Author Illustrator Tao Nyeu gives us insight to her creative process. She shows us her silkscreen color separation technique for Squid and Octopus, Friends for Always.
Above: The cover for The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra. I love Ana Aranda’s work, and I especially love her incredible color sense. She embraces purple and pink, and makes these colors feel sophisticated and fresh in a way I haven’t seen before. (Look at that amazing palette on the cover!) Today I talk to her about her U.S. illustration debut, The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra.
Illustrator Maral Sassouni combines ink, pencil, crayon, and monoprinting to create the rich collages in The Green Umbrella, a sweet picture book about friendship and imagination by Jackie Azúa Kramer. There are so many great details to linger over. Today Maral tells Pen and Oink about her inspirations and her really cool process.
Dasha's work really inspires me — so fresh and loose and graphic. I got chance to meet with her recently at her home studio in Brooklyn talk about the making of her author-illustrator debut, A Year Without Mom.
Jessie Hartland discusses the process for her graphic novel, Steve Jobs: Insanely Great. "I'm really drawn to taking very complicated material and simplifying it with drawings and words."
I found these erasers that can remove pencil without damaging the paper or inked lines.
A face to face interview with the author/illustrator Sara Varon. We discuss her color palette, her children's book process and her myriad of art projects.
Above: A new piece for my portfolio, based on feedback from SCBWI-LA. ©Robin Rosenthal For the past few months I’ve been working on new pieces for my portfolio based on the amazing feedback I received at the 2014 SCBWI LA Summer Conference. (I was one of six illustrators who received the SCBWI Mentorship Award, and I got to meet individually with six mentors who each gave me guidance on my work. It. Was. Awesome. Read more […]
Paul O. Zelinsky’s style changes depending on, and in service to, the story. We interviewed him at his Brooklyn studio.
Above: My piece for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an assignment for the Illustrators’ Intensive. I am still riding an inspired high from last weekend’s SCBWI Winter Conference. I’ve been to the conference four times now and the Illustrators’ Intensive Day is always the highlight for me. Art Director Cecilia Yung’s interview of Tomie dePaola was fantastic. They structured the talk around a comparison of Tomie’s book illustrations and his costume and set design work. Tomie […]
Above: David’s final “tater tot” mama squirrel character from Ol’ Mama Squirrel. (Inspired by The Scream) David Ezra Stein spoke about overcoming creative blocks at the scbwi winter conference this past January and his talk was one of my favorites. During his presentation, he told us the story behind his latest picture book Ol’ Mama Squirrel. David completed all the final artwork, delivered it to Penguin, and then decided it wasn’t right and asked if he could […]
Above: Painting from How the Dinosaur got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland. I’ve known and loved Jessie Hartland’s work ever since I worked with her on assignments for Martha Stewart Kids magazine. She was one of our go-to illustrators because she always nailed it. Jessie is the author and illustrator of several fantastic non-fiction picture books. She has also illustrated travelogues for Travel & Leisure Family magazine, designed window displays for Barneys and Bloomingdales, and created […]
Pen and Oink 