two great interviews

I wanted to share these 2 illustrator interviews that I recently read and enjoyed.

The first one was with Carson Ellis on the blog, Picturebook Makers. Her first picture book that she's both written and illustrated, Home, is coming out this month. The entire post was really inspiring, but I especially found myself relating to what she said about "contributing something worthwhile to an already massive heap of brilliant books." As someone who aspires to one day write my own books, I think about that a lot.

The other interview was with Chris Silas Neal on Inky Goodness. Again, I really enjoyed the entire post, but it's what he said about his upcoming picture book, Everyone, that really inspired me:

"Everyone is a book about a boy and his feelings. Through visual metaphors I describe how expressing our feelings affects our surroundings and how the world reflects those feelings back at us. When you are sad, it may feel like you’re the only one who has ever been sad, but we learn that you are not alone. The world feels it too. So when you are happy, it makes the world happy."

What a great and unique idea! I can't wait to read it and see how he turned a concept like that into a book for children.

european picture books - pralinky pro sousedku

I bought this picture book in the Czech Republic when we were there last June. I found the design to be quite charming, as well as the color scheme and the characters.

library love / here comes the garbage barge!

I recently got a library card and have been having the best time signing out tons of children's books. I can't believe I've gone without one for so long! There are so many books, especially picture books, that I've read about over the years and wanted to take a look at. I have a pretty decent sized collection myself, but I can't afford to buy every book that I'm curious about. It's been really great to poor through so many fantastic books.

One such book is Here Comes the Garbage Barge! by Jonah Winter. The illustrations are by Red Nose Studio, one of my favorite illustrators, and he did an amazing job on this, his first picture book. Great characters, colors, compositions, hand drawn type...

I was checking out his blog today and saw a really cool video about how he created the images for the book. I love glimpses at other illustrator's process, and I especially enjoy his since it's so drastically different from my own. Check it out here.