How To Direct the Viewers Eye in Children’s Books Art by Design
Design your illustrations to lead the reader’s eye where you want it to go.
How do you make sure your reader is getting the experience and story that you want to tell in your kids book?
Subtly guide your reader’s eye around the page in your children’s book with visual clues—giving them the narrative experience you’ve designed. Read how below:
When telling a story in film, you can move the camera where ever you want the viewer to go! With a children’s book, you need to use visual techniques in order to guide the reader’s eye and let them experience the narrative you’ve created for them!
There are many ways to direct a reader’s eye in a book. FOUR simple options to utilize this aspect of illustration are:
Light and dark areas
Lines and directional markers
Which way characters / animals are facing
Framing the full page or certain parts of an image
I’m a children’s book illustrator — I’ll be using “Maybe A Whale” (a book I illustrated) as an example throughout this article. (This kids’ book was written by Kirsten Pendreigh and published by Groundwood Books.)
Here is a short synopsis of the book:
After Grandpa dies, a girl and her mother take the trip he had planned for them, kayaking along the Pacific west coast to look for the whales that he loved.
The trip will do them good, Mom says, but the girl isn’t sure. How can that be true when grandpa isn’t there? And how will they find a whale in all that water, anyway?
Why do you want to direct a reader’s eye in picture books?
One big reason is to initiate a page-turn. You want to move the reader through the story in a specific rhythm. (Usually this is set by the author’s text.) This involves leading their eye along a path through the important elements of the page and then OFF that page into a page-turn.
Another reason to direct their eye is to make sure they don’t miss anything important! Details crucial to the narrative of the story need to be hard-to-miss. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun extra details and such in the shadows, but make sure your main storyline shows up clearly in the art.
Probably the most important motivation (especially from the author’s POV) is to lead the eye to the text on the page! You don’t want to hide the text in spots that won’t get noticed—it needs to make sense in the rhythm of the book and the imagery.
Yet another reason is to create timing. Maybe you want them to notice the expression on the characters face BEFORE they get to see the action on the page that is causing that reaction.
Or, if it is a funny kids book, you want to make sure the joke lands with the right timing. Having the punch-line as the first thing the reader notices could ruin the humor!
Looking Toward the Stars
In the picture above, both the mother and daughter are facing towards the star whale—which immediately makes you look!
Just like in real life, when characters in t he book are looking at something (especially with an excited or interested facial expression) you want to see what is so interesting and you look too.
This is especially true if the light is hitting the face, because then you also have an innate interest in where the light is coming from.
Also, in the picture above, you can see that the marshmallow sticks point towards the star whale—obviously what I am trying to get the viewer to look at! This is considered using ‘lines’ to direct the eye.
Even the bright light of the fire on the second page helps the reader move to that area (which contains the author’s text in the actual book) and then right into a page-turn.
Point the Way!
Let’s get obvious here—just have the character(s) pointing! As soon as I see a pointing hand, I have to look!
I was a bit sneaky (or at least trying to be) on this page in “Maybe A Whale” as well, using the tree line and a large wooden spoon as lines to direct the viewer to the fingers pointing. This creates a triangle to grab your eye. The finger is pointing at text (shown in the final book).
Once you read the second page, the kayak does most of the work as a ‘pointing line’ towards the edge of the page. The sun behind the mountains, as the brightest spot on these pages, is the natural resting spot for your eyes as you make the page turn.
Using Color and Light to Direct the Eye in Illustrations
Use color and light as another great way to direct the eye! The bright yellow tent is the first thing to grab your attention in the below illustration…
Then, the tree line and the shoreline both direct you towards the whales in the shadows. Although the whale breath can be seen in contrast to the sky, it isn’t the brightest spot on the page. I didn’t want them to be the first thing you see when turning the page—after all, the story is about searching for whales!
Simple Solutions for Guiding the Eye
I used a bright yellow swatch at the front of the page below (the bag) to immediately bring your eye to the front of the image (helped along by the kayak pointing in that direction). Because the fog mutes some of the hues in the background, it is an especially efficient technique here.
From there the seaweed drags you over to the next page (and if it doesn’t, then the kayak in the back will point the way over); the bright cyan tones grabbing your attention with the seaweed and waterline moving you along. Then, the kayak lets you set sail!
The kayak is a great item to use to direct viewers, because its shape can immediately guide the eye, just like it cuts through the water. Long or pointed shapes can be easy guides through your book so think about adding some to your scenes if there’s a natural way to do so.
Frame the Scene
A natural frame on a scene, whether that is from foliage, buildings, or a tent opening, is a simple way to guide the eye. We’re hardwired to look inside a frame, rather than at a frame! (Whether that’s on a wall or in a book.)
In the picture below, it also helps that the little whale stuffed animal is gazing outside—immediately guiding your view out the tent door as well.
Placing Many Objects to Guide the Eye
Objects as pointing lines in a picture naturally guide your eye, as we’ve seen. The picture below is busy, busy, busy! But using the kayak and seals as dark silhouettes, which have very simple lines, can easily setup a curve to follow through the smack of jellyfish.
Think about object placement, creating lines, using face direction, color choices, and brightness/contrast when you are composing your illustrations for a children’s book.
Guide the reader’s eye where you want it to go, ending with a natural page-turn as they follow you off the edge of the image. Become a wizard at directing the viewer and you can control the story!
You can get your copy of “Maybe A Whale” on Amazon over here.
Thank you for reading!
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