April 2012
1 post
Traditional Tuesday: Marsha Riti teaches us how to...
We’ve decided to diversify our Tuesday posts to include some traditional tips, as well as our technology two-cents. Girllustrator Marsha Riti kicks us off with a step-by-step on stretching watercolor paper. We hope you’ll find it useful!
March 2012
2 posts
Amanda Williams Rocks Some Cave Walls!
Have you ever wondered who creates the environments in your favorite atmospheric games? The Creators Project recently interviewed the Girllustrators’ own Amanda Williams on her work with Tiger Style Games and what went into the caves and landscapes of Waking Mars.
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Wendy Martin
Wendy Martin, co-host of Thursday night’s #kidlitart chat on twitter (you should drop by sometime if you haven’t already), has been an illustrator for more than 25 years. She started out with a degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, followed by a BFA in Graphic Design at the School of Visual Arts; and both areas of study still influence her work today....
February 2012
3 posts
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Don Tate
Don Tate is the award-winning illustrator/author of more than 40 books for children, trade and educational. His books include: Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, featured in the New York Times Holiday Book Review, She Loved Baseball, Ron’s Big Mission and Sure as Sunrise, just to name a few. I’m happy to report that Don is also the debut author of It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Divya Srinivasan
In addition to being one of the newest Girllustrators (she hadn’t yet joined our group when she answered our questions), Divya Srinivasan is an amazingly talented illustrator and animator. She has worked for illustration clients such as the New Yorker, This American Life and They Might Be Giants, and she was an animator on the film Waking Life. Divya recently released her first picture book,...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Renee Kurilla
Renée Kurilla is brimming over with talent! She graduated with a BFA in Illustration and Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, is a lead artist for the animation studio Fable Vision, and a children’s book illustrator. Renée’s work can be seen in The Christmas Hamster by Bryan Gately; Charlesbridge Publishing’s I See I Learn series: Freda Plans a...
January 2012
6 posts
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Jenny B Harris
Jenny B Harris’ design background and passion for arts and crafts shine through in her illustrations for children. Her work radiates bright colors, fun patterns, and a cheerfulness that reaches out to a broad audience. Jenny’s impressive client list includes picture books for Random House and Golden Books, educational projects for Harcourt, and packaging for Pepsi. You can check out...
Get it Together!
The Austin SCBWI 2012 regional conference, Something for Everybody, is just around the corner. You’ve got three and a half weeks to get your portfolio together—or build a totally new one depending on how ambitious you are! You’d like to knock the socks of off the editors, art director, and agents attending, land a book deal and win the portfolio competition (you are ambitious, aren’t you?)…if...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Jackie Stafford
Jackie Stafford’s friendly animal and human characters entertain and educate kids by way of picture books, games, magazine illustrations, and promotional materials for a long list of clients. They include Scholastic Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Disney, Gymboree, Nestle, and Kraft. Her most recent work is digitally executed, but her portfolio also includes watercolor work, and from her early...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Luciana Navarro...
Luciana Navarro Powell loves to draw. She has been a professional illustrator for over 14 years, providing, rich, vibrant and playful illustrations to clients such as Scholastic, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Hasbro Toys, Crocodile Creek, National Geographic School Publishing, Random House and Chronicle Books.
One of her latest ventures is an iPad app, Goodnight Safari, for...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Tracy Bishop
Tracy Bishop is both a children’s book illustrator and designer extraordinaire! She earned her degree in graphic design with a concentration in illustration from San Jose State University. Tracy’s clients include Cost Plus, World Market, The Gymboree Corp, Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo, EandI Designs, and Stanford Jazz Festival. We wanted...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with David Kirk
David Kirk’s children’s book career began when his hand-made toys were discovered by a book packager! In 1994 his first book, Miss Spider’s Tea Party, was published. It’sfilled with Kirk’s characteristic brilliant colors, dynamic compositions and infinite details. Miss Spider went on to become not only a beloved series of books, but also a television series on Nick Jr., a CD-ROM...
December 2011
4 posts
Tech Tuesday: Q&A with Janee Trasler
Janee Trasler, author and illustrator of many books for children, says she thoroughly enjoys her job. And it definitely shows! Whether spending time with Janee in person, or reading one of her books, get ready to giggle! Of her latest book, Caveman, A B.C. Story, Kirkus says - “F stands for FUN here.” I couldn’t agree more! Her delightful characters painted in rich vibrant...
Tech Tuesday: Q&A with John Nez
John Nez, a very busy Seattle-based illustrator, has worked on more than fifty children’s books. His illustrations sing with attitude, color, fun, and lots of textures. In addition to creating artwork for everything from board books to historical fiction, he writes and illustrates some of his own imaginative stories, including The Twelve Days of Christmas in Washington and Cromwell...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Russ Cox
Russ Cox draws brilliantly colored, energetic cartoon illustrations for Kellogg’s, Crayola, McDonald’s, and PopCap Games. Not surprisingly, his style translates beautifully to animation, as seen in his e-cards for American Greetings and interactive web menus for AOL. Cox grew up in Tennessee, and studied art at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design after his family moved to the East Coast....
