David and Goliath Children’s Book Illustrations

I worked closely with a Christian publisher, Baker Publishing, to illustrate several children’s books about stories from the Bible. Many times, with a publisher, I don’t have much direct communication with the author, but luckily, with these books, I was given a chance to work directly with the author as the artwork progressed. I am a Christian myself, so I really have enjoyed this opportunity to illustrate Bible stories. This children’s book is called ‘Big Shot Sling Shot’ and depicts the famous story of David and Goliath. I’ll share a little bit about my process below…

Before starting into the book itself, I begin a children’s book by exploring the main character or characters. I started this book by sketching the look and feel for David. There were two main looks we were bouncing back and forth with, but this ended up being the final choice. 

After the final character sketch was approved, I finalized David in color. This gives the author and publisher a chance to see what the final look will be for the character before I start illustrating the pages. Including final lineart, shading, and color. 

After main character approval, I started the page sketches. Here is one of those sketches. I like to indicate the trim size and extra bleed area on the border of the sketches. This way, the client can see that I’m already taking the final print specifications into consideration. 

And this is the first page that introduces Goliath. It was a fun page to lay out and make the reader feel like they are standing with the Israelite soldiers. 

I’ll share just one more children’s book page sketch. I felt with the vast, detailed scenes throughout the book, that it would be good to mix in a few pages that had a focus on just the main characters. This gives your eyes a bit of a rest, and actually adds to the interest and variety throughout the book illustrations. 

Now we get into the fun part, the final color illustrations! Here’s one of the beginning pages, where one of David’s brothers is telling him he has to stay be. Here’s a few more of the David and Goliath illustrations below…

I really had a blast creating the character design for Goliath and drawing him throughout the pages. It takes a mean foe to bring this story to life in all of its glory and grandeur. 

This is one of my favorite pages- as David heads off to meet his brothers at the battlefront. I just think it turned out to be a really cute book illustration and I love the depth of the background. 

And of course, here’s one of many great pages showing David and Goliath’s battle! It was really fun to draw the illustrations for this children’s book. I am definitely looking forward to reading these to my nieces and nephews soon. And I am also looking forward to the day that my wife and I can read these to our own children.

One last illustration I wanted to be sure and share was the endpapers. These end sheets, or end papers are the illustrations or patterns found in the front inside cover and back inside cover. I used the theme colors of this book in the series, for the monochromatic color scheme. This drawing is of a lighthearted scene where David has been practicing with his slingshot. 

Side Note: I’ve left out the text on all these illustrations, because I wanted to encourage you to purchase a book for yourself. Not only will you be able to read the whole story, but you can also see the many other illustrations that I haven’t shared here. There’s several great pages during the battle between David and Goliath that you’re not going to want to miss! You can pre-order the book, along with the 3 other Creator’s Toy Chest books, here on Amazon: 

Just click on the cover illustration above! I appreciate all of your support. I know you’ll love the books. 

And if you have written a children’s book and are looking for a great illustrator, feel free to contact me here. I would love to talk with you about your story and see how I can help create wonderful illustrations for you. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the process. 

And lastly, here’s a quick video where I share a bit about my process when illustrating this book: 

Thanks for watching! I hope this post was interesting and informative. :)