I have two main ideas for children book illustration, that go in different directions.

One is to only create a cover page based on the theme “Book as a bridge to other forms of arts” it can be fictional.

The other is a dino-related one, it will be non-fiction. I already gathered a lot of documentation and knowledge, but there are still work to do to make it appealing to children. I am excited for these challenges!

Therefore, I collected a variety of children books. Some more for their inspiring illustrations, some more for their content. Some for both reasons!

It is a nice experience to look at the books with a focus purpose in mind. And I like the validation about getting inspired by others to create our own universe. Thanks for the course

Here is my list of books I selected from the library and the reasons I took them:

Inspiring collection of books - image 1 - student project

Title: All in a drop | How Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered an Invisible World
Author: Lori Alexander
Illustrator: Vivien Mildenberger
Publisher: Clarion Books, 2019

Focus points:

Non-fiction: biography
illustration style with watercolor
how the characters are depicted with their emotions (happiness, wonders, fears,…)
the way the scientific tools and discoveries are showed
the story itself (biography of scientific discoveries from a tradesman without scientific background)

Title: A green place to be | The creation of Central Park
Author: Ashley Benham Yazdani
Illustrator: Ashley Benham Yazdani
Publisher: Candlewick, 2019

Focus points:

Non-fiction
The watercolor / colored pencil style
Characters style and emotions
Lots of details in the page, that adds fun touches
Alternance between page full of illustrations and more simple ones
Conveying ideas sharing (instead of a speech bubble it’s a drawing bubble)
As soon as it was mentioned in the lecture, I browsed online to see if my library had it!

Title: Pa, me, and our sidewalk pantry

Author: Toni Buzzeo
Illustrator: Zara Gonzalez Hoang
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2023

Focus points:

Fiction
The watercolor / colored pencil style
Characters style and emotions
Vibrant colors, yet soft

Title: The good little book

Author: Kyo Maclear
Illustrator: Marion Arbona
Publisher: Tundra Books, 2015

Focus point:

Fiction
Theme of the book: book, how it makes the reader travels, it follows them

Title: Wild Girl

How to have incredible outdoor adventures

Author: Helen Skelton
Illustrator: Liz Kay

Publisher: Candlewick, 2019

Focus points:

Hand lettering of the cover page
Non-fiction: Documentary style
Layout of the pages: mixed media with pictures, drawings, texts = documentary type

Title: A child of books

Author: Oliver Jeffers, Sam Winston
Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers, Sam Winston

Publisher: Candlewick, 2016

Focus points:

Content: children’s classics, encourage to explore
Twisting the use of:
- typography, to draw landscape
- fore edges of books to illustrate a forest
- accumulation of letters to create darkness
- collages of cutout pieces from illustrated books
Limited color palette (white, grey and brown, some blue for the main character) à a good way to remember her throughout the pages. Colors appeared by the end as fireworks

Title: Eraser

Author: Anna Kang
Illustrator: Christopher Weyant

Publisher: Two Lions, 2018

Focus points:

Fictional
Watercolor and colored pencil, gentle atmosphere
Using objects and make them as humans, with emotions and actions
Cute drawings: big eyes
Tackle “figuring out who you are, finding happiness” and embracing mistakes

Title: Life savers

Spend a day with real-life emergency service heroes

Author: Eryl Nash

Illustrator: Ana Albero

Publisher: Two Lions, 2018

Focus points:

Non-fictional
“Simple” geometrical shapes for the drawings, mostly plain colors, no shades
Characters cartoony style
The big pages full of illustrations to show the tools the life savers use

Title: Thanksgiving day

Author: Anne Rockwell

Illustrator: Lizzy Rockwell

Publisher: Harper Trophy, 1999

Focus points:

Fictional to disclose historical non-fictional event
Colored pencils illustrations
Playful children (source of inspiration to draw children)

Thanks again for the course! Looking forward to progress on my projects.

Evacologie

Multidisciplinary artist

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