A picture is worth 1000 words

A picture book tells the story through the use of both text and illustrations.When dealing with picture books, the readers comprehension is based " on the readers ability to read the pictures as well as the text."-O' Neil. As an author and illustrator of my own childrens picture book it is my responsibility to accurately portray the meaning through the use of color, shapes, text, and my artistic illustration style. Color helps set the mood. Red can be seen as a very exciting, dangerous, or hot. There are colors that can help enfluence a persons hunger as well, such as yellow. Furthermore, color can help set a focal point. For example if there is a dark background and the character is bright it creates a focal point for the readers eye to be drawn to.

When illustrating a character or anything else, "smooth,flat, horizontal shapes gives us a sense of stability and calm' and ' Diagonal shapes are dynamic" they imply motion. Gestures, facial expressions, posture and positions on the page give a greater depth of meaning to the story without the use of words. Another key concept to keep in mind, is the positioning of the characters. A character who is overlapped by other elements (such as swiper in the show Dora the explorer who hides behind trees and rocks- he is an evil character not ment for children to want to relate to)  can be harder to relate to then a character who is in a more open field or "closer" to the front of the page.
The setting and its colors can play a crucial part in a characters development. For example : If a character begins in a gray city to a green open field it can show that the character has growth potential. The use of illustration can help readers through a sense of meaning derived from the illustrations.