A few years ago I became seriously ill. I was in a coma on heavy duty meds, and had a kidney transplant. I’m much better than I was, but I can’t do a lot of things like I could before.

We’ve now got quite a few kids in the extended family, so a while ago I wrote a short story to try to make it easier for them to understand. My wife and family like the story and have suggested making it into a picture story book. Problem is, I can’t draw and my imagination isn’t very good.

How can I get pictures for the story if I can’t do it myself and don’t have the money to hire someone? I want to avoid using AI tools because of the potential copyright issues.

I haven’t tried the services like Fiverr because I’ve heard that they force a race to the bottom on prices, but does anyone have any experience, or have any ideas of what I can do please?

Thanks in advance :)

  • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Have you considered www.OpenClipArt.org ?

    I hadn’t, mainly because I hadn’t heard of it before :D

    It looks like a great resource though, so thank you :)

    Unfortunately, the chances of me learning to draw are slim. I can draw a passable doodle if I can get my head in the right place, but as I said in the post, my imagination is awful. I can’t picture things properly, so can’t get a mental image of what I want the thing on the paper to look like. I’m waiting on a diagnosis of autism and ADHD and possibly aphantasia. Trying to get things down on paper is very difficult for me.

    • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
      51·
      11 months ago

      Before cheap, ubiquitous photographic reproduction, drawing was taught to people as a skill.

      You might not be the next Gary Larsen (I’m no dillitente) but I bet if you tried you could become a good illustrator.

      Having said that, you still have to learn inking, coloring, etc.

      Just wanted to say I think most people can learn the skill in the same way most people can learn to write a rhetorical essay or do arithmetic.

      Edit: not trivializing your issues, friend, just offering encouragment!

      • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        not trivializing your issues, friend, just offering encouragment!

        Don’t worry, that’s how I took it :)

        You make a good point. I need to try drawing and keep practising. Even if it does turn out to be useless for the book, I can still draw with the kids.

        I might even make them feel good be being so much better than me! :D

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
          3·
          11 months ago

          Make a children’s book about practicing skills and getting better at them.

          I helped a friend’s six year old daughter learn that by having her make the same paper airplane repeatedly until she mastered it.

          Apparently nobody in school had yet taught her that one’s level of skill is not a fixed thing. Before that thing with the paper airplanes whenever she’d try something new she’d see her first failure and then exclaim “oh, I can’t do this!” and then give up.

          Honestly nobody taught me about practice making skills better in school either. Not sure why such a fundamental part of using one’s brain is neglected in our schools but it is.

          • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            That’s a very good point. I’m hopeless at practicing. I’ve got ADHD, so find it hard to do something that I don’t want to do at the moment, and when I was younger I could pick up new skills fairly easily, so never bothered learning properly. I would do as much as it took to be ok at something, then usually stop there.