Give a warm welcome to Mary Haverfield, this month’s picture book illustrator.  She has a lot of information to share.

When did you get started illustrating for children? What did you do before?

I studied illustrating for advertising, in college at the University of Houston. I did what used to be called paste-up for a design firm in Houston to pay my way through school. This was long before computers. When we moved to CA I continued doing paste-up at an ad agency in Los Angeles while I attended classes at the Art Center College of Design at night. When the ad agency job ended I freelanced all over LA for six years, while my husband was learning photography. The evening classes at Art Center kept my illustration hopes alive. We moved to Dallas in the early 80’s when Pat was hired to work as an advertising photographer on staff at a large studio here. At that point I decided, no more paste up jobs. For a year or two design firms and ad agencies hired me to create illustrations for magazines, brochures, and greeting card companies. It was during this time that I realized I needed a more definite style, and I wanted to pursue children’s illustration, not advertising.  I took a year off and developed a more distinctive style by illustrating the classic story of Jack in the Beanstalk. By the end of that time I had a new portfolio of 11 illustrations. Four were in black and white using graphite pencil. The rest were in watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil. I began to show this work around town and soon met a local printer who wanted to produce an accordion fold promo piece with me, using five of my new illustrations. We got a paper company, a separator, and a calligrapher involved and we all used that piece for promotion. Soon after this piece was printed Pat and I traveled to NYC so I could show my work to publishers. Since then the bulk of my work has been in children’s publishing

Tell us a little bit about the recent book you wrote and illustrated, Sometimes It’s Grandmas & Grandpas: Not Mommies & Daddies.

Abbeville Press hired me to illustrate this book last year. The author is a woman in CT named Gayle Burn.

The book is about a little girl 5 or 6 years old, being raised by her grandparents. It’s told from the child’s perspective. She’s happy with grandma and grandpa and feels well loved, but she’s begun to wonder why she doesn’t have a mommy and daddy. Gayle is raising her own grandchild. She found there were plenty of books and support groups for adults in this situation but none for children, especially small children. Abbeville and Gayle found me on the picturbookartists.org website and especially liked a piece I had done of our goddaughter Carolina, who was the same age as Gayle’s little girl.

You also worked on an activity book. Can you tell us about what that was like?

“Moonbird, Moonbird Fly Away With Me” was a true labor of love.

I am a member of a small but talented critique group here in Dallas. One of the members Bebra Bayne, is a wonderful writer who works a lot with the Nasher Sculpture Center. We had an idea for a children’s book in 2008. The Center rejected our original idea but suggested a coloring book. Bebra and I began brainstorming immediately. A few weeks later we presented a sample manuscript, along with 3 illustrated spreads. They gave us permission to develop a full book dummy. We did, they approved, and to our surprise added to it. Our book went from 32 pages and a modest 8” by 10”, to 48 pages at 9” x 12”! This book allows children the opportunity to take a few of these great sculptures home!

What are you working on right now? Do you have any other books or art projects you’d like to talk about?

I’m working on launching a blog and hope to have it up and running within the month.

Do you do non-children’s book art (licensing, fine art, etc.) or art just for fun? Is that art similar or different from your children’s book art?

No and Yes! No I have not sold any art for licensing. I would like to but don’t know how well my work would lend itself to that.

Yes, I’ve sold a few original spreads from my books. I have also sold a few contemporary style paintings. These paintings were not similar to my children’s book art at all. They’re all done in acrylic paint, non-representational, from 3’ x 4’, up to 4’ x 8’.

Do you illustrate full time? If not, what else do you do?

I also do school and library visits, in which I talk about my books and the process of creating picture books. Most of my presentations are to the elementary grades, however I have 3 or 4 different programs I can deliver depending on the age of the kids and the needs of the teachers, or librarians. I have spoken to groups from pre-school to college age.

I still write and would love to find another book I both wrote and illustrated on bookstore shelves one day.

Besides illustrating and painting, I sometimes help my husband Pat, a food and still life photographer and director.    www.pathaverfield.com

When you illustrate a picture book how do you decide what scenes and details to draw?

