable items to help writers like you move forward on their kid lit writing journeys. I’m Sharon Skinner, author accelerator, certified book coach, and author of speculative fiction and kid lit, including picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

Hello, listeners. I’ve got another special guest for you this month. Claudia Rueda is an author and a New York Times bestselling illustrator of more than 30 picture books. Her books have been published in the United States, Mexico, and Spain, and have been translated into 16 different languages.

Nominated for both the Hans Christian Andersen and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards, Claudia is originally from Colombia, where she went to law school and art [00:01:00] school, and worked as a political cartoonist before studying children’s book illustration at UC Berkeley and receiving a master’s in creative writing from Lesley University.

Currently a teacher at the School of Visual Arts in Pan America, Claudia loves to give back by supporting aspiring artists and writers. And you may know her from her popular bunny books, including Bunny Slopes and Hungry Bunny, or her illustrations for the Teacher Cat series. But Claudia’s newest picture book, Meet the Smushkins, came out in December of 2025, and it’s about these really adorable creatures called Smushkins who dream and play and love being together.

Welcome to the show, Claudia. I’m so happy to have you here.

Claudia Rueda: Thanks, Sharon. Thanks for having me. I’m so happy to be here

Sharon Skinner: So Claudia, I’m very fascinated by the fact that you were a political cartoonist before you were a children’s book illustrator. Those seem like very disparate things. So tell us a little bit [00:02:00] about what drew you originally to cartooning, and then what drew you to move into children’s illustrating?

Claudia Rueda: Yeah. Thanks for asking. when it was the time for me to decide what to do with my life, like starting college, I didn’t want to go to, art school because I wanted to say things with my art. I wanted to say things with pictures, and I really wanted to change the world, so that, I imagine that that’s why I went to law school, which was a crazy thing to do.

And but I also wanted to do graphics, and I took art classes. So as soon as I began college, I started submitting political cartoonings because I met somebody who was working on a newspaper and said, “Okay, why don’t you send something?” It, it was just as simple as that. And I stayed there for about five years doing political cartooning while I was going to law school and while I was taking art classes.

It was crazy. And when I graduated as [00:03:00] lawyer,

my thesis, my graduation thesis was an illustrated, graphic history of Roman law, and it was published by the university, so that was my first published book.

Sharon Skinner: That’s amazing

Claudia Rueda: So I tried to work as a lawyer, but it was a disaster.

It didn’t work out. So two years after that, I decided, no, I have to do books. That’s what I like. I like to say things with pictures. And from then, and from there, we moved to, California with my husband. We, ’cause we really wanted to learn about computer graphics. That was, like, the new thing at that time.

And I found I had, like, some extra time on, on the week, and I saw this class on illustrating children’s books at UC Berkeley. I didn’t even know what a child was at that time, but I took the most amazing class ever by Julie Downing, and I learned , all you need to know to start working on children’s books.

And, I decided that was the thing that I wanted to do, so I, started submitting, postcards. At the beginning, [00:04:00] I wanted to be an illustrator because I, didn’t think of myself as a writer. So I was sending postcards. I got a collection of very beautiful rejection letters.

They used to send letters. and finally, I did send an illustration to the portfolios showcase at the SCBWI at the, at the winter conference here in New York City, and I got the second place, and I went there for the award, and the real award was that one of the jurors was Marijka Kostiw, and I told her, “Can I show you my portfolio?”

And she was very nice, and she sent me a manuscript by Pat Muñoz Ryan to illustrate, and I obviously said yes, and that was my first children’s book. That’s a long story

short.

Sharon Skinner: And, and what was the name of that first book?

Claudia Rueda: It was called Nacho and Lolita, and it was written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and I did the illustrations. I couldn’t believe it.

I was so happy about it. It was great.

Sharon Skinner: That’s so [00:05:00] fun. So you thought you were gonna be a lawyer, and you ended up being a children’s book illustrator. I think I’ve talked to at least one other person who was a lawyer before they became a children’s book writer, but I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone on the show who was a lawyer and then an illustrator and now writer-illustrator.

that’s a very interesting journey. you also now have written and illustrated a number of books. So tell us a little bit about how you decided that you were going to start submitting full manuscripts for, books.

Claudia Rueda: It was very quick. Once I published my first book with Scholastic, I started thinking about my own books. I am very creative and I love that. What I did is that at the beginning, I took, traditional folktales and songs that I wanted to illustrate and make something out of that.

