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Illustrating a story

Some writers choose to illustrate their story so that the reader can see what the writer wants them to.

There are some very easy tricks you can try to make your stories come to life with simple illustrations.

Watch: How to draw characters

Watch this video of illustrator Sav Akyuz showing you how to draw characters in a few easy steps.

Watch: Drawing eyes and eyebrows

Now watch how you can show emotions on your character by drawing their eyes and eyebrows in a particular way.

Watch: How to draw a character's mouth

You can also change your character's expression by the way you draw their mouth. Watch how Sav does that in this video.

Activity 1

Think of someone you know in person or someone that you look up to. It could be friend, a member of your family, a teacher or someone from your favourite sports team or TV programme. You could even write about your pet or your favourite animal.

Once you have a person or animal in mind, write a short paragraph describing them.

Here's an example:

Say hello to Dr. Darko, the wicked scientist!

He's got wild hair that looks like a thunderstorm and wears a long, swirling cloak as black as midnight.

His eyes gleam like spooky lanterns in the dark, and his twisted smile hides all his eerie secrets.

But remember, brave kids can outshine his shadows!

Activity 2

Think about the techniques you learned in the videos above and draw some illustrations for the paragraph you wrote in activity 1.

Think about the person or animal's face and their expressions.

Activity 3

Try and earn a Blue Peter badge!

Did you know that you could earn a Blue Peter badge by writing an amazing story, illustrating it and sending it off to Blue Peter?

Find out more about the Blue Peter Book Club or discover some of the other Blue Peter badges and decide which one you want to earn.