This is one of my favorite parts of the whole process. I read the story several times. Next I do tiny thumbnails so I can see at a glance the action in the story and how the book will flow. When this tiny “book” makes sense, I enlarge it and embellish until I have a more complete dummy, usually about half size. Seeing each book as a little movie in my mind, and then constructing these dummies helps me to choose which scenes will be the most interesting to illustrate and which are most important to keep the story moving.

When illustrating picture books do you include a visual storyline not mentioned by the text or include animals or people you know?

Yes, quite often. For instance in the case of this last book “Sometimes…” I felt the author didn’t give me enough locations to work with. She talked mostly about the child and the grandmother hugging and I needed more than that. I decided that the grandfather could be building a tree house for the girl. I pictured him gathering materials, reading a book about tree houses, and finally building one with the girl as the story unfolds.

Fortunately everyone liked this idea and I now had many interesting props and points of view to explore.

The use of detailed borders is another device I often use. With borders I can enhance the design, mood, and atmosphere of each scene, suggest time of day, and seasons of the year. I have even introduced characters in the borders, not mentioned in the manuscript. Reading to my own child and many others, I’ve found they love the details. If during the 3^rd or 4^th time a book is read to a child, they can discover a new detail for the first time? That’s magic for me

Can you explain your art process? (please include a URL link to any visuals you may have on a blog or web site)

My process is very low tech I’m afraid. After the dummy is approved on a book project, I do all the sketches with pencil, full size. I do very detailed and finished sketches at this stage for two reasons. One: I want the clients to see exactly what I’m proposing. And two: Watercolor illustrations have to be well planned out before I paint. This is where I decide on colors, avoid over painting, and any number of other mistakes I’m prone to make. As I work on the sketches I tape them, in order, to a long wall in my studio. From there I can

stand back and see at once how things are flowing and fitting together. I study them for days, weeks, adding and subtracting details, and asking myself questions. Does the main character’s clothing stay the same in this scene as in the one before? Where is the light coming from in this scene? Can I put a clue on this page that relates to what’s coming on the next? Stuff like that.

When all sketches are approved I transfer the sketches to 300 lb., Fabriano Artistico WC paper. Extra white. They are transferred by hand using 2H pencils and a truly ancient

Art-o-graph. During this process I fine-tune the drawing, and adjust size relationships, etc.

Next I mask off the edges with blue painter’s tape and start painting. Lightly at first, slowly building up layers of paint until the saturation and depth is working for me. Next I go into each illustration with a very sharp brown Color-erase pencil. Heavier lines help define the foreground. Lighter or nonexistent lines establish distance. Next I go back to painting, laying down my darkest values and shadows, playing with color and value to bring the piece alive. The final step requires a bit of white gouache. Pure white to brighten or add highlights, and white mixed with watercolor where I need to paint over mistakes, reinforce shapes, or make minor changes

Do you have a favorite color or palette?

Yes. I developed my basic palette working on Jack and the Beanstalk all those year’s ago. For the most part I use the same colors today. I find I also wear them and decorate my house with them. How weird is that?

What is your favorite medium to work in? Have you always worked in this media? If not, why did you switch?

I’ve always used a combination of watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil for my illustration work. I flirted with Dr. Martin’s dyes in college and early in my career, but they proved difficult to reproduce, and were too harsh for what I wanted to do in children’s illustration. I’ve also used some collage.

For large paintings I started with acrylics years ago mostly out of necessity. My first “studios” were a spare bedroom, a tiny attic, or our garage. Acrylics have no fumes, dry faster, and are easier to clean up.

Did you always want to be an artist when you grew up?

Yes. I was always drawing apparently. In Jr. high an art teacher strongly encouraged me to study art. I was thrilled. Then my high school art teacher, who was him self a working artist, taught me the many ways a person could actually make a living in the arts. We were living in southern New Jersey and he took us on regular field trips to NYC and Philadelphia. We saw all those great museums as well as a few galleries every year because of him. I also worked on the HS yearbook where I began learning about the graphic arts and preparing art for a printer. I honestly never thought of any other career path.

