My Secrets: How I Make Picture Book Art with Heart (and Hybrid Techniques)
with Rahele Jomepour Bell
Rahele Jomepour Bell was so excited to be sharing a personal look into her illustration process and some of the techniques that she uses to bring the stories to life. Rahele spoke about emotion in picture book illustration, and the steps she has taken throughout that journey and the philosophy of her storytelling using pictures. How she adds emotions, and some of the techniques that she uses.
"This is me at 5 years old."
Originally from Mashhad, Iran, the second biggest city in Iran, where she gets much inspiration from the colorful patterned tiles and the pictorial history of the people, helping to build their identity and shape who they are in the future.
“I remember me and my grandma used to go to the mosque. She was going to pray, but I didn't care. All I cared about were all these rich textures and patterns and tiles. The colors. The mystical, mysterious atmosphere.”
She remembers looking at the huge, beautiful, heavenly architecture and being amazed. Patterns are a huge part of Rahele’s artistic identity, and these images show how intricate and beautiful the tile work from Mashhad is.
Moving from Iran to the United States was a huge journey for her and shaped who she is today. She always encourages people to travel because it gives you a new perspective to your lived experience.
Based in the Kansas area, Rahele is an educator at Kansas City Art Institute in the illustration department. Rahele feels so fortunate to have several publishes picture books and is thankful for her agent, Christy Ewers. We started with the concept of "The Blank Mind." A lot of times people ask, "How do you have get such expressive illustrations? How did you add emotion?"
As we know, as creators, sometimes we have “blank minds.”
She started to realize why we have fear in our drawing, or why we have a “blank mind," where we can’t come up with good ideas. One reason, she says, is the lack of conscious awareness, meaning we are not "aware of our subconscious." That is when she discovered amazing surrealism artists.
To improve her subconscious mind and to generate emotion in her art, Rahele introduced the concept of Automatic Drawing, where you make marks in an accidental, and random fashion.
Those surrealism artists used automatic drawing. “Their intention was to free draw from rational control and access the subconscious.” They were attempting to release that fear of drawing. And Rahele encouraged us to take that huge step. By using simple lines and form and rich texture, you can simply see the emotion in your work.
Here are some illustrations drawn by Rahele that were influenced by the surrealist approach of using free-form lines and shapes.
"Emotionalizing my work, and not having that fear of bringing the subconscious out is doodling." Don’t be afraid of the messy, unpredictable nature of automatic drawing. It helps you be spontaneous, and improve your abstract skills, allowing you to let go of the perfectionism. “It's about letting the story find its own shape on the page, guided by my subconscious.” Don’t overthink it. When you are dealing with emotion, it’s all about filling that “blank mind” and coming up with the idea.
“There are two types of emotions when we are making illustrations, or any kind of visual art—basic emotions and complex emotion.”
“Composition is the most important part of it.”
Think of the illustration as a whole from the main character to the background. How can you capture the emotion of the illustration? Of what is happening? Find ways to layer them together as it all helps to express the emotional heart of the piece.
Bring that emotion with these small touches— the texture, the brush strokes, the movement.
“Whenever my artist friends get stuck in some idea, or want to find their voice, I tell them go and dig into art history.” Use inspiration from those who came before you and begin to dissect why their pieces invoke particular emotions.
Another key component in finding and creating emotion in your picture bookmaking is through your lived experiences. Release all of those life experiences and memories and “the history of you as the artist.” In our artwork, we can be honest with our readers, our audience.
“I called it ‘My Artist History.’ That's who I am today. You live the life, and you are documenting it, and later on, you're gonna use it subconsciously in your art.”
“We can easily tickle them, and touch their hearts.” We connect with them through our shared-lived experiences and though we might have done the same things, in expressing authentic and real feelings, we are able to imagine those moments of joy, or sadness or giddiness. Be relatable, transparent and honest in order to connect to the reader through the artwork.
“Just create. Just let those raw ideas come out.”
Take reference photos. Play with other mediums. Collage. Digital. Traditional. Observe others. Stimulate your imagination. Generate new ideas and let the subconscious work itself out. Don’t overthink it.
“Just bring that inner feeling out.”
And all of those lived experiences? That’s your artist's story, the story of you. It is your voice, your artist's voice. Use it in your art. Rahele continued the session by showing us her personal inspirations and covered the history behind what she has done so far.
She went over some of the practical process in the making of a picture book illustration, from manuscript, to thumbnails to her process of mixing both traditional and digital, showing an amazing video of one of her illustrations from scratch to finish. Watching that video answered a lot of questions within my own process and I’m grateful for it.
We ended with some advice about portfolio building and my, how quickly the time flew! . I highly recommend watching or rewatching this video. I know I will!
You'll have access to rewatch this video, and the many others in your Membership portal until September 14th, 2025.
"In a picture book, Words and pictures can operate in tension, or reveal slightly different things, cleverly talking to one another. A picture book should feel organic, as though words and pictures were born in the same moment— a single, crystalline, utterly unified hybrid"
- Daniel Hahn, The New York Times
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