Children like animals and birds. They like to watch animals and hear animal stories. That is why most of the authors make animals as the central characters in their children stories. Even though the stories are about the intentions and desires of humans, the characters are animals with human behaviors and characteristics.
The main reason for the use of animals in children stories is that the authors are interested to draw. Beatrix Potter is a legendary illustrator and English author who created children’s books with animal stories. For drawing animal cartoons, she clad her rabbits with little jackets and used them as models. She was aware of the paradox of doing such an activity. However to present stories to children in their own style was necessary. There is no surprise, why children loved reading her books and stories!
Many of the grandma stories told to children involves lot of animals like the crooked jackals, cunning crows, etc. Children carry these stories in their mind even after the childhood days. Children cherish each moment in the story told and try to visualise the story. Such stories help children in two ways viz. increase imagination skills and impute morality. When we see the Aesop’s fables, “Little Red Riding Hood” or Grimm Brother’s stories, there are many animal characters in them. Therefore, in this era, animal book characters are essential for all children books.
As said above, children enjoy stories of animals. They never consider the humanness of animals a true thing. They try to see it as stories and they know that stories never come true. This is because of their high imagination levels. They start conceptualising and imagining with the help of these stories. Therefore, it is worthy to tell stories to children when they are young. This will sharpen their minds and help them to be good thinking beings in the future.
While preparing a book character for children, one should have clarity about the story and the characteristics of the character. Good artists try to learn the character in full and at the end conceptualise the shape and expressions of the character. Once character is studied, it is easier for the illustrator to depict the character exactly. Several hailed book characters in the cartoon industry are the results of meticulous study by ingenious artists. These artists spent their lifetime studying and creating various expressions for their characters. Such hard work is required to make successful and children-loved book-characters.
When it comes to the depicting of book character, there are many modern methods available today. The most modern computer programmes help the illustrators in making effectual and perfect images. It also helps the illustrators to change the shape of the character at wish and enable to make the perfect character without wasting much paper. These illustrating programmes are cost-effective and thereby help any starter to delve into successful illustration career.
Book characters are vital for making comic books and children’s books. Whether it is a child or an animal, the book characters should be depicted in such a way that it is attractive to children. The illustrators should make strong use of modern technology to create book characters.