Do you use models/source pictures or do you draw from your memory/imagination?

Both. I do research on line. I shoot pictures myself and often enlist everyone I know to model for me. I look at other illustrators work constantly, and doodle and sketch as much as possible. I’m working to stylize my work more and more.

If you could be anything other than an artist, what would you be?

Someone who works outside with plants, like a landscape architect or even basic yard maintenance? When I’ve been “chained” to my drawing board for long periods I often dream of a job like that.

What gets you through an illustration when you’re stuck for inspiration?

A long walk always helps a lot. A trip to the library! I also cruise the net looking at my hero’s (read: illustrators I admire) web sites and blogs, I look for new books by great illustrators on Amazon. Listening to recorded books or music helps too. If none of the above does the trick, I stop working on that particular piece and switch to another. Sometimes it’s best to pick up the phone and talk to my editor and/or the author of the piece to get their thoughts. A good editor can be a fountain of inspiration and information.

What book do you remember from when you were young? (list one or multiple books)

The Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh (illustrated by E. H. Shepard), anything by Dr. Seuss, all things Disney, Peter Pan (The original. Not so much Disney), a book of poetry we had by Robert Louis Stevenson

Is there a children’s book illustrator whose work you gravitate towards in the bookstore now? (list one or multiple illustrators)

Soooooooo many! David Small                      Lisbeth Zwerger            Oliver Jeffers

Chris Van Allsburg            Allen Say                      Raul Colon

William Joyce                   P. J. Lynch                    Jane Dyer

David Wiesner                 Mary Grandpre             Brian Selznick

Brian Lies                         Etienne Delessert           Jerry Pinkney

Maurice Sendak               Tomie DePaola             Paul O. Zelinsky …just to name a few.

If you could illustrate any writer’s new work, who would it be?

My own!!

Who do you want to be when you ‘grow up’?

A children’s illustrator and author, who also paints fantastic fine art pieces and sells both, in bookstores and galleries and beyond!

Please give a big welcome to Meredith Johnson. A prolific illustrator with 100 or so picture books to her name. Her bio on Picture Book goes like this:
“So do you have kids?” the editors ask, and Meredith always says “Yep, they’re my scrap.” Picture scrap, that is. Twenty-three years of illustrating children’s books and she’s not out of material, yet. Meredith lives nestled in the foothills of La Cañada, California.
Thanks for joining us today, Meredith.

When did you get started illustrating for children? What did you do before?

I did my first books in 1985. I was working as an art director in an advertising firm, Olgivy & Mather in LA. I simply did books nights and weekends for years.

Tell us a little bit about the recent books you illustrated, The Princess Twins and the Abby and Tess Pet Sitters series.

The Princess Twins and the Tea Party is a series of 4 easy readers for Zondervan, full color, 2 little girls as princesses sort of in the Middle Ages. Goldfish Don’t Take Bubble Baths (Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters) is a series of 8 chapter books. Each features a different adventure in pet sitting a different exotic pet. Each book has about 12 B&W illustrations for each chapter. These were fun to do because the stories are zaney.

What are you working on right now? Do you have any other books or art projects you’d like to talk about?

I’m working on an author’s self published picture book now, about a little girl and manners. I’m working with the book designer, a close friend,  all the way though, so it should be a very cute book. I’m also working on two easy reader picture books and a little bit of educational work in between.

Do you illustrate full time? If not, what else do you do?

I have been illustrating full time for the past 12 years, since getting out of full time agency work.

Your signature style has been consistent for years. Have you ever wanted to experiment with something different?

I do have  a signature style, and it would be nice to experiment, but I manage to stay really busy, so I stick to what I am comfortable with, and what I’m hired for.

When you illustrate a picture book how do you decide what scenes and details to draw?

When I first get the manuscript, I read it over several times to get the ebb and flow, and the feel for what the lead character should look like. Then I do really rough pencils, just thinking on paper. The pictures are meant to tell the story as much and more than the words, so I suppose it’s my way of “telling” what the author wrote.

When illustrating picture books do you include a visual storyline not mentioned by the text or include animals or people you know?

