Illustrations are so very helpful for new readers. As an illustrator your artwork can draw readers in, help give the reader context, and importantly aid in comprehension of the reading material. While your skills may be far beyond this, we are basically looking for black and white line drawings or even basic doodles that communicate meaning.
Contact us!
If this sounds like a fit for you or someone you know, please contact our literacy team by emailing cd-resources-admin@ntmpng.org and let us know a bit about yourself and that you’d like to be added to the list of volunteer illustrators. (It’s also nice to see some samples of your artwork too if you don’t mind sending those along with your introduction)
How we acknowledge our illustrators
Any works that we create will need to be done so fully with the understanding that this is a volunteer effort, credit under a non-commercial copyright will be given but there can be strictly no offer or expectation of commercial or financial interest in this project. Currently any books produced will be published with creative commons copyright protection.
For more information on creative commons, take a look here.
With this type of copyright protection, we will be able to share our library with other organizations around the world free of charge or restriction while at the same time preserving acknowledgement to those who have written, illustrated, edited, translated or contributed in some way for each project we add to our library.
Illustrators Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I start as an illustrator?
Let us know right away by emailing cd-resources-admin@ntmpng.org if you are an artist willing to help in some way. If there are any of the books already in progress you would like to provide artwork for, that would be a tremendous blessing! Otherwise, feel free to let me know what kind of book you are thinking of, perhaps there may be another volunteer willing to work with you as an author if you don’t feel like you can write a book yourself. If we don’t have any current projects in need of artists, we’ll add your name to the list of volunteers we could call on to help as needs arise.
What kind of artwork are you looking for?
Initially we are looking for simple line drawings without color & without shading. An artist at their own discretion is always welcome to provide alternative versions of artwork in addition to the line drawings that feature other styles, coloring, shading etc. Here’s some examples of line drawings currently in use..
click here to download the “Iwam Story Book 8”
click here to download the “Flies are your enemy” book
Click here to download the “How the Jews Lived” book
Why do you prefer line-drawings? Wouldn’t full color artwork be more interesting and aesthetically pleasing?
Black and white line drawings are faster to produce and considerably cheaper to reproduce when printing on the field. That being said, some artists simply prefer to offer full-color. We are happy to include full-color versions of artwork and would ask if possible for the preliminary line sketches before color has been added. Some missionary teams may decide that the expense of printing a book with full-color artwork may be worth it. Some however may need to print thousands or tens of thousands of copies. Black and white line art may be the only affordable option in such cases.
How do I get my artwork onto a computer?
There are several methods, however our recommendation is to use a good scanner and perhaps recruit some help doing so. For more information on how to digitize your artwork take a look at our Illustrators Resources page.
Are there any digital requirements for artwork?
Many volunteers may not realize how limited internet connections make accessing files very difficult. Ideally your illustrations will not be too large file-size wise. A book full of high-quality large file-sized images will be very challenging if not impossible for missionary team in remote locations to access. The smaller an image can be while still maintaining visible quality the better. Take a look at Reducing Image file sizes on our Illustrators Resource page to read about our recommendation on reducing image file sizes.
Once I complete my artwork, how do I add it to the book?
Take a look at How to add artwork to Microsoft Word which is part of our Illustrators Resource page for a quick tutorial on how to do this.
I exclusively use paint or water colors/chalk/charcoal/pencil/etc for creating artwork. Are my skills wanted for this project?
Absolutely. Recognizing that our preference is line drawings, your artwork could prove instrumental in getting a book to readers where otherwise it may be waiting in limbo for years. Given printing costs, we’ll still strive to match your book up with a line artist as well. With more than one artistic style, missionary teams would then have the wonderful choice of choosing what artwork would best serve their needs.. and budget.
Why do we need artists to create artwork? Couldn’t we just copy artwork from resources like Google images?
While some images available are public domain, most images are not. Many images technically are very easy to extract from the internet but legally this would be very problematic. When dealing with images just like with with entire books we must remain safely in-line with international copyright laws which even protect web-based images.
My artistic skills aren’t that great. Should I just let others take these projects on?
Sometimes books can wait for a long time for artwork. If you would be willing to step in and produce provisional artwork, that could make all the difference. It’s been helpful with a number of books to try various artistic styles to see what resonates. Overall our goal is to strengthen reading; even simple artwork does wonders for early readers compared to no artwork at all.
If I take on a project, what kind of deadline will I need to work with?
This project is volunteer-driven. There are no hard deadlines. We ask that you consider whether you can put a couple hours a month into it before taking a project on. It is also helpful to strive for communicating with our literacy team somewhat regularly, perhaps once a month as to the progress of the project. Communication is key. If at any time it looks like the project is no longer doable please communicate this with the team as well. If our team hasn’t heard from you in a long while and we are unable to get in touch with you, we may re-assign th project to another artist. Never-the-less, we still would be interested in getting your work if you do end up getting in touch with us later, again this would just mean our missionary teams would have more choices when it comes to choosing books.
Who is the target audience for this project?
While we have seen some interest from individuals on fields in other regions of the world, currently our efforts mostly target local Papua New Guinean believers many of whom live in very remote village settings. Still, any other audiences who find our content helpful are more than welcome to have access to our library.
Can I offer my content with more copyright protection than Creative Commons?
Before taking on a project, please communicate thoroughly your expectations. Our preference is to apply Creative Commons copyright protection to all of our materials, as this gives us the greatest amount of flexibility to use and share these materials while still protecting credit to the original content creators. However as long as other frameworks allow our target audience to gain access to quality materials in their own language, we are very willing to discuss other legal frameworks on a case by case basis.
I’m an author, not an artist. Do I need to create artwork for my books in order to submit them to this project?
Thank you for your willingness to help! We will gladly accept your help! Once your content has been created, we will try to recruit help from a volunteer artist if you aren’t able to create the artwork yourself. Hopefully as our volunteer network grows, we’ll have an expanding list of potential artists to pair you up with. If you know of an artist yourself who could help with artwork for your book or other books, please by all means help us with the recruiting too!
If I volunteer to help an author, how do I know what illustrations I need to provide?
Generally we ask our volunteer authors to add notes within parenthesis ( ) on each page that would benefit from an illustration. Text inside these parenthesis indicating the authors suggestions you, the illustrator. Keep in mind, these are only suggestions, not mandates. We want to give our artists considerable creative freedom, so any notes are simply suggestions which will be helpful to the artist. Volunteer artists ultimately will create images at their own discretion. Instead of writing notes, some authors have put in provisional artwork in the forms of photographs or temporary artwork from the internet, these methods can also be helpful too in giving inspiration to the artist.
I’ve never been to Papua New Guinea. Can Illustrate images of Papua New Guineans or Papua New Guinean scenes?
We ask all of our authors to research their content before writing. Ideally illustrators who seek to depict Papua New Guinean subjects specifically would be individuals who have actually been here, built relationships with Papua New Guineans and gained and understanding of local culture etc. For this reason, our encouragement for those who cannot come here is to stick to other subject material.
Are these illustrations for children’s books?
The primary target is not necessarily children, but certainly books directed towards younger audiences of various ages are also appreciated. But as you see with the subject matter of many of the books in our library these are not just childrens’ books.
Will I be paid for illustrating content for this project?
This is a volunteer effort to strengthen literacy among local churches throughout Papua New Guinea. There is no profit to be made in this project, but still the need is vital. Thank you for your willingness to lend a hand with your time, energy and skills.