I knew that you can change the stories with the illustrations because I really [00:06:00] believe in writing with pictures, and what pictures can do in a story. So I, took one, a play song that was very popular when I was a child, and it was not well-known in the US, and I did the, dummy of the book.

It is called Let’s Play in the Forest While the Wolf is Not Around. And my editor, Tracy Mack at Scholastic, loved it, and she published the book. So it was, already like an interpretation of a story, of a song, but it was my book. And then I wrote another one, but it was mine. it was called Am I a Polar Bear, and it’s, a journey of a, little polar bear who just, newborn and wants to know how can he or she be a polar bear if it doesn’t know how to be a polar bear.

and it’s a story about love, uh, mother’s love. so yeah, it was pretty quick. Well, pretty quick, but of course, it took me, like, five years to get

there.

Sharon Skinner: Right. Pretty quick when it comes to children’s picture books, which [00:07:00] we know is a long game, right?

Claudia Rueda: Oh, yes. Very much, very much. You have to be very persistent, and you have to believe in what you like to do, not trying to follow trends or what other people are doing because You’re desperate to sell. But do what you want to do, and then like what you do. That’s the way

to go

Sharon Skinner: It’s very good advice. So you have the bunny books, and those are adorable. And most of the books that I see on your list are for younger readers, so really the three to five-year-old range, the toddlers. You have really cute illustrations, somewhat simple text. what is it that draws you to that audience?

Claudia Rueda: Well, that’s one thing about, the books that I have published in the US. I also publish books in Mexico and Spain. and they tend to be for an older audience. But for, here, I don’t know if it’s because of, my language, which is closer to the basic language of small kids, or because, I have tried to sell those [00:08:00] others, but I do not fit the market for a reason.

S- but I, always end up doing these funny books for small kids, and the market is open to that, and I love that because they like sense of humor. They like these characters who are a little bit, cute, but also a little bit mischievous and very clever. and I think there is a space here for this kind of books.

I also do different things. I don’t, do just one thing. I do these books. I do books for older kids, and I do a little bit of comics and, and still do a little bit of comics. But this is the kind of books that I kind of sell here. and, and I love it because it’s going really well.

Sharon Skinner: Yeah, they’re absolutely adorable. And your newer book, The Smushkins, First of all, who doesn’t wanna say Smushkin? It’s a great word, it’s fun to say it, and they’re adorable. They look like smushy little animals,

Like plushies, but, little animals.

How did you come up with the idea of [00:09:00] Smushkins?

Claudia Rueda: Okay. And following your previous question, I have always wanted to, try to make clever books for small children. Clever and fun and with humor, but also deep and also good. So that’s one of my challenges, like doing good books and attractive books for small children.

I love it. I love that age, like from three to five. I love it because it’s the time of discovery, of curiosity, of playfulness, so I love the challenge of doing books for them. Mm, the other thing is that these characters just appear on my page in a way. Like, I was being, , like very playful during COVID times because kind of nobody was watching, so when you have time and nobody’s, like, waiting for you to submit something, you have to draw anyway.

And I was playing. Playing, I just got my new, iPad and Procreate, and I was playing around with the tablet, and these characters kind [00:10:00] of show up, of course I had been drawing animals for a long time, because that’s one thing that I like, so there’s a lot of, background that I had.

and I like, this combination of different creatures and, all that, but they just show up and I say, “Okay, what is this?” But I, didn’t know what to do with them, and I kept them in my iPad for a long time, like for two years, and when I met my, agent, Janna Morishima, and she told me, “Okay, what do you have?”

So I show her one, two projects, and I told her, “Well, I have these characters. Maybe we can do something with that.” and she loved them, and I say, “Okay, so let’s work it, on it” and I created some concept books. The first ones are, the colors and the ABC books that, came out in March.

And then, she said, “Okay, why don’t you do two more books, more concept books?” And I did it, and then Candlewick Press loved them, and they say, “Why don’t you do a picture book to introduce the [00:11:00] characters before we publish the concept books?” And that’s the one who came out in December.

So that’s, that was kind of the process, and now that I know these characters, because at the beginning were these creatures who were, like, showing up but I didn’t know how their personalities were. But they’ve been evolving while I, put them into situations and, locations.

They start to do whatever they need to do according to their personalities. so they’ve been growing, so now it’s much easier to create stories for them So I’ve been creating,

many stories for them and, that’s how it evolved. it was a process

Sharon Skinner: I love

that because I have the same kind of process with my writing where characters come to me, but I don’t always know who they are or what their stories are. And a lot of times what I do is exactly that. I’ll put them into a situation and see how they react and see what they do and what they say, and that’s how I figure out who they are and discover their stories So I [00:12:00] love that you, come at the process a similar way. Do you do that through illustration? I mean, ’cause you’ve got the characters, you knew what they look like. So do you just sort of draw them in situations and see what they’re doing?

