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Book Illustration Studio · Tasman Publishers

Book Illustration That Brings Your Story To Life

For Australian and New Zealand authors: from picture books and illustrated covers to the diagrams in a business title, our illustrators create original artwork matched to your text and supplied at print resolution. Full commercial rights transfer to you on completion.

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Original art, never stock
Roughs before colour
100% rights yours

Three sample illustrations fanned out: a watercolour girl sailing a paper boat, a small dragon on a cottage windowsill at night, and a wombat in a knitted vest

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No obligation. You get a fixed quote before any drawing starts.

Style agreed up frontFrom samples, before any pages are drawn
Roughs for every spreadPencil stage, so changes are cheap and quick
Print-resolution final artCMYK, at the size and bleed your printer needs
Full rights transferThe artwork is yours outright on final payment

Illustration Styles We Work In

Children’s books, comics, novel interiors, animals, fantasy and portraits — filter by the kind of artwork your book needs and tell us which style feels right. We then match your project to an illustrator who works in it.

Watercolour children's illustration of a girl in a yellow raincoat sailing a paper boat in a puddle while a magpie watches from a fence post — **Puddle Harbour**Watercolour and pencil, soft afternoon light

Gouache children's illustration of children building a blanket fort in a lamplit lounge room with a sleepy dog at the entrance — **Blanket Fort**Gouache, cosy lamplit interior

Cut-paper collage illustration of a boy riding a bicycle downhill past letterboxes as autumn leaves lift behind him — **Downhill**Cut-paper collage with fabric texture

Coloured pencil illustration of a child reading aloud to a circle of toys and a sleeping dog in afternoon sunlight — **Story Circle**Coloured pencil on warm paper

Noir comic illustration of a detective in a trench coat in a dark office lit through venetian blinds — **Rain Check**Ink and halftone, noir palette

Manga style illustration of a schoolgirl on a train platform as a train rushes past and cherry blossom swirls around her — **Last Train**Manga linework with screentone

Humorous cartoon illustration of an office worker wrestling a photocopier that is spitting paper across the room — **Paper Jam**Loose newspaper-strip cartooning

Pen and ink frontispiece illustration of a figure in a long coat walking a windswept coastal headland towards a lighthouse — **The Headland**Pen and ink crosshatching, sepia

Two-colour linocut illustration of a fishing boat hauled up on a shingle beach with nets drying on poles — **Boat At Rest**Two-colour linocut, hand-printed feel

Hand-drawn fantasy endpaper map of an imagined coastline with islands, stylised mountains and a sea serpent — **Uncharted Coast**Endpaper map, ink and wash

Editorial non-fiction illustration showing a cutaway beehive with bees on the comb and a beekeeper lifting out a frame — **Inside The Hive**Editorial vector for non-fiction

Watercolour animal character illustration of a wombat in a knitted vest sorting gumnuts while an echidna watches from the ferns — **Gumnut Inventory**Watercolour and ink character work

Gouache wildlife illustration of a red fox standing alert in long frosted grass at dawn — **First Frost**Gouache, naturalistic wildlife study

Flat vector illustration of a family of penguins at the edge of an ice shelf with a seal watching from the water — **The Queue**Flat vector, board book clarity

Loose ink and watercolour illustration of a border collie leaping through shallow water after a thrown stick — **Fetch**Expressive ink and watercolour

Fantasy illustration of a mage on a stone bridge raising a staff as blue light spirals towards a ruined citadel — **The Crossing**Painterly digital, cinematic light

Storybook fantasy illustration of a small green dragon perched on a cottage windowsill at night beside a lantern — **Windowsill Visitor**Storybook painting, warm night

Watercolour fantasy illustration of a floating island held aloft by roots with a great tree at its centre above cloud — **Root And Cloud**Luminous watercolour landscape

Dark fantasy illustration of an armoured figure standing in a flooded cathedral nave lit through a rose window — **The Nave**Oil-style chiaroscuro

Painterly character portrait of an older woman with silver hair and reading glasses pushed onto her forehead — **Reading Glasses**Painterly portrait, single light source

Graphic screen-print style portrait of a young man in a denim jacket against bold geometric shapes — **Off Camera**Screen-print style, flat colour

Samples, not client work. Every piece here was drawn in-house to show the range of styles we work in, so the scenes, characters and books are invented. Your book gets original illustration drawn for your text, and the rights to it are yours.

From First Sketch To Print-Ready Art

Nothing is a surprise at the end. You approve each stage before we move to the next, so changes happen while they are still quick and cheap.

01
Brief & Style

Tell us about your book, your reader's age and the feel you want. We agree a style with you from sample work.
02
Characters & Roughs

Character sheets from multiple angles, then pencil roughs for every page or figure for you to approve.
03
Colour & Final Art

Only once the roughs are signed off do we go to ink and colour, in the style you chose.
04
Print-Ready Delivery

Final files at print resolution with the right colour profile and bleed, and full rights transferred to you.

