Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Today’s the first Sunday of the month, so I welcome a student illustrator. Her name is Sairom Moon, and though she’s originally from South Korea, she comes to 7-Imp by way of her instructor at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), illustrator Shadra Strickland.

Let’s get right to Sairom’s introduction, in her own words … Read the rest of this entry �

(Click to enlarge)

Instead of featuring a brand-new picture book today or an up-and-coming illustrator, I’ve got artwork from one of my favorite picture book artists, Elisa Kleven.

The new year is upon us, and when I thought about sharing artwork as we edge up on 2013, some art that would buoy our spirits, I immediately thought of her.

Elisa sent me a handful of illustrations, and it was hard to choose which to share (for many reasons, I’m going to keep this post relatively short and sweet this week), but I chose the one above, and these two: Read the rest of this entry �

“Mountains of gifts are placed under the tree for eight nights of Hanukkah,
plus Christmas Day. How lucky am I?”
(Click to enlarge spread)

This morning, I welcome author and illustrator Selina Alko to tell us all a bit about her latest picture book, Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama, a story about a family who merges two holiday traditions. Sadie, the young girl narrating the story, has a father who has always celebrated Christmas, a mother who has always celebrated Hanukkah, and they annually combine the traditions of each holiday event in order to teach their daughter about both. Selina—using gouache, collage, and colored pencil, which result in such appealing textures here—lays it all out on the pages of this book with vibrant colors and great joy. She’s here today to share some artwork from the book (sans text), as well as early dummy images, and to tell us the story behind the book.

Toward the end of this post, I’ve also got some holiday illustrations from several illustrators, just ’cause I’m an illustration junkie and couldn’t help it. Let’s get right to it all … Read the rest of this entry �

Mrs. Santa

This morning, I welcome new-to-the-field illustrator Melissa Guion. She’s here to share some of her bright, gentle watercolors and talk about her debut title, Baby Penguins Everywhere!, a picture book as much for the parents and teachers of this world as it is for children (as Melissa herself notes below). It tells the story of a lonely penguin, suddenly visited by a gaggle of baby penguins. (Can penguins exist in gaggles? I’m going to pretend they can, even though I think gaggles involve geese.) Finding herself a bit frazzled by all the wee penguins in her care, she comes to understand that she needs a moment’s peace. (Ah, isn’t that the truth if ever the truth was spoken?) She needs, as Publishers Weekly put it in their review, time to recharge, though she comes to appreciate the company of the young penguins, even when it’s chaotic.

I’ll let Melissa tell you more about it — and her work. I certainly look forward to what she brings readers next. Also, please note that Melissa’s online portfolio is here, if you’d like to see more art. Read the rest of this entry �

The first Sunday of the month is upon us once again (the last 2012 one, at that — GASP), which means I normally feature the work of a student or debut illustrator. I had the latter lined up for today, but it didn’t quite work out in time. This author/illustrator will, most likely, visit next week instead, which is all good and a-okay and all that. I’m easy like Sunday morning (as I told her — and you’re welcome for that Commodores song now on your brain radio).

Know what I have for you today? I’ll be ever-so brief: Read the rest of this entry �

The finished Mac and Adam puppets from Mac Barnett’s Chloe and the Lion
with pictures by Adam Rex

 

“Here’s Jimmy. He’s the guy with the shoes.”
— From Jairo Buitrago’s Jimmy the Greatest, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng
(Click to enlarge)

 
Since it’s almost December (GASP!), I decided to devote today’s post to two 2012 picture books that I really liked a whole heapin’ lot, yet I had never gotten around to posting about. I do manage, I think, to post about picture books here at 7-Imp in a relatively timely manner, but these two fall into the better-late-than-never category. Here, I post about them before I see that the year has all sneaky-like ended on us — and in my own little effort to tip my hat to this pair of 2012 picture book beauties.

Those two books? Jairo Buitrago’s Jimmy the Greatest, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng and released by Groundwood Books back in April (first published in Spanish in 2010), and Mac Barnett’s Chloe and the Lion, released by Disney Hyperion in the same month — with pictures from Adam Rex.

I’ve got art from Jimmy the Greatest, and for Chloe and the Lion, Adam Rex visits briefly to share art, early sketches, thumbnails, and such. Let’s get right to it… Read the rest of this entry �

The Buskers

The best thing that came out of writing about Elin Kelsey’s You Are Stardust, illustrated by Soyeon Kim, which I did here at 7-Imp in September, was that I met Jayme McGowan. (Well, I cyber-met her, though I wish I could say we had actual coffee together.) She contacted me after reading that post to tell me she also works in cut paper/3D art, and then I visited her site and knew I’d want to feature her at 7-Imp some day very soon.

Today’s the day!

I’m going to give it over to Jayme now, since she tells us all about herself and her work below, as well as her most exciting news — that her debut picture book is to-come soon. I thank her for visiting 7-Imp today … Read the rest of this entry �

Ciao, dear Imps.

In the early 1960s, a picture book about books was released, which evidently was selected as one of the best fifty books of the year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. You can see a page from it above. Written by Murray McCain and illustrated by American graphic designer and illustrator John Alcorn (who, I just read, designed the opening titles for several Federico Fellini films), Books! has been re-released this year by an independent publishing house in Italy, called Topipittori, after the University of Milan acquired Alcorn’s drawings and materials. Here’s the low-down, and below is the same page you see at the top of this post, but in the new Italian edition: Read the rest of this entry �

I sure do love this illustration up above.

It’s the first Sunday of the month when I like to invite a student or brand-new illustrator over for morning coffee, and today 7-Imp welcomes debut author/illustrator Abby Hanlon. Abby is, as she tells you below, a former first-grade teacher.

Abby’s first picture book, Ralph Tells a Story, was released in August and chronicles the struggles of a young boy, who must write a story yet has no ideas. In his classroom, his teacher declares joyously that “stories are everywhere!” but it’s a no-go for him. With the prompting and enthusiasm of a friend (when Ralph declares that nothing happens to him, his classmate Daisy—in my favorite part—says, “Are you kidding? I’ve written a ton of stories about you!”) and after much angst, he finally comes to his own story idea. Kirkus called this one a promising debut and an “engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running.”

I’d tell you more about Abby’s artistic style, but you can see plenty of it here today, including some illustrations from the book. I thank her for visiting. Be sure to check out the book’s endpapers below (my second favorite part of the book), which are the end results of Ralph’s inspiration. Read the rest of this entry �

It’s very rare that I don’t have the artwork of an illustrator to feature on a Sunday here at 7-Imp, and my apologies in advance that this is the case this morning. But we were away this week at Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade (the Muggle versions in Muggle Orlando, that is), otherwise known as The Place, In Case You Were in Any Doubt, That Proves Precisely Why J. K. Rowling is a Gazillionaire.

If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter books, as my girls are, it’s a fun place to visit, particularly Ollivanders Wand Shop.

So, what I do have for you is a photo of the girls enjoying butterbeer, which we got here… Read the rest of this entry �