A series of illustrations is not a book nor is a series of spreads. A picture book needs connections between individual illustrations as much as it needs the illustrations to connect with the words. Each illustration should set the stage for the next.
The text should also be considered as part of the visual flow because it is a visual texture. The eye of the reader should effortlessly move from one element to the next without confusion.
fig 1 | The colored line shows the visual flow
A colored line has been drawn over the original storyboard from Un-Brella (fig 1) to show the intended path for the reader’s eye to follow. Drawing the visual flow can be done on a storyboard and it may translate to book form or it may not. Seeing the whole story at once is different than revealing the story a spread at a time with a page turn. To check the visual flow of a book there is no substitute for a book dummy.