Start Your Illustrations

Illustration For Fiction, Non-Fiction And Children's Books

A picture book, a technical diagram and a fantasy map are three completely different disciplines. We match your project to an illustrator who works in that discipline.

Children's Picture Books

Full-colour spreads with character sheets kept consistent across the whole book and any sequels.

Chapter Book Spots

Black-and-white spot illustrations placed through the text, sized for the age group you are writing for.

Diagrams And Charts

Process artwork and data visuals for non-fiction, drawn so a general reader can follow them.

Maps And Endpapers

Fantasy maps, historical maps and decorative endpapers, hand-drawn and print-ready.

What Book Illustration Costs, And What Moves The Price

Illustration is quoted per piece, not per book, because that is the only basis that lets you compare two studios honestly. A picture book with full-bleed artwork on every spread is a different job from a novel that needs one cover and six chapter-head vignettes, and a single figure for “illustrating a book” would hide that.

We write the quote after reading your manuscript and counting the artwork it actually needs, and it is itemised per illustration. If the count is higher than your budget, the honest fix is usually fewer, stronger pieces rather than cheaper drawing — and we will tell you which spreads are carrying the story.

Nothing is billed hourly and there is no subscription. You approve a fixed quote before an illustrator opens a sketchbook, and the only thing that changes it afterwards is you adding pages or changing the brief, which we requote in writing first.

What drives an illustration quote

Number of illustrations. Twelve full spreads or forty spot drawings — this sets the bulk of the cost.
Coverage on the page. A full-bleed spread takes far longer than a quarter-page vignette in the same style.
Style and medium. Textured painting and detailed line work take longer than flat vector shapes.
Character count. Every recurring character needs a design sheet so it stays consistent across the book.
Colour or black and white. Interior line art keeps both drawing time and print costs down.
Research load. Period detail, real machinery, anatomy and maps all need reference work before drawing.
Turnaround. A compressed deadline means more illustrators on one book, which costs more to coordinate.

Ask any studio to quote per illustration, including us. A single lump sum for “a book’s worth of art” is impossible to check.

The Artwork A Book Actually Uses

Most authors think in terms of “pictures”. Printers and retailers think in trim sizes, bleed and colour spaces. This is how the two line up, so you know what you are commissioning and what lands in your inbox.

Artwork	Where it sits	Typical use	Supplied as
Cover wrap	Front, spine and back as one piece	Every printed book	CMYK, 300 dpi, bleed and spine width to the printer’s spec
Full-bleed spread	Both pages, art to the edge	Picture books, board books	Single file across the gutter, safe margins marked
Single-page illustration	One page, facing text	Early readers, gift books	CMYK with bleed where art reaches the trim
Half page and vignette	Above or below the text block	Chapter books, memoir	Transparent background PNG or layered file
Spot illustration	Inline with the text	Chapter heads, section breaks	Line art, often black and white to hold print costs down
Endpaper map	Inside the front or back cover	Fantasy, historical, travel	Full spread, drawn to the book’s trim
Diagram or figure	Within the text	Non-fiction, textbooks, business	Vector where possible, so it stays sharp at any size
Character design sheet	Not printed	Any book with recurring characters	Front, side and back views with expressions, for consistency

Print resolution and colour

Print artwork is drawn at 300 dpi at final size in CMYK, because that is what a commercial press needs. Art created for screen in RGB at 72 dpi will look fine on your laptop and muddy on paper, which is the single most common reason a first-time author’s files are rejected by a printer.

Bleed, trim and the gutter

Anything meant to run off the edge of the page is drawn 3mm past the trim line so the guillotine cannot leave a white sliver. On a spread we also keep faces and text clear of the gutter, because the binding swallows the middle of the page.

Ebook versions

Illustrated ebooks are built as fixed-layout files so the artwork and text stay where you put them. You get RGB versions of every illustration sized for that, which is a different export rather than a second commission.

What You Receive, And What You Own

Four sets of files, plus a written assignment of copyright. Nothing is held back as an upsell and nothing is licensed back to you.

.tif / .psd

Layered source files

The working files, with layers intact. If you ever need a detail changed or a character lifted out for a poster, the material to do it is yours.

.pdf

Print-ready artwork

Flattened, 300 dpi, CMYK, with bleed and trim marks to your printer’s specification. This is the file that goes to press.

.png / .jpg

Screen and web versions

RGB exports for the ebook, your website, retailer listings and social posts, already sized so you are not scaling print files yourself.

.pdf

Character and style sheet

The reference the book was drawn to: character views, expressions, palette and line weight. It is what keeps a sequel looking like book one.

