Really Happy, Baby!

With the help of a group of enthusiastic little readers, Parents magazine has arrayed TummyTime™: Happy Baby as #4 in their list of the 30 Best Children's Books of 2019. How awesome is that?

duopress rolled out their new TummyTime™concept to the world only a few weeks ago, by way of two books: Animal Parade (illustrated by Jannie Ho), and Happy Baby (illustrated by Violet Lemay).

TummyTime™books fold out, accordian-style, into play mats. The fronts are covered with full color art; flip them over for high-contrast patterns, ideal for baby's developing eyesight. Both sides have a reflective surface to make tummy time even more fun.

Thanks to Parents, the little readers, and author Karen Cicero for selecting us as #4 in their list of the 30 best children's books of 2019.

Click here to see more samples from TummyTime™: Happy Baby on my website.

Click here to order your copy of TummyTime™: Happy Baby today! 

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.

Artists and Their Pets

Welcome to the world, Artists and Their Pets!

Six months ago I was busy illustrating a bunch of fine art, artists, and animals for this cool new book written by Susie Hodge: Artists and Their Pets, which is officially being released today.



There are twenty chapters in Artists and Their Pets; each is devoted to an animal-loving artist. Some (like Picasso) are well-known, but others (like Suzanne Valadon, mother of Maurice Utrillo) are a bit more obscure. All of the stories are fascinating.

Research

There are 298 illustrations in Artists and Their Pets, including the studio moments featuring Gustav Klimt, Romare Bearden and Salvador Dalí shown here.

Biographies require lots of research, so every image took time and careful thought. Besides the artists and their pets, their studios and artwork had to be accurately depicted at a certain moment in time. You'd be amazed how difficult it can be to find the size of a certain painting and the year(s) it was painted... let alone how the artist, his studio, and his pets looked was when he was working on it. What kind of smock did he wear? Was he left or right handed? Which years did he wear a beard? When did he go bald? What kind of easel did she use? When did she move west? What did she look like as a child? And... what did that cat look like?

Tons of research went into illustrating Artists and Their Pets, and I loved every minute of it.

Thanks, Mom!

When I was a girl I treasured The Great Artists (Funk & Wagnalls, 1978), a boxed set of oversized soft-cover art books shown in the photo above. My mom bought the books week by week from Mr. Food—which eventually became Schnuck's—our local grocery store. It was a special promotion. Every volume was devoted to the work of a different artist: Goya, Manet, van Gogh, etc. Those books, which were written for adults, were my introduction to art. I spent countless hours pouring over them. They were a big part of my growing up.

My mom will be eighty years old in a few months. Between her upcoming birthday and the release of Artists and Their Pets, today seems like a great time to say THANK YOU, MOM! Thank you for nurturing my interest in art, one of the great loves of my life.

What a blessing to participate in a project that is designed to introduce kids to art, artists, and the animals who stole their hearts.

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Artists and Their Pets was written by Susie Hodge, published by duopress, and is distributed by Workman Publishing.

Click here to order a copy... or, ask for Artists and Their Pets in your local bookstore. It should be there! :)