Illustrator’s Gallery: Annelouise Mahoney

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Annelouise Mahoney, digital illustration, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators

By Annelouise Mahoney

Picture books are like little paper theaters inviting us to take a journey. When we provide a believable sense of space, we invite our readers to step into that world.

Environments are important to me. When I develop a character for a story, I think a lot about where the character lives, what their home looks like, and more importantly, why the character lives there. How does the environment serve the story? Does it set a mood, an atmosphere, a feeling of home, or uncertainty? The answers to these questions lead me to do lots of research to determine the particular elements needed to create a specific environment that suits the story.

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Brian Won: Author/Illustrator Perspective, Writers & Illustrators Day Faculty

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author, Brian Won, illustrator, illustrator tips, Illustrators Day, picture books

Author/illustrator Brian Won was one of SCBWI’s 2016 Crystal Kite Award recipients and faculty for this year’s Los Angeles Writers & Illustrators Day, where he was a judge for the illustration contests and critiqued illustrator portfolios. He wore many hats–busboy, shoe salesman, library shelver, art director, and designer before making the leap to children’s books. Brian graduated from California’s Art Center College of Design with an honorary ninth term before co-founding National Television, a design and animation company. Read on for his insights and advice to author/illustrators and thoughts on illustrating for others as well as news about his current and upcoming projects!

Illustrator’s Gallery: Lauren Gallegos

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Meet SCBWI member and illustrator Lauren Gallegos in this quarter’s “Illustrator’s Gallery.” Read on to hear Lauren’s story and see some of her amazing illustrations!

In one of my early illustration classes in college, a professor gave us a quiz to see if we were more cut out for being an in-house illustrator or a freelance illustrator. The test placed me VERY much in the camp of in-house illustrator based on my personality and working style. I was pretty discouraged by this. I was still new to the illustration world (I started out in Graphic Design), but was already on my way down the path of wanting to become a children’s book illustrator. In my mind, that could only mean that I had to do freelance. So what did I do? I set out to prove that quiz wrong! No one was going to put me in a box and tell me what I was destined to be!

Illustrator’s Gallery: Anne Berry

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SCBWI member Anne Berry is an illustrator living and working in Huntington Beach, California. She’s been doodling ever since she found paper and pencil, and could get her cats to sit long enough for a portrait. At the 2015 SCBWI Summer Conference, she won the SCBWI Mentorship Program award and the Portfolio Honor Award. Read on for her valuable tips about perfecting your own portfolio and to check out her awesome illustrations!

Volunteer Spotlight: Gina Capaldi

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We love our volunteers at SCBWI and couldn’t exist without them! “Volunteer Spotlight” is a great way to get to know them for yourself and learn more about what they do and how you can volunteer too. Now meet Gina Capaldi, Illustrator Coordinator for the SCBWI’s Inland Empire, also known as SoCal.

Interview with Carl Angel, Illustrator of The Girl Who Saved Yesterday

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Carl Angel, how-to, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, Julius Lester, local, picture book, SCBWI members, The Girl Who Saved Yesterday

Our local Angelino and SCBWI member Carl Angel is the illustrator of the beautiful new picture book, The Girl Who Saved Yesterday. In this book, Angel takes on the daunting task of illustrating Julius Lester’s poetic lines in a book that straddles myth, magic realism, and folklore.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome! Please tell us a little bit about how you illustrated trees that talk, lights that felt “as thin as a raindrop,” and stones of the ancestors which “glow a pink as gentle and soft as a first kiss.”

CARL ANGEL: The poetic nature of Julius’s words resonates on both an emotional and literal level, and in such a way where both are equally appealing as imagery. As an illustrator, I chose to address, primarily through color and composition, the aspect on which to best focus for the image. The text is rich enough that some of the words, I felt, were beyond illustrating and were best left in the reader’s imagination, which only added to the depth of the book. The way Julius connected those two dimensions so delicately with such great lyricism was so inspiring that I wanted to share that with the reader visually.

Thérèse Makes a Tapestry, Part 1: Illustrator, Renée Graef

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Today, we present Part One of the series featuring both the illustrator and author of the historical fiction children’s picture book, Thérèse Makes a Tapestry.

Renée Graef, an SCBWI member, is the illustrator of this beautiful book. Set in the time of King Louis XIV’s reign of France (1643-1715), Thérèse’s father is a painter who travels with the king; their family lives at the Gobelins Manufactory where world-famous tapestries are made (and are still being made today!). Although women and girls are not permitted to weave, Thérèse practices at home. The book reveals how Thérèse surprises those around her.