A CUDDLEctive of kidlit writer-Illustrators here to inspire you!
Author: thecuddlefishgang
We are Colorado-based CUDDLEective of children’s book
author-illustrators, passionate about creating and promoting
inspiring content for children, teachers, and fellow kidlit creatives.
AnyFin is possible when we swim together.
A few months back we told you about a kidlit art school a few of our members launched called The Cuddlefish Academy. While we develop our social media presence, check out some posts by our professors:
Happy Book Birthday to A POEM GROWS INSIDE YOU, which happened to be named a 2023 Lee Hopkins Bennet Poetry Award Honor Book.
Congratulations to Heather who will be illustrating THE CITY OF JASMINE by Nadine Presley for HarperCollins.
And, congratulations to BOTH Kaz and Heather for A BOOK IS A FRIEND being acquired by Flamingo Books.
David Deen:
Congratulations to David Deen whose stunning art can be seen on Princeton’s Cotsen Children’s Library’s TOLO by Dana Sheridan (a choose your path virtual adventure)! https://sites.google.com/princeton.edu/tolo/home
Dow Phumiruk:
Congratulations to Dow, who illustrated A LIFE OF SERVICE: THE STORY OF SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH by Christina Soontornvat for making the list for the 2022 Nerdies: Non-Fiction List
Brizida Magro:
Happy book birthday to Brizida, who illustrated LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART: A CONFECTIONERY OF AFFECTION, by Mary Lee Donovan.
Jessica Lanan:
Congratulations to Jessica who will be illustrating IN THE WORLD OF WHALES by Michelle Cusolito for Holiday House / Neal Porter Books.
What happens when you get four college professors/children’s book illustrators together who believe in education but worry about the future of higher ed accessibility? Well, you get an online school for kidlitart and childrens book illustration!!
Check out The Cuddlefish Academy on Teachable where we have officially launched with lectures and classes… with more on the horizon!
All four of us are working professional authors and illustrators with time spent teaching at a higher ed level. We know what its like to be a working professional creative AND we know what its like to hands-on teach in the classroom and get students ready to launch their illustration careers. We also have combined experience in sales, the animation industry, fine arts, and more. This dynamic combination will help you get your portfolio ready and help your professional development to get you working!
Something else that I find exciting about our shared experience is that we all live and work out of Colorado. We aren’t working in big coastal cities… and yet we are here with experience to show you how you can do this too.
We are really excited about what we are doing and what’s to come. Kaz Windness, Heather Brockman Lee, Stan Yan, and I are all passionate about education and access to information. This is just the start of more to come!
Check out more of our posts and work at @cuddlefishacademy on Instagram. Sign up for emails on our website so you can stay in the loop for the future!
A couple of weeks back, I shared my Kidlit Career Bingo sheet as a way of celebrating milestones in my kidlit illustration career, but another bingo sheet I created before was my Kidlit Portfolio Bingo sheet, which was built based largely on advice of Kelly Sonnack, literary agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, at the 2018 RMC-SCBWI Big Sur Agent Workshop for Illustrators — things she considered to be timeless in picture books — with a sprinkling of things I wanted to make sure not to miss having in my portfolio that I considered strengths or interests.
Each cell included an element or setting, and on a trip to the Las Vegas Licensing Expo, and with the time I had in my hotel room, instead of trying to connect rows, I proceeded to try doing a blackout, and this ended up being the start of my kidlit art portfolio. Certainly, it’s evolved from here as I’ve discovered my artistic voice more clearly, and figured out what kinds of books I want to write and illustrate. You can see where it is now here.
If you’d like a blank template to create your own, feel free to use this one:
A long time ago when I started this long publishing journey, a bunch of my Cuddlefish Gang critique partners and I decided to make these Kidlit Career Bingo sheets to set goals and track our progress as a motivational device as seen here on this TikTok video:
A Poem Grows Inside You, written by Katey Howes, Published by The Innovation Press and illustrated by me!
Hello friends! It has been a while since my last post, mostly because I spent the last year saying “Yes!” to every opportunity that came my way, and while it was a fantastic year of learning and growing, one of the most important lessons I learned is that I actually can’t do everything… who knew? (Ok lots of people knew that) But that isn’t what I want to talk about today. In this post I want to share my experience illustrating this beautiful manuscript by Katey Howes!
Every book has a story, the story that happens before the story. Actually several stories because everyone involved in making a book has their own story for how they came to be part of it. My story for this book begins with— it was the first time a traditional publisher offered me a picture book to illustrate. This was HUGE! Something I had been working towards for a few years, and the theme and manuscript and publisher were all so appealing to me, I could not have been happier. Some of you might notice that this is actually the second book I have illustrated, and that is because publishing can be like that but also largely because of the pandemic. I got the offer for A Poem Grows Inside You in March of 2020… yup. I remember standing outside the elementary school while my dog and I waited to walk my daughter home from school, I had just gotten off the phone with my agent, and looking forward to spring break with my kids…. which ended up lasting a year and a half. Because of those Uncertain Times, (remember when every sentence started with “In these uncertain times”?) The Innovation Press decided to delay the book for a year, which made perfect sense as absolutely no one knew what was coming at us.