Claudia Rueda: That’s, what is so interesting that you’re talking about writing and I’m talking about images, and it works the same way. That’s so amazing. Yes, so I decided to draw a tree, and said, “Okay, climb the tree.” And each of them will climb the tree in a different way. Some will stay down on Earth, and the more daring will go to the top of the tree.

And they, in a way, they try to speak.

Sharon Skinner: Yeah

Claudia Rueda: Yeah. and I took them to the beach, and they’re, each of them will do something different, like reading a book, going swimming, playing with a ball. and it, it’s kind of organic in a way. I know it might sound strange for people who haven’t been into this, but it works that way, and it’s Of course, the way they look reveals, as with [00:13:00] people, reveals a little bit of how they are.

Sharon Skinner: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Rueda: Now that I’m showing the book to different people, even adults, they do have their favorites.

Sharon Skinner: That’s so fun.

Claudia Rueda: YA

Sharon Skinner: Yeah, so I always talk about how process is personal and that the way that you find your way y- into your writing or your, art is very personal. And You know, everybody has a way to do it, and people will tell you, “Oh, try this or try that, or do it my way.” And I always tell people, sure, try it somebody else’s way because that’s how you find your own process.

You try somebody else’s way, you try this other thing. If those don’t work for you or if they don’t fit, then don’t do that. But that helps you find your way to your own personal process.

Claudia Rueda: Totally. I think we have all imitated somebody at some point, and that’s, a way of learning because you understand somebody’s process and way of reading the world. And it also gives you license to do things that you thought you were not able [00:14:00] to do. So it’s so good to look at a vanguard illustrators and picture book authors so you say, “Oh, so you can do that?

I didn’t know that.” So they open, doors for you, and at the beginning it’s great. but it’s also a process to learn what you like and the language that you like. But there is a big difference between imitating and just learning from the masters and learning from the people who’ve been in the industry for a long time.

It, Feels like an exercise when you’re copying, and it feels like playfulness

when you’re doing your own. That kind of thing

Sharon Skinner: Yeah. So you teach, at the School of Visual Arts and at Penn America, and you teach illustration classes, I assume?

Claudia Rueda: At the School of Visual Arts, I, teach picture book. So they learn to do a picture book dummy. We don’t go into final illustrations. We don’t go into color. And the first class I say, Don’t bring your colors here” “because we’re not gonna use them.” so [00:15:00] we do a storyboard, and

We do a small picture book dummy of eight pages at the beginning with somebody else’s writing, normally a nursery rhyme, and then they start to work on their own project. They do a storyboard, and then, like, in the two final weeks, they create a picture book dummy, and that’s the final work.

And I told them, “That’s what you have to send to an editor. ” an editor doesn’t want to see a final, final final book. They want to see the dummy, so yeah, that’s what I teach.

Sharon Skinner: Right. yeah, normally for illustrators it’s a dummy and a couple of illustrations that are almost finished. Is that, correct?

Claudia Rueda: Yeah, totally correct. And probably nowadays a link to your portfolio, even if, let’s say

Instagram or your website, whatever, that’s how it works.

Yes.

Sharon Skinner: Yes. We coach our local S-C-B-W-I members to have an online portfolio so that there’s a digital link, now because that’s what is being asked for, the most. I mean, you can still send [00:16:00] postcards. You can still do that, but on your postcard, they wanna see that you have a portfolio they can just look at.

Claudia Rueda: Of course. That shows a lot about yourself and your consistency, that you’re not a one-trick pony, that you can do things . And that’s very important for picture books because consistency is very important in picture books. you have to do a lot of, pictures.

Sharon Skinner: Yes, and you have to be able to recreate the same characters from different angles, and they still have to present as the same character., That’s a mad skill right there.

Claudia Rueda: Totally. That’s Why the, Picture Book Dummy is so important, because they can see that , you’re not just a very good artist, but you can also sustain, that narrative during , 32 or 40 pages or 80 pages, that you can keep going and evolve your characters and your situations. That’s, the visual narrative. And I do a lot of emphasis on visual narrative. That’s, like, the main thing that I want to teach

Sharon Skinner: and as you say, children’s, literature is an art form, right? It’s not the same as educational material, even though picture books can [00:17:00] educate

Claudia Rueda: This is literature , And it’s art, and it’s poetry, and, it’s very important for illustrators to know that. And, you know, because there is a sense of enchantment, and there is, like, this once upon a time. Like, it takes you to, a little bit of suspension of disbelief, and you want to be there, and you, develop empathy towards one of the characters or all of them , or you hate one of the character.

