Laura Carlin is an award winning illustrator, unique for her unflinching attitude towards drawing honestly for children's stories. One of her techniques is to not directly draw what is written in the text or copy from photographs. By designing free of constraining description, it becomes healthy; the designs are no longer too obvious. She also says that the best illustrations are ones that lead people to continue the stories in their heads. A design can communicate a personality and a past/future. However, the illustration should reveal itself subtly and gradually, similar to how you form a view of any character when reading.
There are very few great success in children's books, as often kids are the harshest critics. Carlin has a great notion to respect children's intelligence. It is in fact very patronising to alter yourself to illustrate or write for children. Most are able to read into images and will not be perturbed by difficult subjects or truths. For example, in her illustration for Ted Hugues' Iron Man, she didn't give any of the villagers shadows until they resolved as kind characters by the end. Although this will have gone unnoticed by most, it shows she was unafraid to implement a sophisticated idea for a child audience.
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