How to Work with an Illustrator

Q&A with Stan Jaskiel, experienced professional illustrator

If your book needs illustrations, it can be hard to know where to start. You might try fooling around yourself on various platforms like Canva, Napkin AI or the new Nano Banana introduced by Google. You might try to hire someone on Upwork or Fiverr. But none of those solutions definitely ensures that you will end up with good, professional illustrations. And there is also a chance that an illustrator you pay to create a custom illustration for you might be using AI to generate it.

I interviewed illustrator Stan Jaskiel, who is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art. He has done corporate design and children’s books. He also handles illustrations for adult books. He does a lot of cartoons and character illustrations, but he can also help you create other things like custom charts, logos, stylized lists or flow charts, cover illustrations, and more. Basically, any graphic you need, he can do.

I hope you find his insight illuminating!

How do I choose an illustrator?

Most illustrators typically work in one specific style. It’s a style they’re identified with and are very good at. But the pricing will still vary from illustrator to illustrator, depending on how complicated and time intensive their specific style is.

So, when you choose your illustrator you’re also choosing your style of art which means you’re also impacting your budget. There are some illustrators, like myself, who work in a few different styles and media. I do this because it makes me a more viable candidate to more authors. I find I can now fit most author’s budgets by offering a range of different techniques. I’ve even done projects where an author has given me samples of an existing style she wanted and I was able to adapt my method to mirror that style and still make it budget friendly.

How does the process start?

Now, most illustrators start with rough sketches and that’s good for you, the author. Sketches can be easily changed and that allows your illustrator to quickly make revisions. This is not the case down the road once the final art is completed. This means that this early sketch stage is when you should concentrate on any changes you’d like to make to the sketches before the process moves too far along.

Once the final art is done, any adjusting, even if the art is done on computer, can be time consuming and costly to do. Sometimes it may even require the entire page to be redone.

Initially, your illustrator will provide you with sketches to review followed by a final set of drawings which incorporates your changes and shows you how the final art will look.

Typically no illustrator should have any issue with refining sketches while in this early stage. It’s part of the process and very common. Most will allow you up to 3 revisions as part of their total cost. But you should ask your illustrator up front if there’s any additional cost if you want to make more than just 3 changes, even if it’s only a minor tweak.

I’ve developed the practice of offering to do a sketch or 2, at no cost, from your manuscript to help you decide if I’d be a good fit. I’ve found this works out very well for everyone. Authors are less apprehensive to work with me because they’ve been able to review samples of my art that’s based on their story while I get a feel ahead of time for the design and plot I’m to draw. You can ask the illustrators you’re considering what their policy is in this area.

How do I know if an illustrator is using AI or is doing the work themselves?

Illustrators and designers are usually very eager to let a prospective client see their portfolio. That’s pretty much a given. It’s one of the key steps toward their being hired by a client. You should never have to insist or beg in order to get a look at this person’s work. If they drag their feet, watch out. It could be that they have no original existing work to show you.

A great way to make sure an illustrator is showing you original work is to ask to see their some of the initial rough sketches they’ve created. All illustrators do these as a first step in order to explore and refine their concepts. Again, you shouldn’t have to insist or beg. If they say something like “My sketches are really super rough and hard to understand” etc. tell them you understand but you’d like to see some anyway. A strong resistance to this may indicate that they have no roughs to show you because they are not generating the images themselves and their artwork is not original.

What are some red flags?

If the illustrator is hard to reach, watch out. If your emails, IM’s, voicemails or texts are not being answered in a timely manner then I would stop the process and look elsewhere for my illustration needs. Any person who’s legitimately in business would never ignore messages or leave a client hanging. This would also apply to their continually missing deadlines or having long delays in delivering what is due. Even if the illustrator is very busy, your project shouldn’t be pushed aside or moved to the back of the line. Your book is as important as any other writer’s and needs be respected. Unprofessionalism could indicate you’re dealing with a non-illustrator.