I always show more than the words show. I just about always add a pet as a sidekick, for more action in the pictures. A well written picture book is sparse on description, to let the pictures to be a grand show. A different illustrator would have a much different take on the same text.

Can you explain your art process?
My process is pencil or pen line, and markers on bond paper. This comes from years and years of storyboarding when I worked as an art director. I worked on Mattel Barbie commercials for 22 years, and every commercial had to be storyboarded several times. I was also doing 4 to 6 picture books a year then, so my most comfortable fit was marker made to look as much as possible like water color. My web site is meredithjohnson.net

Do you use models/source pictures or do you draw from your memory/imagination?

I don’t use models, but I do use Google to look up visuals of things I don’t have a good working knowledge of, like animals I’m not familiar with, things like that. Mostly I draw from memory. Because I draw children so much, I keep catalogs or magazines once in a while to use for ideas about the latest of what kids wear, and what they do with their hair.

If you could be anything other than an artist, what would you be?

I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than books, but publishing is getting smaller and leaner, so maybe I’d like to travel more instead of working all the time at a desk.

Is there a children’s book illustrator whose work you gravitate towards in the bookstore now?

The books and illustrators I admire are Carl Larsson, Arthur Rackham, Rien Poortvliet, Lisbeth Zwerger, Trina Schart Hyman, Sergio Martinez, Shirley Hughes, Hilary Knight, to name a few.  At bookstores now I get overwhelmed at the lovely art everywhere….there’s a lot of competition out there!

Thank you so much for taking time out of your hectic schedule to give us a peek into your illustrator’s life.

(Sorry this interview is a little late in being published. It seems that every working artists I know has very tight deadlines this month. — Including me!)

Please extend a warm welcome to a fabulous artist and friend of mine, Wendy Edelson.

Born 6 weeks early, Wendy Edelson spent her first couple years in New York, then moved with her parents to California, It was there in the back of the station wagon with the country speeding past the windows that she began to draw, and draw…and draw and hasn’t stopped yet.

She now lives on Bainbridge Island and has recently begun licensing  her images for all sorts of products, such as puzzles, cards and banners  and  is currently busy with her new favorite passion, creating  fabric collections.

Visit her at http://www.wendyedelson.com/

When did you get started illustrating for children? What did you do before?

I illustrated my first book, “Whose Garden” published by Harvey House in New York when I was 18, following my first trip to New York with my portfolio.

Tell us a little bit about the recent book you illustrated, “Saturn For My Birthday”

“Saturn For My Birthday” by John McGranaghan/Sylvan Dell, is an amusing story about a small boy who asks his father for the planet Saturn for his birthday. Using humorous situations, facts about the planet are presented.

What are you working on right now? Do you have any other books or art projects you’d like to talk about?

I have recently completed illustrating “Bartholomew’s Gift” by Diane Dignan  and  I am about 2 days away from completing the illustrations for “Pobble’s Way” by Simon VanBooy.

I am also working on the illustrations for a pop up book about Bahrain, a commissioned “shaped puzzle” and a new fabric collection.

Your artwork has been showing up as puzzles and other items. What project are you currently involved in? How do these usages differ from picture book illustration?

The puzzles are really something I enjoy…..this will be the third commissioned shaped puzzle that I have done. I enjoy painting “one offs”, pieces that stand alone and  have a LOT of detail. It’s sometimes a bit of relief to only paint a character once!

I’m also working on my second fabric collection. I love doing these, The first was a Christmas collection, this is an Animal ABC, for a soft book, quilts and accompanying print fabrics.

The lovely thing about licensing is that one piece of artwork can be used as a puzzle, as fabric, as a card etc etc…..it’s wonderful to have them out there earning their keep, rather than sitting in a flatfile, or even on a wall after a book is published.

I also do pet portraits.

The guy on the motorcycle with the Wheaton Terrier in the sidecar was a pet portrait. Richard owns the local art supply store and rides around with Duffy in the side car. This was a pet portrait I did for him. I included my sketch, as well…this is what my finished drawings look like
before I paint them.

You spent a while living in Mexico. How long did you live there? How has living outside of the USA influenced your art?