It was hard to wait, but also everything was hard and I was very busy doing things like buying too much spaghetti squash because what if the stores ran out of spaghetti squash. And it gave me a long time to think, and to experiment with different mediums. And without that time I doubt I would have discovered the process I used for this book.
This is an early style guide I made once I decided on a medium, to show the publisher the technique I had in mind and the character design. We made a few tweaks, including the color of the raincoat.
For me, everything starts with thumbnails. This is probably the hardest part of the process for me- lots of talking to myself and tugging on my hair and making cups of tea I never finish. But once they are done, I feel like I have a roadmap to follow. I get lost really easily so I love maps.
Now for that technique I mentioned. I really don’t know if I would have discovered this without the pandemic keeping us all at home and giving me so much time to experiment. I would trade not knowing this for COVID never having happened but, here we are. It starts with sanded paper- the kind usually used for pastels. I am not a pastel artist so I can’t even remember where I got it. It’s literally sand paper, very fine white sand glued to a paper backing. When I painted on it with acrylic gouache, it would behave like watercolor or gouache depending on how much water I added, and going over that with colored pencils created a rich, bold line and a texture I fell in love with.
Some books start with the cover, and with others the cover comes last. It all depends on the publisher and their marketing schedules. This book came cover first, and I decided to paint the background and character separately so things could be tweaked and nudged in photoshop. I have done this for all my book covers so far- you really get the benefit and security of working in layers while still using traditional media.
Here are a few more process images. I really loved painting this book, Katey’s words are just wonderful and I would find her phrases repeating in my head as I painted various spreads. And the Innovation Press has been such a fantastic publisher to work with, with great taste in books I might add! I hope you will all enjoy reading and sharing it with children as much as I did illustrating it!
If you have any other comments or questions feel free to drop a comment below! Thanks for hanging out with me 🙂
Congratulations to Larry Day on getting two paintings into the Plein Air Artists of Colorado 25th Annual National juried exhibition at the Mary Williams Fine Arts Gallery in Boulder and one into the 2022 Colorado People, Places, and Things juried exhibition to be hosted by the Gilpin Art Gallery in Central City, CO.
Lily Williams:
Congratulations to Lily Williams on signing with Susan Hawk at Upstart Crow Literary!
Gerald Kelley / E.G. Keller:
Congratulations to Gerald Kelley on getting a starred review for MURRAY CHRISTMAS from the School Library Journal!
Happy book birthday to WHEN YOUR DADDY’S A SOLDIER by Gretchen Brandenburg McLellan, illustrated by Gerald!
Kaz Windness:
Congratulations to Kaz Windness on SWIM JIM being accepted into the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show, showcasing the best in this year’s children’s book illustration.
And congratulations to Kaz on CAT VS. VAC being acquired by Simon Spotlight!
Congratulations to Kaz on her upcoming early graphic novel WORM AND CATERPILLAR ARE FRIENDS being named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
Speaking of WORM AND CATERPILLAR ARE FRIENDS… Kirkus Star Review!!!
Kaz also did her cover reveal for BITSY BAT SCHOOL STAR!
Jessica Lanan:
Congratulations to Jessica Lanan on signing a deal to illustrate EVERYWHERE by Scott Westerfeld for Roaring Brook!
And, congratulations to Jessica who illustrated THE LOST PACKAGE which was nominated for the 2022-23 Red Clover Book Award!
Anden Wilder:
Congratulations to Anden Wilder on being the grand prize winner of the juried portfolio contest at the RMC-SCBWI’s 2022 Letters and Lines Conference!
And, congratulations to Anden on her picture book, TULIP’S MESS being acquired by Knopf.
Dow Phumiruk:
Happy Book Birthday to Dow Phumiruk, who illustrated A LIFE OF SERVICE: THE STORY OF SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH by Christina Soontornvat!
Dow also revealed the cover art for LAST FLIGHT by Kristen Mai Giang.
Jane Maday:
Congratulations to Jane Maday who is now an Ambassador for the Archer and Olive company!
“This adorable book highlights not only the importance of facing our fears, but that it is easier to do when assisted by loved ones. The illustrations are delightful and highly appealing with lots of fun details. I heartily recommend.” Read the Geo Librarian’s review of Swim Jim.
In case you weren’t already aware, the Cuddlefish Gang has an educational presence on TikTok via our Cuddlefish Academy account. Here are some highlight posts from our various participating faculty so far:
How do I pick an art school if I want to be a professional artist? Cuddlefish Professor @Lily Williams here to answer the basics for you! 🎨#artschool#artistsoftiktok#illustrator
Lots of great news by our members to share from this past quarter!
Congratulations to our ownBrizida Magroon winning the SCBWI portfolio showcase!
And congratulations to Brizida for signing with HarperCollins to illustrate POCKETS FOR TWO: A COLLECTION OF GIRLHOOD by Lindsay Ward.
Speaking of winning the SCBWI portfolio showcase, check out last Summer’s winner, Heather Brockman Lee‘s art, gracing the cover of the 2022 SCBWI The Book!
The Cuddlefish Gang: Together We Can Do AnyFIN! 