Let's Talk Illustrators explores the methods, media, and design elements illustrators use to create visually engaging stories for children. Is the dust jacket different than the casewrap? Are the endpapers decorative, and do they hint at some emotional progression in the story? How do the interior illustrations complement the text, yet project their own narrative? Most importantly, what conversations do these details spark for readers? I asked these questions and more of the people listed below:
Ximo Abadía
Zoey Abbott
Ged Adamson
Basak Agaoglu
Jon Agee
Natalia Aguerre
Akem
Jacqueline Alcántara
Mariana Alcántara
Jed Alexander
Rilla Alexander
Selina Alko
Cynthia Alonso
Mehrdokht Amini
Carlos Aponte
Chris Appelhans
Ana Aranda
Ingela P. Arrhenius
Cinta Arribas
Isabelle Arsenault
Dayeon Auh
Marcela Avelar
Kristen Balouch
Klara Bartilsson
Amy June Bates
William Bee
Rahele Jomepour Bell
Julie Benbassat
Jonathan Bentley
Elenia Beretta
Galia Bernstein
Josée Bisaillon
Sophie Blackall
Henry Blackshaw
Anouck Boisrobert
Linda Bondestam
Christian Borstlap
Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Peter Brown
Nani Brunini
Thi Bui
Cozbi Cabrera
Kristy Caldwell
Joaquín Camp
André Carrilho
Ruth Chan
Angel Chang
Dream Chen
Peter Cheong
Cátia Chien
Jason Chin
Lian Cho
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Jean Claverie
Bryan Collier
Raúl Colón
Marianna Coppo
Jen Corace
Matthew Cordell
Ricardo Cortés
Samantha Cotterhill
Eve Coy
Anna Cunha
Mike Curato
Inga Dagilė
Antje Damm
Reza Dalvand
Nicola Davies
Sassafras De Bruyn
Tania de Regil
Suzanne Del Rizzo
Cindy Derby
Derek Desierto
Jenni Desmond
Mariachiara di Giorgio
Sandra Dieckmann
Cori Doerrfeld
David Dolenský
Stacey Dressen McQueen
Hélène Druvert
Kailin Duan
Daniel Egnéus
Carson Ellis
Leo Espinosa
The Fan Brothers
Chiara Fedele
Tatyana Feeney
Lisk Feng
Raissa Figueroa
Cathy Fisher
Jay Fleck
Julie Flett
Pam Fong
Anna Forlati
Yael Frankel
Deborah Freedman
Laura Freeman
Susan Gal
Adriana Garcia
Kate Gardiner
Julian Glander
Michaela Goade
Piet Gobler
Victor Bizar Gómez
Sarah Gonzales
Zoey Abbott
Ged Adamson
Basak Agaoglu
Jon Agee
Natalia Aguerre
Akem
Jacqueline Alcántara
Mariana Alcántara
Jed Alexander
Rilla Alexander
Selina Alko
Cynthia Alonso
Mehrdokht Amini
Carlos Aponte
Chris Appelhans
Ana Aranda
Ingela P. Arrhenius
Cinta Arribas
Isabelle Arsenault
Dayeon Auh
Marcela Avelar
Kristen Balouch
Klara Bartilsson
Amy June Bates
William Bee
Rahele Jomepour Bell
Julie Benbassat
Jonathan Bentley
Elenia Beretta
Galia Bernstein
Josée Bisaillon
Sophie Blackall
Henry Blackshaw
Anouck Boisrobert
Linda Bondestam
Christian Borstlap
Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Peter Brown
Nani Brunini
Thi Bui
Cozbi Cabrera
Kristy Caldwell
Joaquín Camp
André Carrilho
Ruth Chan
Angel Chang
Dream Chen
Peter Cheong
Cátia Chien
Jason Chin
Lian Cho
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Jean Claverie
Bryan Collier
Raúl Colón
Marianna Coppo
Jen Corace
Matthew Cordell
Ricardo Cortés
Samantha Cotterhill
Eve Coy
Anna Cunha
Mike Curato
Inga Dagilė
Antje Damm
Reza Dalvand
Nicola Davies
Sassafras De Bruyn
Tania de Regil
Suzanne Del Rizzo
Cindy Derby
Derek Desierto
Jenni Desmond
Mariachiara di Giorgio
Sandra Dieckmann
Cori Doerrfeld
David Dolenský
Stacey Dressen McQueen
Hélène Druvert
Kailin Duan
Daniel Egnéus
Carson Ellis
Leo Espinosa
The Fan Brothers