You get into a situation. That, that’s what fiction and literature is. There is an emotional, aspect in the experience of reading literature which is not the same thing in, with education because education is more like for the rational part of your brain. So we know when we are into storytelling, and that’s what it is.

And of course, it’s got to have style and beauty and, rhythm and everything that literature, like poetry or, or novels or whatever form of writing has. And also with the pictures. The pictures should always [00:18:00] have, this aesthetics and consistency and there are some rules for the form, for the art form that are important because we also communicate it.

So it’s got to be readable and enchanting, and it’s a combination of different elements. But it’s, very different from an educational content.

Sharon Skinner: Yes, and going back, to something you said earlier about connecting with the, characters and that emotional connection, that’s especially important for young children. Because… That’s when you see them, when they really connect, that they wanna hear it repeated over and over and over.

They wanna hear the same story. And I know some parents, you know, get tired of reading the same story, but it’s because the kids get so engaged with those particular characters. They want to spend time with them like they’re friends

Claudia Rueda: Yes, yes. For some reason, children do like to read again and again, because they are learning. That’s how children, learn things. , They go again, again, again, because we go from one thing to the other [00:19:00] one, one thing to the other one, but we do not go deep into contemplating staying at the place.

But their learning process is a lot of observation, a lot of, attentional, even though we think they are not, very focused, but when they are paying attention, they do pay attention a lot, and they look at some details that you never notice. , I was, reading my Meet the Smushkins book the other day with kids, and they will notice thing that, they will tell you if something is not in the right place.

They know the logic of things, but they also want to see again and again and notice, different things and, absorb them for their own life and repeat them in, when facing situations that are similar to, what they see in the stories.

So they are in the learning process, not in the entertaining process

Sharon Skinner: Right. And that’s why illustrations are so critical to picture books, so that they can observe and use all their senses while they’re hearing the story as well

Claudia Rueda: Oh, yes. They should be rich [00:20:00] in, content. They should be telling something. They should be evocative. They should be narrative. and probably also have interests with the adult who’s reading the story as well. So they should have different levels which is so rich and have a contrast with the words.

And, , you kind of find something more complex than just a decoration when you see an illustration in a picture book, and that’s the fun

Sharon Skinner: Which is one of the reasons why I tell people all the time who think that picture books are easy, that they really aren’t. They’re one of the hardest art forms, I think, in the

publishing realm

Claudia Rueda: Yes, you tend to think that when it’s simple and short, it’s easy, and that’s e- exactly the opposite. Like, try to get a, a paragraph of 10 pages into one page. That’s really hard, saying all the things that you want to say. Also, poetry. Poetry is the hardest art form, in [00:21:00] writing, it’s the hardest, and it’s very short.

Also the writing, I do a lot of emphasis on the writing because you believe that, it’s like casual writing, like it’s just like saying the words that you will say, when you speak, and it’s totally different from that. Because first, it’s got to dance with the images, so it’s got to say something different from what the images are saying.

But also, it’s meant to be read aloud along with the pictures. So it’s, a very difficult thing to write. When you read, somebody like Margaret Wise Brown, which looks like very simple, she’s so good at writing picture books because her words are very precise and very, very well selected and very simple.

It’s a very, very fine form of writing

Sharon Skinner: Yes, it is. And back to something you just said was that yes, they’re learning, but there’s a difference between educational material and children’s picture books that read like literature and yet still [00:22:00] have a message

Claudia Rueda: Totally, totally because storytelling is similar to playing because it’s a recreation of life, of things that happen in life, of obstacles, of problems, on dealing with other people, facing situations that are unusual. So it’s a kind of a recreation of life, like in the movies, to recreate some parts of life different from, nonfiction, which is information.

Sharon Skinner: And as creators, both writers and illustrators, especially of picture books, or books in general, we’re always making a point. We always have something to say. We’re presenting our ideas in this format, but we don’t wanna be didactic. , we don’t want to be teaching the lesson. We want to be showing children ideas and concepts of what we’re trying to convey

Claudia Rueda: Yeah, you’re kind of inviting the reader to, feel what the character feels and show them what this character would do, and the reader [00:23:00] will decide, “Okay, this was a bad thing to do. This was a good thing to do. Look what happened. Would I be there if I was there? What would I have done?” But they are not telling the reader if this is right or if this is wrong.

