Portraits of the Artists for a Young Reader
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
The blooming popularity of picture book biographies – simply-worded, richly-illustrated biographies for children – has been one of the coolest things to happen to children’s lit in recent years. It’s a format that’s especially well-suited to biographies of artists; the use of illustrations to depict an artist’s life can lead to a deeper understanding of his or her works. I imagine that for an illustrator, creating a picture book biography presents a unique challenge: using his or her own style and talents to portray the world that inspired and shaped another artist. The results can be breathtaking works of art in their own right. Here’s a few of my recent favorites:
Dorothy Allison once wrote, “Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I would rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.” These sage words are ones that I think 