The rights, in plain words

Copyright in the commissioned artwork is assigned to you in writing on final payment. You can print it, sell it, put it on merchandise, use it in a sequel, license it to a foreign publisher or hang it on a wall, without further payment or permission. We keep no share of your royalties and take no licence over your book. The illustrator keeps the moral right to be named as the artist, which is standard practice and costs you nothing. We may show a piece in a portfolio only if you agree to it.

Why Authors Choose Our Illustrators

Stock illustration is obvious to a reader and it dates fast. Here is what you get instead.

Drawn For Your Book

Every scene, character and spot piece is drawn bespoke for your manuscript and its target age group — never pulled from a library.

Characters That Stay Consistent

Multi-angle character sheets keep your characters recognisably the same on every page and in any sequel.

Roughs Before Colour

You approve pencil storyboards before ink and colour begin, so changes are made while they are still cheap and quick.

Colour And Greyscale

Two versions where the print run needs them, so a cheaper edition still looks intentional.

Print-Ready Files

300+ DPI CMYK masters with resolution, colour profile and bleed set to your printer's specification.

100% Commercial Rights

Full ownership on final payment — for your book, licensing, merchandise and retail.

Illustration Questions, Answered Plainly

What authors ask before commissioning artwork — including the answers that save you money.

How much does it cost to illustrate a children’s book?

Illustration is quoted per piece, so the number of illustrated spreads is the biggest factor by a wide margin. A 32-page picture book with full-bleed artwork on every spread carries roughly fifteen times the drawing work of a chapter book with a spot illustration at each chapter head, and the quote reflects that. We price the brief once we know the page count, the style and how many characters recur, and the quote is itemised per illustration so you can see exactly what you are paying for and drop anything you do not need.

How many illustrations does a picture book need?

A 32-page picture book usually carries twelve to fourteen illustrated spreads once the title page, imprint page and dedication are accounted for. A 24-page book runs to about ten. We map the text to page turns before drawing anything, because where a page turns changes how the story reads aloud and it is far cheaper to settle that on a plan than after the art is painted.

How long does book illustration take?

Illustration is the slowest stage of making a book and cannot be rushed without showing. A full picture book typically takes twelve to sixteen weeks from approved character designs to final files: roughs for every spread, then line art, then colour, with your approval between each stage. Spot illustrations for a chapter book are faster, usually four to six weeks.

Do I own the illustrations?

Yes. Copyright in the commissioned artwork is assigned to you on final payment, in writing. That means you can use it on the cover, in the book, on merchandise, on your website, in a sequel or in a school reading without asking us or paying again. Our illustrators retain the moral right to be credited as the artist, which is standard practice and costs you nothing.

Can I see the illustrator’s work before I commit?

Yes, and you should. We show you portfolios from illustrators who work in the style you are after before anything is commissioned, so you are choosing an artist rather than hoping. If none of them feel right for your book, we keep looking.

What if I do not like a drawing?

You see rough sketches before any colour is applied, which is the point at which changes cost almost nothing. Revisions at the rough stage are included. If a rough is wrong, say so plainly and it gets redrawn; nothing proceeds to final art until you have approved the sketch it is based on.

What file formats do you supply?

You get print-ready files at 300 dpi in CMYK with the bleed your printer requires, usually as layered TIFF or PSD plus a flattened PDF, along with RGB versions sized for ebook and web use. If your printer asks for something specific, send us their specification and we supply to it.

Do you illustrate comics and graphic novels?

Yes. Comic work is quoted per page rather than per spread, and covers pencils, inks, colour and lettering as separate stages so you can take only what you need. Panel layout and page-turn reveals are planned with the script before drawing starts.

Can you illustrate non-fiction, diagrams and maps?

Yes, and it is more of our work than people expect: cutaway diagrams, process illustrations, charts drawn to match the book’s design, hand-drawn endpaper maps for fantasy and historical titles, and technical figures for textbooks and business books.

Do you use AI to generate the artwork?

No. The artwork for your book is drawn by an illustrator. The samples on this page were produced in-house to show the range of styles we work in, and they are labelled as samples rather than passed off as client commissions.

I can already draw. Can I illustrate my own book?

Yes, and it will cost you less. Send us your artwork and we will check the resolution, colour space, bleed and trim against your printer’s specification and tell you what needs fixing before it goes to print. Plenty of author-illustrators come to us for exactly that check plus typesetting.

Do you work with authors outside Australia?

Yes. Most of our authors are in Australia and New Zealand, and we work by email and video call with authors anywhere. Files are delivered digitally, and print and distribution can be set up for whichever market your book is aimed at.

Ready To See Your Characters Come To Life?

Tell us about your book — the age group, how many pages or figures, and any style you love. We'll match you with an illustrator and give you a fixed quote before any drawing starts.

Work with an Adelaide-based author services team today.

Call Now +61 8 7371 0040 Get Started