I lived in Mexico for a little over 3 years.

I did write my first picturebook while I was there, “The Cajeta Colored Dog Who Loved Tortillas” The book is set in the  town where I lived so it was wonderful  drawing everything. The colors are what really have stayed with me……my kitchen was painted Rosa Mexicana, which is a deep, vivid pink, it made perfect sense there. The memory of bright orange and salmon bougainvillea spilling over a turquoise and violet wall is one that I think of often. Also Pitahaya, an amazing cactus with hot pink and lime green fruits…inside they are bright white with black flecks. The colors were truly swoon worthy.

Do you illustrate full time? If not, what else do you do?

Yes, mostly 7 days a week, unless I’m  in a garden.

When you illustrate a picture book how do you decide what scenes and details to draw?

I spend a few weeks reading and rereading the story, thinking about it all the time while I’m doing everything else and it seems as though the story reveals itself to me, scribbling blobby shapes that would make sense to no one else helps the process…..mostly it seems to simply evolve, either it feels right or it doesn’t.

When illustrating picture books do you include a visual storyline not mentioned by the text or include animals or people you know?

Yes, I do. In Saturn there is a group of pets that are never mentioned in the book, In The Cajeta Colored Dog I have added people I know in the scenes of people in the shops…..that’s one of the really fun things about being an illustrator. Once I wrote all sorts of little messages in the bark of trees.

Can you explain your art process?

All my work starts out with a very finished, detailed pencil drawing on  my favorite Clearprint Design Vellum. I LOVE this paper because we all have days when we must draw a foot 25 times to get the foreshortening right and one can erase and erase on this paper and it doesn’t ghost or become damaged in any way. Once I have my drawing how I want it I scan it and then print it out on one of my beautiful Epson wide format printers right onto 140 lb watercolor paper, usually in a light Sepia. I vacillate between papers and cold and hot press, depending on …what’s left in my flatfile, my mood….the piece itself. I love being able to do this……it used to take so much time to trace my own drawing on a light table , besides being mind numbingly boring, plus every generation away from the original sketch takes away from the freshness, life, of the line, I think.

All the pretty paint and painting techniques cannot make up for a stilted drawing….I think. Great drawing is the most important part, to me……one can pull anything off if the drawing is good. My father was a wannabe, weekend sculptor and we used to draw together all the time…he was a big stickler for accurate anatomy and good draughtsmanship.

Do you have a favorite color or palette?

Not really….but I do love granulating watercolor pigments, love the mystery and surprise of them.

What is your favorite medium to work in? Have you always worked in this media? If not, why did you switch?

I started out just drawing. When I was 13,  the father of a friend in school was artist Henry Koerner. He introduced me to rapidographs, technical pens and I used them for years, most of my work was black and white. Then I found Dr Martin’s dyes and Luma colors and started using those with the pen line and then I began teaching myself about watercolors. Those have been pretty much my mainstay, but the black line became a sepia line. The rapidographs gave way to very fine line brown, waterproof markers which now have pretty much disappeared, except for  occasional use just on the outside contours of a person or animal. Now I use watercolors in combination with Golden liquid acrylics and everything is build up of glazes. Occasionally I’ll use colored pencils in the mix, as well.

Did you always want to be an artist when you grew up?

Yes, I began drawing in the back of the family station wagon when we moved from New York City to Southern California when I was two. After that trip, I spent pretty much every waking moment drawing.

Do you use models/source pictures or do you draw from your memory/imagination?

Yes, I draw people, animals, landscapes from life and also use photos that I take and from magazines, the internet etc……my work is stylized but definitely realistic, so I like to know how things really look, to start with.

If you could be anything other than an artist, what would you be?

Some sort of landscape designer…….my second favorite thing is gardening.

What gets you through an illustration when you’re stuck for inspiration?

Sheer Taurean grit and determination. One of the blessings of being an illustrator are deadlines. Deadlines have no patience with waiting for one’s Muse to make her appearance. Sometimes one simply has to work through it and waste a bunch of paper, but the effort is almost always worth it. A looming deadline can be very motivating.

What book do you remember from when you were young?

