A child book illustrator is usually someone who has had some training at an art school or college. However, illustrators are different from other artists. Instead of creating a vision on a blank piece of paper or other artistic space, illustrators are required to interpret a text that is already written and create drawings to match. In some cases, these drawings are quite literal; in others, illustrators are quite liberal in their interpretations of the text.
To get started, most illustrators need pen, pencils, paints and brushes - whatever medium they are comfortable drawing in. Some illustrators also use computer drawing programs such as Illustrator or Freehand to create illustrations for a book. Illustrations eventually need to be transferred to disk so they can be laid out with the text to look like a professional children's book.