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Melinda Beck
Melinda Beck is a Brooklyn-based illustrator, animator and graphic designer whose fabulous work includes everything from illustration for the
children’s literature market to animation, to hand lettering.
Melinda has worked with a number of high profile clients – The New York Times, Random House, Target and Nickelodeon – just to name a few. Check out some of her dynamic animation work for Nick Jr...
November 2011
4 posts
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Lalena Fisher
Lalena Fisher has a wealth of experiences in the design and illustration world. Her delightful illustrations have graced children’s textbooks for clients such as Oxford University Press, Scholastic, and McGraw-Hill. She also designs logos, posters, books, and websites for a variety of clients ranging from fine artists and musicians to small businesses. She has also created characters and...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Julian Hector
Julian Hector is a Brooklyn-based illustrator who grew up in the Austin area. His first book, The Little Matador, was written during his senior year at Parsons the New School for Design. Since then he has gone on to illustrate a string of picture books, including The Gentleman Bug, which he also wrote, Monday is One Day with Arthur A. Levine, and C.R.Mudgeon by Leslie Muir. And his creations are...
Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Children's Book...
Stephen Savage has illustrated such acclaimed books as Polar Bear Night, a New York Times bestseller and ALA notable book; The Fathers Are Coming Home by Margaret Wise Brown; and most recently, Where’s Walrus?, which has received starred reviews. For the New Yorkers out there, art from Where’s Walrus? is currently on view in The Original Art show at the Society of Illustrators (along with art by...
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Technology Tuesday: Q&A with Children's Book...
Christina Wald’s lovely illustrations are created either in acrylic or digitally, or a combination of both (the Thumbelina image below is digital!). She even works with vector images occasionally and designs toys, giftware, and other products. She holds a degree in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati. Christina paints fabulously realistic animals and has illustrated over ten books...
September 2011
5 posts
Children's Book Illustrators and Technology: Q&A...
Kelly Light is a prodigiously talented illustrator with a background in animation and cartoon merchandising and has worked with an amazing list of companies, including Disney, Nickelodeon, and Jim Henson. She can convincingly portray a character’s every emotion with her lightning-fast drawing skills, and her rich imagination is evident in every piece. Read along to see how Kelly uses...
Children's Illustrators and Technology: Q&A with...
Vanessa Brantley Newton’s exuberantly drawn and always fashionably dressed characters practically jump off the screen (and page) with an energy indicative of the busy illustrator herself. Aside from illustrating some fantastic picture books, Vanessa writes, crafts, makes dolls, is a mom, and still finds time to encourage other illustrators out there in the blogosphere and real world....
Children's Book Illustrators and Technology: Q&A...
Jannie Ho, aka Chickengirl, is former graphic designer and art director who now illustrates for children in a plethora of ways (books, magazines, toys, etc.). Her colorfully illustrated animals and children draw us right in to a fun and funny world, and always with style! She recently answered our questions on how she uses technology in her day-to-day routine.
What percentage of your...
Children's Illustrators and Technology: Q&A with...
Harriet Russell is a London based illustrator who has not only created fabulous whimsical art with a sense of humor for children’s books, but also in editorial pieces for The Guardian, Time Out, and many more. She recently answered a few questions on how she uses technology in her daily work.
What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? Probably about 50% (at a rough...
Children's Illustrators & Technology: Priscilla...
With the SCBWI technology symposium Storytelling in the Digital Age on the horizon (October 8th), we thought we’d introduce to you some of our favorite talented and tech-savvy illustrators in the children’s book community who are utilizing technology in their art. These illustrators have been gracious enough to answer a few of our questions, and we’ll be posting their answers...
August 2011
5 posts
"Mine!" in SI Original Art
Girllustrator Patrice Barton’s art for the book Mine! by Shutta Crum was accepted into the Society of Illustrators Original Art show, which showcases the best illustrated picture books of the year. This year the society selected artwork from 150 books, out of almost 600 submitted. This is definitely an achievement to be proud of, and well-deserved by Patty. If you’re in New York...
We're getting organized...
We’ve got almost all of our member biographies posted! Click on the About Us link above to read about (almost) all of the Girllustrators!
Iotacons →
My friend Andy Rash, an established illustrator and successful children’s book author/illustrator, has been creating these low res portraits he calls iotacons…and getting lots of attention for them! They premiered on his Facebook page and since have been popping up all over the Web! He even has a blog dedicated solely to them! Check out this article at Fuel Your Illustration!
Technology Symposium
The Girllustrators will be appearing at the SCBWI Technology Symposium held at St. Edward’s University on October 8th. We’ll be presenting a panel on Illustration and Technology. We hope you’ll join us!
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– Eleanor Roosevelt