It will tell them, “Okay, look what happened to this person. and the reader, the child, is gonna think, “Okay, how would I feel ?” And that’s, a way of empathy. That’s why stories are so wonderful for empathy and for, staying in somebody else’s shoes, right? Because you kind of feel what the character is feeling, and that’s the power of stories.

So yes, it is in a way, learning, but it is like learning, from example, like what you learn from your parents’ behavior your other friends or from your grandparents, and you kind of see, observe, and, and try to imitate later in that way. Not in like, [00:24:00] Okay, don’t tell lies.” if you tell a child that, I mean, it doesn’t mean anything.

But if you see that your parent is, always telling the truth, that’s totally different , so that’s how education in stories work,

Sharon Skinner: yes. and we show, we don’t tell.

Claudia Rueda: Totally. It’s exactly what I was saying. Yeah, you, show up but you don’t say this is wrong, this is right. Like, okay, you, see somebody who’s telling lies. Okay, what is this, right? And children are very creative . You think that children just, humans in construction.

They are not. They are the, base and the support of everything we are because of our childhood. It’s not that, our children are because us as adults. No, we are, the result of our childhood

Sharon Skinner: Yeah, and so when you’re reading picture books to young children and they’re asking those questions, how would I feel? Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? And making up their own, minds about things, they’re developing their own critical [00:25:00] thinking at an

early age

Claudia Rueda: Of course, because you’re not telling them what to think. You’re inviting them to think, but not telling them. And there’s always some ambiguity because if there is a contradiction between the words and the pictures, there’s going to be some ambiguity, which is good, too. Because as we know, even though many people try to, tell us the opposite, there is not such thing as black and white in life.

So that’s also good for them to know. It’s good for them to know that maybe yes, maybe no, that there is a possibility and, that’s critical thinking. they decide for their own. They are not so good at judgment when they are kids, but they are really good at asking questions and learning in the process when they read

Sharon Skinner: talk a little bit about where you’re going with The Shmushkins. Do you have more books? I mean, it sounds like you have about five now. Are you planning on some more?

Claudia Rueda: Yes. Yeah, because the first one was an introduction , to the Smushkins. So that was a picture book that the Smushkins were looking for a house, and through the process of looking for a house, we learn [00:26:00] about what they like to do, what they enjoy, like as a group. But now I’m starting to develop their own individual personalities, and that was the process that I went through when I created the concept books, because I was putting them into a situation that’s I have an alphabet book and I had to create like 28 different situations , and that helped me to learn about them.

So I, at this point, I already know a lot about them, and I’m creating, I have already written four different stories they are still not on contract and but hopefully they will be, picture book stories. they go to a haunted house, and they, there’s another one about choosing their costume for Halloween.

There’s another one about, a hen that is a pet. They have a pet hen, and the hen has, five chicks. That’s the cutest story. And there’s always a stranger who comes and makes a mess and dealing with that mess because Smushkins are very kind, but

I mean, they, they are not romantics. They know when they don’t like something. So they have to deal with [00:27:00] that and, they have to come up with a solution with the person who arrives and, is breaking all the peace in the house. So, i’m having a lot of fun there .

Sharon Skinner: Claudia, I love talking to author-illustrators because I love getting the illustrator perspective on things. It’s really important, I think, for writers who are not illustrators to understand the way that they need to leave room for the illustrator so that the words and the pictures speak together. And so it’s really fun to talk to someone who came from this the illustration side, and then you tell the story. So that’s been fun for me,

But I have another question for you, because you mentioned that some of your Smushkin books are written, but they’re not under contract.

Do you wanna talk a little bit to the audience about how that works? Even though you’re an established author-illustrator, you have some books under contract, but not all, and you have books with the same characters, [00:28:00] but you don’t know yet if they’re going to be

published

Claudia Rueda: Yeah. Well, obviously it depends on how the first books do in the market, and that’s a little bit cruel with the characters, but hopefully it will do well, and we will be able to publish more books. Just crossing my fingers. Yeah, but, it was a big thing that I was able to sign five books before publishing the first one.

That’s totally exceptional . Uh, my agent told me that’s very exceptional. So they were truly in love with the characters, and they really believe in them. But of course, five is too much. It’s a lot, so I wouldn’t expect them to buy more at this point. But of course, they have to see if, if, it sells, and then they will sign more books.

