Guy Parker Reese. Giraffes Can't Dance. Type

I'm Melting

It's Snowing is a gorgeously watercolored book by Olivier Dunrea. Her ability to capture the accumulation of snow and the textures that are part of the winter scene are warming in the nostalgic sense of the word, as the chill of snow is deterred by the warmth within the shapes and colors of the characters. Who couldn't melt when looking at that plush fur coat and rosey cheeks and chilled nose?

Gush, Swoon & Read

Neil Gaiman's The Wolves in the Walls is an AH-MAZE-ING book illustrated by Dave McKean. Seriously, these two are like pancakes and syrup! like peanut butter and jelly! like chicken and waffles! like ketchup and eggs! The way McKean is so able to capture the twisted iedas of Gaiman and portray them in such a creative and inspiring manner is genius! The amount of detail tat resonates with his use of photo collage and pencil sketch and digital color and even real paint is just out of this world. Gush gush gush, swoon swoon swoon, read this book now.

P.S. Seriously! In that top picture he photocollage real images of JAM!

Found and Loved

Jenny and the Cat Club is written and illustrated by Esther Averill. It's copyright goes all the way back to 1944. The collection of Jenny is comprised of a multitude of books that are all difficult to locate. Until now. Te New York Review: Children's Collection published A Collection of Favorite Stories about Jenny Linsky as a chapter books beautifully bound in a hard cover with a red cloth label. It's perfect and I bought it at Urban Outfitters on my 18th birthday for $5.00.

Why is this so important? Because in the first grade we had a weekly assignment of choosing a book from the library and then 're-illustrating' our favorite page. I loved Jenny. I thought she was so clever and was so wonderfully drawn and I wished beyond wishing that my drawing could be just like that! I was so happy to have stumbled upon this book. I thought it was fate, to have found what I thought was the perfect book as a child on the day I was turning an adult.

Sassy-Mc-Sass-Pants!

Kevin Henkes is a god. For serious, he created a bunch of mice children and now he's a bajillionaire (not that money is super important, but common, he is able to market MICE! creepy, nasty little mice!). Henkes has a bunch of books that revolve around a bunch of mice, most notably Lilly. Lilly is his claim to fame as children everywhere ate up her spunky attitude, her sassy-mc-sass-pants style, and her believability as a child. Just look! I mean, how could you not love her, even if she is a mouse? This image is taken from Henkes's Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. There's a bunch more. I suggest you look at them, read them, and fall in love!

White Blank Page

These images are two spreads from an author Demi's (yes, that is her name. that is all she goes by. like prince.) The Firebird. In this book, as well as her other work, Demi explores the use of culturally traditional illustration that binds a story to its setting. The Firebird is set in Russia as it is a retelling of a Russian folktale based on the compilation of stories provided by Alexander Afanasiev.

Most notable about the illustration is Demi's use of the negative space to capture the tiny and intricate illustrations. She leaves a great deal of breathing room that allows the reader to just bask in the spread. What is most amazing about this book is that she gets whole pages printed in gold! Shiney, super pretty and fun to look at metallic GOLD!

Falling Up, line drawings

Written and Illustrated by Shel Silverstein

An example of good line drawing from Shel Silverstein.

Marcus Pfister.

Color: His Shoes Were Far Too Tight

Love Calef's use of color and patterning

His Shoes Were Far Too Tight illustrated by Calef Brown

Composition: tiny little fly

Great use of the spread and love the placement of type.

Tiny Little Fly: written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Kevin Waldron

Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented the Future

Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented the Future by Franz Born illustrated by Peter P. Plasencia

Really good use of black and white, strong composition 

Type: "The King's 6th Finger"

I love the design of this book.  The placement and choice of type is also very nice.

Illustrated by Jolby

Chris Sheban, Catching the Moon

i found this illustrator in the society of illustrator, and i found this image while i was searching his works, nice monocolor illustration!

Cliff Roberts.

Edmund Dulac.

Inga Moore.

Kay Nielsen.

Jilian Tamaki.

Ian Beck.

Helen Oxenbury.

E.H. Shepard.

James Gurney.

Charles Maurice Detmold

Quick as a Cricket

by: Audrey Wood

illustrated by: Don Wood

Sorry about the bad scan, but I love the simple use of yellow and blue in this composition. Also the pastel texture is really nice.

The Halo Wiener, Type

DAV PILKEY! One of my favorite illustrators.

The bubble letter mustard type is smart, funny, and matches the style of the book. You da man, Pilkey!

Also, sorry about the photograph...

How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head

written and illustrated by Bill Peet

Love the use of diagonals to lead your eye across the space.

A Porcupine Named Fluffy, Characters

written by: Helen Lester

illustrated by: Lynn Munsinger

I always loved the concept and design of this character. Poor Fluffy.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Atmosphere, Edible

I love how Ron is using the scale of the Pancakes in the distance to give the reader a sense of atmosphere. Also, that is one delicious looking pancake.

Written by Judi Barrett

Illustrated by Ron Barrett

Effective Spot Color. Blair Lent. Tikki Tikki Tembo.

Great spread by Blair Lent. She adopts the style of traditional Chinese landscape painting, adding her own modern textures and colors. I thought this was a really smart way to show atmospheric depth - the limited color still seems complete.

Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: A Book of Changing Seasons, illustrated by Il Sung Na

the texture and color of these pieces are extraordinary-I also love that even though it is about winter time, the colors are alive and bright but still feel like that special time between winter thawing and spring awakening

Weirdly Cute Characters. Mark Fearing. Second Grade Monsters.

Look at this crazy class of characters! I can't get enough of Fearing's slightly-dark-in-a-cute-way aesthetic. Giant sunglasses on Ms. Medusa? Genius. Fanny pack on that werewolf thing? Adorable. (Plus, he clearly knows his spreads. Super obvious gutter.)