The Wonder Clock illustrated by Howard Pyle.

Is there a children’s book illustrator whose work you gravitate towards in the bookstore now?

I love looking at the work of artists like David Shannon …I’d love to be freer, more able to exaggerate features and bodies , to loosen up more.

It’s all a process….I suppose when one finally totally arrives and has nothing left to learn, I guess one is ready to shuffle off this mortal coil

If you could illustrate any writer’s new work, who would it be?

I’d love to illustrate another book for Simon Van Booy, the author whose book I’m currently finishing up…..

Say a big hello to John Lechner. He is the author and illustrator of four books for children, A Froggy Fable, Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burwood Forest, The Clever Stick and Sticky Burr: The Prickly Peril, all published by Candlewick Press. Thank you for joining us today.

When did you get started illustrating for children? What did you do before?

My first book, A Froggy Fable, was published in 2005, but I have been writing and drawing my whole life. Before being published, I worked as a graphic designer, puppeteer, animator, interactive designer and art director.

Tell us a little bit about the recent books you wrote and illustrated, The Clever Stick and Sticky Burr: The Prickly Peril.

The Clever Stick is a fable about a stick who is sad because he cannot speak. He has many thoughts he wants to share, but doesn’t know how. In the course of the book, he discovers his “voice”. My other recent book, Sticky Burr: The Prickly Peril, is about a group of burrs who live in the forest, and what happens when their village is attacked by the wicked Burweena and her spiders. It’s part comic book, part storybook, part nature journal.

What are you working on right now? Do you have any other books or art projects you’d like to talk about?

Right now I’m working on a novel, which is very different from my other books. I also launched a blog last fall called The Untended Garden, where I highlight artists and writers inspired by nature. I think it’s ironic that even though we know more about nature than ever before, we are becoming more and more isolated from it. Art and literature have always helped us see our world in new ways, and I hope to bring that sense of discovery and exploration to today’s readers.

You work in animation and interactive storytelling. What project are you currently involved in? How do these disciplines differ from picture book illustration?

Lately I’ve been very interested in interactive storytelling, combining the elements of an illustrated book and an animated film into something new. I’ve been working on my own interactive story for over a year now, which I hope to launch this spring.

I love animation because it’s a unique kind of visual storytelling, and combines many different art forms. It is a lot like book illustration, except you multiply the number of illustrations exponentially, and look at them REALLY fast. You are still telling a visual story, but showing every action and scene, leaving less to the viewer’s imagination. In this way, it is a less intimate experience than reading a book, since much of a book’s reality takes place inside the reader’s imagination. But you can also add things to animation like music and sound effects, which can enhance your story in ways that a book can only dream of.

Do you do non-children’s book art (licensing, fine art, etc.) or art just for fun? Is that art similar or different from your children’s book art?

Besides book illustration, I love to draw and paint for fun. I like painting with watercolors outdoors, though I don’t have much time for it. You can see a lot of my miscellaneous work on my website gallery http://www.johnlechner.com/gallery/index.html. It’s not too different from my children’s book art, but a bit more eclectic.

Do you illustrate full time? If not, what else do you do?

I work full-time as an Art Director at the children’s media company FableVision. There I do everything from animation to web design. One of my recent projects was designing a new website for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood which was very exciting and humbling to work on. My latest project is co-directing the animated film The North Star, based on the book by Peter H. Reynolds, which will be released later this year.

When you illustrate a picture book how do you decide what scenes and details to draw?

I usually visualize the story in my head, and draw what I see. There is no system or structure to my sketching, I just try out different views and angles until I have something that flows together. I try to give each scene some visual drama, even if it’s just a field of flowers. And it’s important for the drawings to work together as a sequence, both visually and dramatically. You can’t just focus on each page as a self-contained picture, you always have to think of how it fits into the book. That’s what separates great picture books from ordinary ones, when the pictures flow together so seamlessly that you don’t even notice you’ve turned the page. That’s something I’m still striving for.

When illustrating picture books do you include a visual storyline not mentioned by the text or include animals or people you know?

