Behind the Pages: How I Create My Illustrations

I wanted to take a minute to share my creative style and process. There’s been a lot of conversation lately about AI-generated books, both written and illustrated. To each their own — but I want to be transparent about how my books are made.

I write every word myself, but I don’t have the hand-drawing skills to illustrate traditionally. Instead, I use modern tools like Canva. This allows me to collect and manipulate different elements to build pages that match the vision in my mind's eye. Each illustration is crafted piece by piece — from shading and recoloring to erasing, expanding, and layering — until everything looks just right. This isn’t a quick “push a button” process; it can take hours for a single page, sometimes days, depending on the complexity.

When I made my very first book, Dax Says Goodnight, it took me almost a week to get the illustrations where I wanted them. I went through multiple phases — loving a style at first, then realizing it didn’t feel right — so I kept changing and refining until it fit the story. Most illustrations were inspired by real family photos that I sent into AI-assisted tools, directing every detail to keep the likeness of my children, myself, and my husband.

For my second book, I took real photos of a walk with my son and used AI tools to transform them into my preferred illustration style. That’s why they look more realistic — they’re based on actual moments we experienced.

By the third book (Dax and the Big Little Thunderstorm) and the two upcoming titles in the series, I had refined my process even more. Every scene is built from real photos of my child, with hours (and sometimes days) of prompting, organizing, and tweaking to get every expression, detail, and background element just right.

Even in my earlier, more heavily AI-assisted work, I still made manual edits — erasing, cropping, filling in areas, adjusting colors — to bring the images to life. It’s hands-on from start to finish.

Canva is a treasure chest for creators. It’s packed with apps and tools that let me illustrate, erase, expand, recolor, flip, and design in ways that constantly spark new ideas. There are so many styles and features I haven’t even tried yet — and I’m excited to experiment with them in future books.

Though I may use digital tools to assist in illustration, the stories, characters, and creative direction are entirely my own. My process may look different from traditional pen-and-paper art, but it’s no less intentional or personal. I believe that whether you’re working with a paintbrush, a camera, or a computer, you’re still shaping something unique from your imagination and sharing it with the world.

I’d love to hear from other indie authors and illustrators — what’s your creative process? What tools or tricks have helped you bring your ideas to life?