You know you're NOT an illustrator when...

I love art.
I've even taken art classes.
But I'm not an artist.
​How do I know?...

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You're not an illustrator if...
​... you can't draw

My sister can draw. Brothers, too.

My friends can draw really well. Here are a just a few of their drawings:​

Sandra G. Anderson

Joy Allen

Shurie Bocanegra

But me? Nope.
Want to see me draw a stick figure? OK here goes.

O
/T\
_​/\_​

um, yeah, about that.

You're not an illustrator if...
​... you think in words

Last year, in Kidlit Summer School, they had a Nerdy Chick Draw Contest. I think one of the entrants designed this year's logo.

This is the new logo:

This was my entry:

I wasn't surprised when I didn't win.
The lens I look through is in a different language from artists.
​While my illustrator friends are sketching something they see in their mind's eye, here's what's going through my mind:
​​Wow, that guy is tall. I wonder if his bald spot was created by scraping against the exit sign.
​(P.S. I don't have any real person in mind as I write this example.)
That's just how I'm wired.
Remember the old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words"?
If that's so, I'd rather write the 1000 words. 

Illustrators are Visual Novelists ​

What? You don't believe me?
​Let's do the math:

(I'll use this handy-dandy infographic Bitsy Kemper created as a reference)
​

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Book Type

​Board Book

Picture Book

Early Readers

Chapter Books

Novels

Text word count

​24 words max

500 words max

1,500 words max

30,000 words max

50,000 words or more

​Illustrations "word count"

up to 9,000 "words"

up to 32,000 "words"

up to 12,000 "words"

up to 30,000 "words"

up to 2000 "words" (cover art)

OK, maybe not novelists exactly, but you get the idea. Here I am writing a story with 500 words or less, and my illustrator friends are sketching out a 32-page dummy!
​That's impressive by any calculation.

You're not an illustrator if...
​... you don't want to be.

"Why Don't You Learn?"

Friends have offered to teach me how to illustrate my own picture books.
​They could do it, too.
​And I know that would make me more marketable if I were an author/illustrator.
But I don't really want to.
Truth is, I like thinking in words.
​That's just how I'm wired.
​Are you wire that way, too?

Let me know in the comments!