Children's Book Illustration I: Thinking in Pictures
ART-40634
Do you have an idea for a children's book? Or have you always wondered how to make a story come alive through art?
Learn to create stories through images and turn written narratives into a sequence of pictures. Through hands-on assignments, lectures, discussions and critiques, students get a solid foundation in the basics of visual storytelling, as well as sketching story characters, make action drawings, develop story boards and design working book dummies. Explore a wide variety of picture books for inspiration, alongside a real-world introduction to the publishing profession and the industry.
Quarters Offered: Winter | Summer
Prerequisite: Drawing: Focus on Perception, or equivalent experience.
Next Course: Children's Book Illustration II: Focus on Style
Course Information
Course sessions
Section ID:
Class type:
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals paper
by Ed Emberley
ISBN / ASIN: 9780316789790
You may purchase textbooks via the UC San Diego Bookstore.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 6/28/2025
- Early enrollment advised
Schedule:
Instructor:
Joy Chu, BFA
Principal, Joy Chu Designs and free-lance book publishing consultant and designer for clients and publishers all over the US. UCSD Extension instructor since 2008.
Joy Chu teaches Children's Book Illustration I: Thinking in Pictures for the Children's Book Illustration and Children's Book Writing certificate programs.
Joy has art directed and designed hundreds of books, working with many distinguished illustrators including Dow Phumiruk, Cat Min, Ed Young, Richard Jesse Watson, Debbie Tilley, Trina Schart Hyman, Frané Lessac, Jeanette Winter, Debra Fraser, Margot Zemach, Gerald McDermott, Chris Demarest, Barry Moser, David McPhail, Don and Audrey Wood, among others. Prior to running her own studio, she was art director at Harcourt Publishers in San Diego; and in-house designer at Holt, T.Y. Crowell and Knopf, all in New York City. Her work has been cited by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA); the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI); the American Library Association (ALA); Bookbuilders West; the National Book Awards; Print, Step-by-Step Graphic and Publisher’s Weekly magazines.
She completed a comprehensive five-year project, the art direction and production of "The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary of American Sign Language," in collaboration with a dedicated team of illustrators, linguists and editors situated in San Diego, Brooklyn and Washington DC. In July 2015, she curated "Writing with Pictures," a multi-media exhibition that featured preliminary drawings, published art and videos by over 50 internationally-known Southern California picture book artists and writers, at the Museum of the California Center for the Arts in Escondido.