Chiara Fedele
Tatyana Feeney
Lisk Feng
Raissa Figueroa
Cathy Fisher
Jay Fleck
Julie Flett
Pam Fong
Anna Forlati
Yael Frankel
Deborah Freedman
Laura Freeman
Susan Gal
Adriana Garcia
Kate Gardiner
Julian Glander
Michaela Goade
Piet Gobler
Victor Bizar Gómez
Sarah Gonzales
EB Goodale
Amélie Graux
Emily Gravett
Rebecca Green
Raúl Nieto Guridi
Rebecca Hahn
Rosie Haine
Olaf Hajek
Abigail Halpin
Sally Soweol Han
Paul Harfleet
Andy Harkness
Katie Harnett
Shawn Harris
Freya Hartas
Carla Haslbauer
Dylan Hewitt
Carter Higgins
Ryan T Higgins
Janet Hill
Zara González Hoang
Jeremy Holmes
Devon Holzwarth
Molly Idle
Yas Imamura
Stacy Innerst
Gökçe İrten
Isol
Gordon C James
LK James
Mariana Ruiz Johnson
Amanda Jane Jones
Travis Jonker
Marion Kadi
AN Kang
Angie Kang
Guilherme Karsten
Nahid Kazemi
Rashin Kheiriyeh
Nicola Killen
Aram Kim
Julie Kim
Soyeon Kim
Eliza Kinkz
Jon Klassen
Vitali Konstantinov
Veronika Kotyk
Uma Krishnaswamy
Joseph Kuefler
Julia Kuo
London Ladd
Nina Laden
Thao Lam
Anaïs Lambert
Jocelyn Li Langrand
Khoa Le
Suzy Lee
Qin Leng
Ciara LeRoy
Taltal Levi
EB Lewis
Xin Li
Steve Light
David Litchfield
Steph Littlebird
Mercè López
Miren Asiain Lora
Estrela Lourenço
Jessica Love
Bo Lu
Thea Lu
Sara Lundberg
Corinna Luyken
Elly MacKay
Motomitsu Maehara
Masha Manapov
Deborah Marcero
Manuel Marsol
Juana Martinez-Neal
John Martz
Zahra Marwan
Ana Matsusaki
Shahrzad Maydani
Nikki McClure
Flora McDonnell
Aly McKnight
Erika Meza
Estelí Meza
Tim Miller
Cat Min
Dinara Mirtalipova
Poonam Mistry
Akiko Miyakoshi
Daniel Miyares
Carmen Mok
Cherry Mo
Santiago Solís Montes de Oca
Oge Mora
Yolanda Mosquera
Ethan Murrow
Il Sung Na
Noar Lee Naggan
Keith Negley
Natalie Nelson
Svein Nyhus
Lauren O'Hara
I also occasionally chat with authors!
Mac Barnett
Ingrid Chabbert
Vivienne Chang
Gro Dahle
Kimberly Annece Henderson
Katey Howes
Andriy Lesiv
Vita Murrow
Natalia O'Hara
Chitra Soundar
Joshua David Stein
Amélie Graux
Emily Gravett
Rebecca Green
Raúl Nieto Guridi
Rebecca Hahn
Rosie Haine
Olaf Hajek
Abigail Halpin
Sally Soweol Han
Paul Harfleet
Andy Harkness
Katie Harnett
Shawn Harris
Freya Hartas
Carla Haslbauer
Dylan Hewitt
Carter Higgins
Ryan T Higgins
Janet Hill
Zara González Hoang
Jeremy Holmes
Devon Holzwarth
Molly Idle
Yas Imamura
Stacy Innerst
Gökçe İrten
Isol
Gordon C James
LK James
Mariana Ruiz Johnson
Amanda Jane Jones
Travis Jonker
Marion Kadi
AN Kang
Angie Kang
Guilherme Karsten
Nahid Kazemi
Rashin Kheiriyeh
Nicola Killen
Aram Kim
Julie Kim
Soyeon Kim
Eliza Kinkz
Jon Klassen
Vitali Konstantinov
Veronika Kotyk
Uma Krishnaswamy
Joseph Kuefler
Julia Kuo
London Ladd
Nina Laden
Thao Lam
Anaïs Lambert
Jocelyn Li Langrand
Khoa Le
Suzy Lee
Qin Leng
Ciara LeRoy
Taltal Levi
EB Lewis
Xin Li
Steve Light
David Litchfield
Steph Littlebird
Mercè López
Miren Asiain Lora
Estrela Lourenço
Jessica Love
Bo Lu
Thea Lu
Sara Lundberg
Corinna Luyken
Elly MacKay
Motomitsu Maehara
Masha Manapov
Deborah Marcero
Manuel Marsol
Juana Martinez-Neal
John Martz
Zahra Marwan
Ana Matsusaki
Shahrzad Maydani
Nikki McClure
Flora McDonnell
Aly McKnight
Erika Meza
Estelí Meza
Tim Miller
Cat Min
Dinara Mirtalipova
Poonam Mistry
Akiko Miyakoshi
Daniel Miyares
Carmen Mok
Cherry Mo
Santiago Solís Montes de Oca
Oge Mora
Yolanda Mosquera
Ethan Murrow
Il Sung Na
Noar Lee Naggan
Keith Negley
Natalie Nelson
Svein Nyhus
Lauren O'Hara
I also occasionally chat with authors!