Any noticeable drop-off in quality, in either the illustrator’s sketches or, especially, in the final art should be a red flag. You have to ask yourself why that’s happening. Is the illustrator too busy to give your book proper attention? Does she simply not care or is it because she’s just not experienced enough to be able to consistently maintain a high quality? You’ll need to understand the reason why and then decide if you want to make a change.

Illustrators routinely show rough sketches to authors in order to get their buy-in before they commit to creating final art. The primary benefit of this step is that the rough sketch stage is when changes and adjustments can easily be made. This is a very common practice so I’d be wary if you get any pushback or “attitude” about this from your illustrator if you want something changed. Now, you should be relying on the illustrator’s skill and experience for how she depicts your story. But any objection by you to her sketches that elicits a harsh refusal is unacceptable. It’s your story after all. If you have a question or suggestion about one of your book’s sketches, the illustrator should be able to politely explain her reasoning as to why her decision was made and is preferred visually. Your comments shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. You’re trusting her to provide the best visual solutions to tell your story. If she objects to explaining her process, it may be she’s unable to do so because she lacks sufficient design knowledge to tell you why it was chosen. It could also indicate she wasn’t the person who produced the art and is using AI images.

Should I ask to talk to previous clients?

Again, if the illustrator is a pro, she’ll no doubt be proud of her past work and be happy to refer you to some of her previous clients. If she won’t or can’t, that’s probably cause for concern. However, it may also mean she is new to her illustration career and doesn’t have have a client list. It would then become your call to decide whether to give a newcomer an opportunity or to go with someone with experience.

What do I want in terms of a contract?

Signing an agreement is really quite common. It’s a document that states the payments, deliverables and project schedule that you and your client have agreed to and will be following. There is nothing wrong with you asking your illustrator to sign one. Many standard illustrator/client agreement forms are available online. Review a few of them and decide which one works best for you. Or sometimes the illustrator will have a form to use. You can also request him to sign a non-disclosure agreement, called an NDA, in which the illustrator agrees to keep your manuscript and the artwork confidential until it’s published. Again, any real pushback here should be cause for concern.

Feel free to email Stan at Stanscartoons@comcast.net if you want to discuss a project with him.

This is not an ad for Stan. He was kind enough to do the interview with me.

Use AI as Your Book Coach

When you’re writing your book proposal, you want to do everything in your power to make sure it’s as effective, comprehensive, and robust as possible. You can hire a book coach or you can learn how to leverage AI to help you.

I’m teaching how to do just that in my class Use AI as a Book Proposal Coach. This is not about having AI write (or rewrite your proposal),. Instead, it’s about accessing information, details, concepts, and facts you might not otherwise think of or find yourself.

In My World

I’ve been working on a marketing campaign for a book and ghosting another project. I’m also in the development stage of a new book project of my own.

On the home front, we have been doing some clutter clearing in the garage. The kids are 33 and 27 and it was time to get rid of the hockey sticks, pogo stick, lacrosse stick, scooter, bike buddy, tennis rackets, croquet set and more. I really struggle with letting go of things from when my kids were kids (and not adults), so this was hard.

Obsessed With…

We’re back on our schedule of watching The Daily Show episodes hosted by Jon Stewart (once a week). The Morning Show on Apple is back, but’s it’s been two entire years and I remember nothing! I watched a recap and read a recap but still feel like I have no idea who half these people are or what their actual jobs are. I really do like Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in it, so will keep at it.

I read and loved Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s really different from her other books, but just as gripping. This one is about an astronaut and delves into her career, a NASA accident, her personal life, and her complicated family. I highly recommend it.

Good Goods

We are gearing up for a big adventure next month. We are going to Egypt. I’m excited about it, but I am extremely heat-averse. I hate being hot. So I will definitely be bringing our neck fans.

I bought one for my husband for Christmas several years ago, and last year, when we went to Yosemite in June, I ended up using it more than he did. I really was surprised at what a huge difference it makes. So I bought another, so we each have one. They are quiet and comfortable. Definitely a must-have for me when I travel someplace where I will be outside in the heat.

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