I draw many things that aren’t in the text, such as recurring background characters, or changes in color or composition to reflect the mood. Since most of my stories are about animals or insects, I don’t usually include people that I know (at least, not consciously!)

Can you explain your art process?

After I have the final sketch dummy (which is the result of many revisions with pencil and paper), I will sketch out the final illustrations on watercolor paper, actual size. I prefer actual size because I like to work small, and it also shows me exactly what the final page will look like. After sketching, I will draw the final lines using black India ink and a fine brush. Then I will erase the pencil lines, and paint the illustration with watercolor. I usually work on several paintings at a time, since the watercolor has to dry after each section so it doesn’t run. I will often do the whole illustration over, if it doesn’t turn out the way I want. I think the entire book A Froggy Fable was illustrated twice, because I wasn’t satisfied with my first attempts.

Do you have a favorite color or palette?

Most of my stories take place outdoors, and I love greens and browns, especially yellow ochre.

What is your favorite medium to work in? Have you always worked in this media? If not, why did you switch?

I prefer watercolor and ink, which I have used for all my books. I’ve tried other mediums over the years, but watercolors seem to best express the ideas and feelings that I’m trying to convey.

Did you always want to be an artist when you grew up?

Yes, along with a musician, puppeteer, writer, filmmaker, and many other things.

Do you use models/source pictures or do you draw from your memory/imagination?

I mostly draw from my imagination, though I often model my scenery on real places. For instance, the tree at the beginning of The Clever Stick is an old apple tree from my backyard. And for the Sticky Burr books, I research all the animals and insects that I draw, then simplify them to make them fit the style of the story.

If you could be anything other than an artist, what would you be?

If I weren’t making books, I would love to be a musician and composer. I play the violin, guitar and ukulele, and I actually wrote the songs in the back of my Sticky Burr books.

What gets you through an illustration when you’re stuck for inspiration?

Deadlines.

What book do you remember from when you were young? (list one or multiple books)

I had many favorite books as a child, including everything by Richard Scarry, Bill Peet and Dr. Seuss. I liked books with lots of visual details, but also a good story.

Is there a children’s book illustrator whose work you gravitate towards in the bookstore now?

I’m always drawn to illustrators whose work is very different than my own, particularly those with a bold sense of texture and design like Lane Smith or Melissa Sweet. I love artists who can create a unique world that the reader can get lost in.

If you could illustrate any writer’s new work, who would it be?

Lately I have been very inspired by Diana Wynne Jones. Her writing is so rich, so imaginative, it would be an honor to illustrate even a single sentence of hers.

Who do you want to be when you ‘grow up’?

I don’t plan to.  In fact, I think I might start growing younger instead of older, and spend more time making things, jumping in puddles, and exploring the world around me.

Visit this blog for the first post of a series featuring A Journey Round My Skull‘s recently-acquired collection of Soviet children’s books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

I believe searching (and viewing) as many examples of other artists’ work as possible is a great way to improve your own work.

While my own work is focused on children’s art right now, I don’t limit my viewing to the genre. I visit fantasy artists’ sites as well as studying my favorite grand masters. I am often guilty of buying “just one more” art reference book far too often.

This week, because childrensillustrators.com is, sadly, still off-line because of a malicious attack, I went out into the wilds of the World Wide Web in search of contemporary picture book artists.

I consider myself a pretty patient person and often I am willing to wait for a page to load when it’s taking a longer than average amount of time. But, I’ve got to tell you some of the sites I tried to visit were too hard to see.

Fellow illustrators, please, if you want art directors or other possible clients to view your work and hire you, make your site easy to view. If you aren’t technically inclined ask a friend or aquaintence who is to help you minimize the load time of your images. When you load your site and open it to viewing by the public, check and see if it takes too long to load. Ask people you know to go to the site and tell you honestly what they think about it. Ask them if they could see the art. Ask them if it took a long time to load. If an art director or potential client has to wait too long for an image to load or can’t figure out how to view your images, they will go on to the next illustrator’s site and forget about you.

I’d like to say this was only in isolated instances, but it was every third or fourth site. That’s a lot of artists who are minimizing their chances for paying work.