Mac Barnett
Ingrid Chabbert
Vivienne Chang
Gro Dahle
Kimberly Annece Henderson
Katey Howes
Andriy Lesiv
Vita Murrow
Natalia O'Hara
Chitra Soundar
Joshua David Stein
Zachariah OHora
Kelsey Oseid
Rosa Osuna
Pete Oswald
Kathryn Otoshi
Kenard Pak
Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb
Paweł Pawlak
Zeke Peña
Daria Peoples
Kari Percival
Salini Perera
Clotilde Perrin
Elise Peterson
LeUyen Pham
Minnie Phan
Camilla Pintonato
Greg Pizzoli
Kelly Pousette
Sandhya Prabhat
Faith Pray
Jerome Pumphrey
Chris Raschka
Seng Soun Ratanavanh
Raúl the Third
Louis Rigaud
Christian Robinson
Erin K Robinson
Romana Romanyshyn
Ellen Rooney
Julia Rothman
Isabel Roxas
Morissa Rubin
Cecilia Ruiz
Misa Saburi
Felicita Sala
Andrés Sandoval
Alessandro Sanna
Francesca Sanna
Julia Sarcone-Roach
Cristina Sitja Rubio
Júlia Sardà
Stephen Savage
Johanna Schaible
Linda Schwalbe
Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Ana Sender
Esmé Shapiro
Oleksandr Shatokhin
Jessie Sima
Isabelle Simler
Sarthak Sinha
Peter Sís
Lane Smith & Molly Leach
Sydney Smith
Jess X Snow
Lauren Soloy
Melodie Stacey
Todd Stewart
Naoko Stoop
Tracy Subisak
Melissa Sweet
Zeno Sworder
Maryam Tahmasebi
Nazli Tahvili
Shaun Tan
Saki Tanaka
Britta Teckentrup
Netsanet Tesfay
Van Thanh Rudd
Leah Tinari
Joe Todd-Stanton
Marcelo Tolentino
Marije Tolman
Duncan Tonatiuh
Andrea Tsurumi
Hervé Tullet
Evan Turk
Paloma Valdivia
Nelleke Verhoeff
Gonçalo Viana
Nancy Vo
Elizabet Vukovic
Rachel Wada
Mae Waite
Anna Walker
Rowboat Watkins
Tang Wei
Brendan Wenzel
Nancy Whitesides
Ruth Whiting
Sam Winston
Bethan Woollvin
Jack Wong
Tania Yakunova
James Yang
Eugenia Yoh
Taeeun Yoo
Nic Yulo
Hyewon Yum
Gracey Zhang
Ping Zhu
Zo-O
Yuval Zommer
Balint Zsako
Kelsey Oseid
Rosa Osuna
Pete Oswald
Kathryn Otoshi
Kenard Pak
Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb
Paweł Pawlak
Zeke Peña
Daria Peoples
Kari Percival
Salini Perera
Clotilde Perrin
Elise Peterson
LeUyen Pham
Minnie Phan
Camilla Pintonato
Greg Pizzoli
Kelly Pousette
Sandhya Prabhat
Faith Pray
Jerome Pumphrey
Chris Raschka
Seng Soun Ratanavanh
Raúl the Third
Louis Rigaud
Christian Robinson
Erin K Robinson
Romana Romanyshyn
Ellen Rooney
Julia Rothman
Isabel Roxas
Morissa Rubin
Cecilia Ruiz
Misa Saburi
Felicita Sala
Andrés Sandoval
Alessandro Sanna
Francesca Sanna
Julia Sarcone-Roach
Cristina Sitja Rubio
Júlia Sardà
Stephen Savage
Johanna Schaible
Linda Schwalbe
Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Ana Sender
Esmé Shapiro
Oleksandr Shatokhin
Jessie Sima
Isabelle Simler
Sarthak Sinha
Peter Sís
Lane Smith & Molly Leach
Sydney Smith
Jess X Snow
Lauren Soloy
Melodie Stacey
Todd Stewart
Naoko Stoop
Tracy Subisak
Melissa Sweet
Zeno Sworder
Maryam Tahmasebi
Nazli Tahvili
Shaun Tan
Saki Tanaka
Britta Teckentrup
Netsanet Tesfay
Van Thanh Rudd
Leah Tinari
Joe Todd-Stanton
Marcelo Tolentino
Marije Tolman
Duncan Tonatiuh
Andrea Tsurumi
Hervé Tullet
Evan Turk
Paloma Valdivia
Nelleke Verhoeff
Gonçalo Viana
Nancy Vo
Elizabet Vukovic
Rachel Wada
Mae Waite
Anna Walker
Rowboat Watkins
Tang Wei
Brendan Wenzel
Nancy Whitesides
Ruth Whiting
Sam Winston
Bethan Woollvin
Jack Wong
Tania Yakunova
James Yang
Eugenia Yoh
Taeeun Yoo
Nic Yulo
Hyewon Yum
Gracey Zhang
Ping Zhu
Zo-O
Yuval Zommer
Balint Zsako