This article examines three picture books: "The Dot" (2003) by Peter H. Reynolds, "Art & Max" (2010) by David Weisner (2010), and "The Shape Game" (2003) by Anthony Browne, to see how ideas about creativity are conceived of and pictured for children. Various ideas about creativity and the creative process are encoded in these multimodal texts: the idea of a creative genius putting their unique stamp or signature on the world, the idea of an apprentice artist learning to use the tools of the trade, and the idea of the artist as a playful manipulator of cultural signs. Each of these picture book encodings of creativity has implications for a classroom pedagogy that seeks to encourage creativity and nurture quality creative output.