[fay-stayer Posts: 3 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Hi,  I'm writing a post here in hopes to find an answer to which I know but wanted to find out if others have experienced the same and how to proceed.  I'm currently working with self-published author(s) who finished their first two books in a series they plan to publish and I has hired to continue the series in a semi-similar style to maintain some coherence between the transition of illustrators for the series and changing some characters completely.
  My question is:
When switching illustrators part-way through a book series do they credit the previous illustrator for 'original artwork by' since they were the ones who first illustrated/designed the characters and world for the first two books even though they won't be continuing in any kind of art capacity? 

I explained, since I'm the illustrator for the book series now, the previous illustrator wouldn't be credited for the artwork any longer.   I've seen this be the case with other series that switch illustrators in picture books to graphic novels and they credit the current illustrator for the artwork done and not the previous, unless it's a very long standing illustrator for a series I believe.   I also mentioned they could have a 'special thanks' because I think they want to be considerate towards the illustrator and all the previous work they have done.

It would be great to get some insight/opinions on this so I can better answer their question.
Thank you!

[dkshumaker Posts: 1,446 Status: Offline]

I am not familiar with the self-publishing side of things so I hope some people with that experience will chime in!

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,068 Status: Offline Language is so cool!]

If you are illustrating "in the style of" that could be mentioned, but I don't think it has to be unless there is a contractual reason to do so. The original illustrator may own copyright on their character designs, which may be why you have to redesign some. In other words, the answer here is specific to the situation.

[fay-stayer Posts: 3 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Thank you for the response.  The style will be different enough as they want it in mine and the author mentioned they have full rights for the characters etc.  You bring up some  good points and it’s something I can talk to them further about!

[karen-b-jones Posts: 218 Status: Offline Will draw for money!]

You could just contact the previous illustrator and ask.  You might even get some useful information on why the author stopped the relationship with the previous illustrator. 

[christripp Posts: 1,218 Status: Offline]

A publisher (in this case that's the Author/s) doesn't  credit a past Illustrator, for new work, not that I've ever seen. Honestly, if I was the previous Illustrator, I'd prefer to not  see my name mentioned anywhere in a book I didn't Illustrate.
Personally,  I'd be very careful to draw in your own style and just assume the Authors chose you because your style is similar to the past artist.

[fay-stayer Posts: 3 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Thank you for your response, the feedback given has helped a great deal!

@  Debbie Vilardi. Yes it’s situation specific and you bring up a good point concerning contracts.  I will ask about what could have been stipulated in the previous illustrators agreement for clarity.

@ karen-b-jones.  Interesting thought, although I’m not completely comfortable with the idea of contacting a previous illustrator for details concerning previous relations with the authors.  If I got contacted in a similar way out of the blue I probably wouldn’t respond or respectively decline out of consideration of parties involved to keep healthy relations.

@ christripp.  I agree completely and this is what makes the most sense to me as well.  This is a great perspective to bring up.