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By Laura Nyman Montenegro I am at the top of the toboggan slide at East Park. The platform is icy, the snow squeaky under my clunky black boots. I brush the scrabble of ice off the plastic toboggan pad with my mitten. I sit down, tuck my feet into the big wooden curl, and grab the Continue reading From the Mundane to the Mysterious By Laura Nyman Montenegro Over and over and over again, I hear it. I know this lament well, I have heard it from almost every illustrator I know. It has been my own lament as well. In fact, it has been such a stumbling Continue reading Finding the Shape of Story By Laura Nyman Montenegro Learning the language of imagery is essential to making your own illustrations for your books. But voice is even more important. How does one find one’s own voice in art? I have seen it with my own eyes. We are sitting around the big table. I take out a piece of paper and do Continue reading For Writers Who Long to Illustrate By Laura Nyman Montenegro I have fallen. Fallen over backward. Fallen into the messy world of theater. How did it happen? I do not know. I do know that it is a world of story, just like our own picture book world. But I am now in the illustration, I am the collage piece moved about on the Continue reading Murmuration and the Dialogue of Shapes By Laura Nyman Montenegro A dream is, by its very nature, new, inventive, unexpected, impulsive, unpredictable, unruly, and wild, with absolutely no calculation in its creation. It has no limits. It has complete freedom to take us anywhere, and away we go, night after night. It is spontaneous and has its own mind. We cannot decide on Continue reading Redreaming By Lisa Cinelli Words and pictures, telling a story—when a picture book works, it is seamless. A memorable and well-crafted childrenʼs picture book flows effortlessly with perfectly chosen words, images, pacing, and pagination (the turning of the pages). The fiction picture book will tell a story and usually has a beginning, middle, and end. It can have Continue reading Make the Time By Lisa Cinelli In my quest to stay connected and educated about the world of children’s books, I travel near and far to attend workshops and conferences focused on the crafts of writing and illustrating, as well as the business of getting published. Each conference brings a new set of revelations. Depending on where I am in Continue reading Getting to Know the Business and Busyness of Children’s Book Publishing By Lisa Cinelli “Know yourself. Listen to a lot of music. Don’t whine. Maintain your sense of humor, indulge your sense of play. Persist, persist, persist.” There’s a chance the above quote from author Kathleen Krull was originally intended for children’s book authors, but I believe it is applicable to picture book illustrators as well. As with poetry that Continue reading Learning by Example: Deconstructing the Picture Book By Kathleen Rietz A new year brings new opportunity, but in this challenging economy, only the strong survive. I like to believe the economy is on an upswing, although the children’s illustration market might not reflect it just yet. This is a time to offer your very best to each and every illustration assignment you take. Every Continue reading Your New Year’s Resolution: Become a Better Illustrator By Kathleen Rietz In my Winter 2009 article for Illustrator Tips titled “Artist Agents, 101,” I laid down the ins and outs of what an artist agent is, how one works, and what one can do for you as an illustrator. Now I will share with you my own experience of working with an agent. In October of 2007, I was contacted by an agent in the United Kingdom who had seen a sampling of my illustration portfolio on JacketFlap, a social networking site for authors, illustrators, publishers, and agents involved in children’s book publishing. In this article, I will refer to the agent as “Agent X” and his agency as the “X Agency.” Continue reading Finding an Agent: Proceed with Caution 
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