Last weekend, I attended the national SCBWI conference in New York. It was a great way to meet illustrators and writers, as well as to get my own illustrations noticed. However, one of the highlights of the conference was to hear and meet Sophie Blackall, whose recent illustrations for "Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear" won her the 2016 Caldecott Medal. Not only was Sophie an amazing speaker, her story to fame is truly inspiring. One of the most important things I took away from her speech, though, was just how diverse her illustrations are. From "Ruby's Wish" to "Pecan Pie Baby", to her illustrated New York subway poster Sophie shows characters from all races, cultures, and disabilities. Some are more culturally based stories, like "Red Butterfly" but in most cases the characters are just there, in everyday situations. That's a real reflection of the real world. In addition, I was completely impressed with Sophie talking about her trip to Rwanda. She traveled there and brought rolls of paper and markers for kids to draw on in a school that was made up of cement walls and a few benches for all the kids to cram into. She spoke about programs that were introducing books to children for the first time, where kids would travel two hours on foot - including one child who was missing a foot - just to hear a story and hold a book in their hands. It was pretty powerful and heartwarming. So I highly recommend studying Sophie Blackall's work. You could not only learn a lot about writing and illustrating children's books, but about life as well. Angela Padron is a published illustrator of two books, including "The Hero in You" by Ellis Paul, as well as a Star Wars geek and chocolate chip cookie connoisseur. She also writes and illustrates her own picture books, board books, and chapter books. When she's not teaching, Angela works as a freelance writer and editor for educational publishers and spends weekends enjoying walks along the beach with her family. View her online portfolio at www.angelapadron.com. You can also "like" her facebook page, follow her on Twitter @angela_padron, and follow her own blog called "Show and Tell" with weekly posts about teaching, writing and illustrating books for children.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Meet the Friday Blogonauts
First Fridays will feature Bryan Patrick Avery, published writer , man of mystery, and professional magician among other things.
Second Fridays will feature awesome multi-award winning author Marsha Diane Arnold who will be writing about character-driven and/or nature-based books and/or anything she likes :) Third Fridays will feature independent Aladdin/Simon & Shuster editor Emma Sector who has helped bring many books into the world. Fourth Fridays will feature the great Christine Taylor-Butler who has published over 70 award-winning fiction and non-fiction and nonfiction books including the acclaimed new middle grade series - The Lost Tribes. Fifth Fridays will feature the fabulous Carl Angel award-winning multi-published Illustrator and graphic designer. Join our Tribe
and receive 7 Steps to Creative Happiness, access to free webinars, and lots more!
Your email addresses are always safe and respected with us. Follow our Blog!
Archives
January 2019
Categories
All
|