Doña Rosa

Doña Rosa, a bilingual story series written by Ana Galán that I've had the pleasure of illustrating for the past five years, comes to a close in the latest issue of Highlights High Five. 

As new issues of Doña Rosa have been released over the years, friends have often shared photos of their children are enjoying the stories. I will miss that.

When this illustration project was first assigned to me, I was living in upstate New York. Since then, Doña Rosa has traveled the globe with me. I've drawn her in New Zealand, China, and even Fiji! 

The above photo was taken at a hotel bar in Fiji, where I was sipping coffee (not cocktails) while finishing up art for the 2019 holiday issue.

Thanks for the memories, Doña Rosa! 

Thank you to Ana Galán for writing the stories, thank you to Highlights High Five for including me in this cool project, and thanks to both Kelley Lanuto and Yvonne for all of their great art direction.

To read more about the process of creating all of the Doña Rosa illustrations, click here.

AnyFlip

Click here to check out Doña Rosa and tons of other cool content in old issues of Highlights High Five

Writers and Their Pets

Announcing the release of a lovely new book: Writers and Their Pets!

This fascinating collection of biographies for middle-grade readers is duopress's follow-up to Artists and Their Pets. Twenty well-known writers and an array of pets are featured, including Virginia Woolf and her beloved Pinka (above), and John Steinbeck and his trusty friend and travel companion, Charley (below).

Writers and Their Pets is packed with art: nearly 250 full color spot illustrations!

Whether you're a cat person (like Mark Twain)...

...a dog person (like Gertrude Stein)...

...a chicken person (like Alice Walker)...

...or a peacock person (like Flannery O'Connor)...

...you'll find authors and animals to love in Writers and Their Pets.

Click here to order a copy of Writers and Their Pets today!

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Writers and Their Pets
Written by Kathleen Krull
Illustrated by Violet Lemay
Designed by Thomas Boucher
duopress
June 11, 2019

"100 Pablo Picassos" at the Hyundai Museum

Recently, the Hyundai Museum of Kids' Books & Art (MOKA) in Seoul, Korea, included 100 Pablo Picassos—a book which I illustrated in 2014—in their "Artists in Books" exhibition.

100 Pablo Picassos, written by Mauricio Velazquez de Leon and designed by Beatriz Juarez (with art by Yours Truly), is a picture book/biography that invites kids to find 100 instances of Pablo Picasso throughout.

It's a brilliant concept, a beautiful book, and I'm very proud to be associated with it.

100 Pablo Picassos has been translated into several languages, including Korean, which is probably how it turned up on MOKA's radar.

The printer's proof above gives a glimpse of MOKA's exhibit pamphlet. Exciting!

Because of an international move three years ago, most of the art that I painted for 100 Pablo Picassos is in storage; however, I had access to the three paintings shown above, a handful of sketches, and the book dummy shown below.

The event organizers graciously agreed that this was enough to merit inclusion in the show. The section featuring 100 Pablo Picassos is shown in the photos below.

Check out this cool drawing station, complete with wonky mirrors... for drawing Picasso-esque self-portraits. Genius!

Besides featuring a brilliant portrait of Yours Truly (top left), doors open, inviting viewers to interact and learn cool stuff about Picasso. More genius!

The dark blue interactive wall was flanked by my three paintings and two sketches, in frames. The book dummy is disassembled, displayed in those white cases.

I'll post photos of some of the other books included in the show, to give you a feel for the whole thing. Enjoy!

Don't you wish you could have been there? I know I do. Between the expense of the trip and an overcrowded schedule, flying to Korea was impossible. Thank goodness for all of these incredible photos, sent by curator Jongji Chen. 

What an honor, to have shared museum space with an impressive array of illustrators and children's books—all celebrating fine artists, and sharing their lives and work with children. Dreams do come true. :)

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Click here to order 100 Pablo Picassos.

ASPCA Rescue Readers

Recently I was invited to collaborate with a cat on her autobiography. Who could say no to an offer like that? The resulting book, titled I Am Daisy (Simon and Schuster/2015), is for readers ages 6-9.

I am Daisy (actually written by the very talented, very human author Lori Froeb) is part of the ASPCA Kids Rescue Readers series, all of which feature true stories of pet adoptions organized by the ASPCA.

From Simon & Schuster's site: "This story is told with exuberance and humor from the pet's point of view with appropriately-leveled vocabulary. Woven into the story is the importance of care, protection, and love of animals." 

Click here for for more info, and to order your copy of I Am Daisy today. Support a marvelous institution, and let your "I Love Cats" flag fly!

Good As New, by Patricia Lakin

Last spring I was invited to participate in an extremely cool project sponsored by Johnson and Johnson: "Once Upon a Care."

Famed children's book author Patricia Lakin stopped into a local school and asked kids, "Why do you think it's important for you to care?"

In response to her follow-up question, "What's a time that you remember that you showed that you care?", five individual sweetie-pies shared their stories. Patricia shaped each one into a manuscript for a 32-page picture book.

My assignment was a story called Good As New, as told by an adorable little girl named Brianna. Her baby brother had quite the tummy ache! When we was sick in the night, Brianna helped her mom take care of him.

Johnson and Johnson created an award-winning video to capture the entire project. It's less than three minutes long, and well worth the time. (Important note: Have tissues handy!) Click here to watch the video.... and then, download the free e-book, in which you'll see Brianna's story and these four others:

Jazlene Saves the Day, by Jazlene and Patricia, illustrated by Eugene and Louise
A Helping Hand, by Annie and Patricia, illustrated by Margeaux Lucas
Matthew's Wish, by Matthew and Patricia, illustrated by Paul Hoppe
A Valentine's Surprise, by Rene and Patricia, illustrated by Neil Numberman

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Near the bottom of the "Once Upon a Care" page you'll see this picture frame, which invites you to share your child's story.

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Good As New, written by Patricia Lakin and Brianna
designed by George Roca, Hugo Fitzgerald, Russell Sharpe and a team of awesome people from Johnson and Johnson

Illustrations created in watercolor by Violet Lemay, 2014

Violet Lemay is represented by MB Artists, Inc.