Children's Book Illustrations

I’m looking to hire an illustrator for a children’s book that I plan on self publishing through Amazon. The book is about a gardener and a fruit tree and contains Christian symbolism.

The illustrator will need to be able to draw trees, fruit, dirt, a wheelbarrow, rain, sunshine, a dove, a watering can, a gardener, a hat, a gate, flowers, a stump, a seed, etc.

Words will be on blank pages on the left and full page illustrations will be on the right. I will need 12 or 13 8.5x8.5 full page illustrations and 14 or so stand alone images (a seed, a flower, a hat, a stump, etc.) that will be on the pages with words. In each full page illustration, I’ll want a Bible verse (e.g. John 1:1) to be “hidden” or just written really small.

I have a storyboard already created with what I would like to see on each page. Some of the the stand alone images need to be a certain way and I have sketches for those. The full page illustrations allow for a lot of creative freedom.

While it’s a children’s book, I don’t want it to look too cartoonish. The story is written poetically and the illustrations should complement.

My budget is between $100-$300 for the entire project. If you know how to format a 8.5x8.5 book for Amazon, please let me know, and I’d be willing to pay extra for that.

My timeline is at least 1 full page illustration per week which is around 4 months.