The thing is that normally you sign with one publisher, and it’s really hard to sell it to somebody else. But let’s hope for the better, and let’s hope that it, sells well and, that many people fall in love, especially children, fall in love with the [00:29:00] Smushkins, and, They are already falling in love with the Smushkins.

So let’s hope that they have a long life.

because, it looks like they do want to have a long life.

Sharon Skinner: Well, they’re certainly adorable, and I can see that they would make very cute plushies. So, maybe there’s that coming for you. So that would be really exciting, wouldn’t it?

Claudia Rueda: Yeah. yeah, many people have told me that. Yes, I really hope so for that.

Sharon Skinner: So at this point in the program, we like to give our listeners an action item, something that they can take away with them and use on their journeys. So what do you have for our listeners today?

Claudia Rueda: Okay, I will invite my listeners, especially if you want to do picture books, my advice would be to trust the process and start with a storyboard. I know it’s totally normal to imagine your book all shiny and done, sitting on a shelf somewhere in a bookstore, but that part comes much later, and don’t think about that.

[00:30:00] Because at the start, it’s got to be messy. It’s supposed to be. Just trust the process. Keep going. It gets there. So do a lot of storyboards. Trust the storyboard. the picture book is not just a collection of pictures and words. Think of the picture book like just one sentence. You have to write a whole sentence before you go to the details of each page.

So do the whole thing, even if it’s sketchy and not very well done, even if you don’t like it. It’s normal that you don’t like it at the beginning or it doesn’t look good, but trust the process and go step by step and start with a storyboard.

Please do a storyboard if you want to do a picture book

Sharon Skinner: I think that’s great advice even for writers. When I’m writing a picture book, I do a dummy, and I just do it with stick figures and I don’t know what the outcome will be. Surely someone who’s a visual artist is, such as yourself, will come up with so much better ideas for the [00:31:00]visual component of it.

I very much admire the visual artists and the illustrators who take stories from someone like me and then make it into something even more amazing through the visual arts. But I think it’s important that we do, storyboarding and/or a dummy as part of the process even if we’re the writer and not the illustrator. That’s a great action item.

Claudia Rueda: Thank you. I’m glad

Sharon Skinner: So for my action item, I’m going to recommend that if you’re an illustrator, to go out and look at books like Claudia’s books, and, other illustrators that you admire, and do exactly what Claudia was talking about earlier on, and look at how they’ve done it, and see what it is that you can take away from that.

Not copying, but finding the way that they did it and the joy that they put into it, and using that to inspire your own [00:32:00] work. And you do that as well as a writer. You do the same thing. You go out and you read other people’s picture books, and look at them, and understand how did, they do what they did?

How did they make the words sing like that on the page? And how were they able to choose perfectly precise words for that particular story? And emulate that. Find a way, and find your process into picture book So Claudia, where else can we find You online?

Claudia Rueda: You can find me on Instagram. And also on my website. It’s my full name, claudiarueda.com , and you’ll find my books, some things about me, about, school visits, talks, and all that information that you have to have when you’re a picture book author.

So those will be the two places to go

Sharon Skinner: Great. And we will put that information in the show notes so that the links are there and available so you can go check out Claudia’s work and her, Instagram and follow her. I’m sure that she’s [00:33:00] offering up more inspirational information on her Instagram, just as she did here today with us. Claudia, thank you so much for being here today and for offering up your insight and all of this wonderful information for our listeners today

Claudia Rueda: Oh, thank you so much, Sharon. It was a full pleasure

Sharon Skinner: Well, bye for now.

Claudia Rueda: Bye

Sharon Skinner: We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Coaching KidLit, a writing and book coaching podcast for writers who want to level up their KidLit game. For more episodes, visit coachingkidlit.com. And to find out more about what a book coach can do for you, visit my website, bookcoachingbysharon.com.

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For more information about Sharon Skinner, visit bookcoachingbysharon.com or follow her on Instagram @sharon_skinner_author_bookcoach

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Want to know more about working with a Book Coach on your KidLit book? Check out my KidLit Coaching Page or fill out my inquiry form to schedule a FREE Consult call and let’s get started!

Keywords:

Key Words: writing craft, kidlit, children’s books, picture books, illustration, author-illustrator, political cartoonist, creative process, law school, art school, book publishing, submitting manuscripts, portfolio showcase, SCBWI, character development, storytelling, visual narrative, picture book dummy, storyboarding, children’s literature, reading aloud, early childhood education, empathy in stories, learning through stories, market trends, publishing contracts, building a portfolio, illustrator tips, literary awards, process of writing, inspiration for writers