Meet the Illustrator: Martina Heiduczek

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Quirky, fun, poetic at times, textured, mostly colourful.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

My very cheap sketchpad (so I don’t think I’m going to mess up a beautiful book) and pencils, graphic tablet, a view and coffee.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

Gouache, coloured pencils, digital – and mixing it all up!

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

Ana Juan, Felicita Sala and Chagall.

Meet the Illustrator: Peter Carnavas

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Light, usually colourful, simple, often with lots of white space.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

I always need music on when I’m illustrating.  Over the years that service has been provided by my record player, ipod, radio, and sometimes myself, as my guitar is always within reach.  Playing music is a useful little time-filler when I’m stuck on something.  The rest is quite standard - pencils, pens, brushes, paints, lightbox.  And my dog sleeps in an old armchair beside me.  That helps. 

Announcement: New Meet The Illustrator Coordinator Heidi Cooper Smith

Swings and roundabouts often describe life and here at KBR, the thrill rides never stop. We value each and every ounce of effort, not to mention each carefully contemplated word, our team members contribute so when one of them leaves, it is not without sadness.

The illustrious Sally Fawcett farewells KBR this month. Her Meet the Illustrator contributions have been a consistent source of enlightenment and entertainment and we shall miss her cool and colourful presence. Thank you for introducing us to so many sparkling illustrators, Sally!

Thankfully our Ferris wheel keeps on turning and we are equally as delighted to announce our new Meet the Illustrator Coodinator, author illustrator, Heidi Cooper Smith.

Meet the Illustrator: Erica Webb

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Constantly evolving, fun, playful and thoughtful.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

I am a very messy worker! My desk is strewn with everything I need and the rest stacked in drawers nearby. It’s organised chaos. Essentials are my 3B pencil, 0.1 Unipin fineliner, watercolour paints and pencils, my Wacom Intuos Pro and favourite eraser and pencil sharpener. And coffee, water and rotating snacks, of course!

Meet the Illustrator: Sylvia Morris

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Trying to inspire my 11 year old self.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
Definitely my computer, both for creating the art itself and also for researching interesting people and times and places. A full length mirror and my phone to take reference photos of myself in different poses. A sketchbook and pencil for trying out new ideas and a cup of tea keeps me on task.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

A black pencil--either digital or traditional, I don’t mind which.

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

Pam Smy, Rovina Cai, and Nuria Tamarit. Ask me tomorrow and it’ll be different though…

Meet the Illustrator: Christopher Nielsen

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Textured and colourful with a nod to vintage children’s books.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Music, dog, coffee cup.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

I use a mix of acrylics, stencils, rollers, brushes and pencils and then

put it all together in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet.

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

Marc Boutavant, Jon Klassen and Miroslav Sasek.

Meet the Illustrator: Heidi Cooper Smith

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Whimsical semi-realism, often with an emphasis on humour.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

A mechanical pencil, kneadable and electric erasers, Daniel Smith watercolours, Holbein coloured pencils… and salt.  But I’d still like to keep all the other stuff I’ve accumulated!

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

I’ve been hooked on watercolour for a while, but I prefer seeing what other people can do with it.  I tend to use a combination of watercolour and coloured pencil.

Meet the Illustrator: Kim Siew

 Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Graphic, quirky and cute.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

My favourite Molotow GRAFX fineliner, sheets and sheets of paper, my computer, pot plants to keep me happy and a bottomless cup of coffee to keep me sane.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

I always love the surprises you get using paper collage, textured papers and pencil work.

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

It is so very, very hard to limit it to three… but I always come back to Margaret Kilgallen, Jon Klassen and Noel McKenna.

Meet the Illustrator: Max Landrak

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Quirky, irreverent, retro.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Lots of books, loudspeakers, strong coffee.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

Pen, ink, pastels.

Meet the Illustrator: Kerry Anne Jordinson

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Whimsical, uncluttered and sometimes humorous.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Good music, family photos, a lovely view outside my window and a modicum of tidiness.

Meet the Illustrator: Aleesha Barton

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Realistic with a hint of cartoon. Bright, friendly, colourful and still in progress!

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Faber Castell Polychromos, Strathmore Bristol-Vellum paper with a rough surface, kneadable eraser, a GOOD sharpener and an easy watching movie playing in the background--favourite being Harry Potter!

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

Coloured pencil

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

Freya Blackwood, Molly Idle, Gaia Bordicchia

Meet the Illustrator: Peter Papamanolis

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Quirky, humorous, fun with a dash of  story.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Good lighting, lovely music, sharp pencils.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

I love to work with colour pencils, black ink pens and gouache.

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

Graeme Base, Salvador Dali, Andrei Rublev.

Which artistic period would you most like to visit and why?

The Byzantine art era. This period is renowned for inspirational masterpieces creating 'windows to eternity' revealing the mysteries of death and life.

Meet the Illustrator: Sharon Clark

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less. 

Versatile with bright colour and expressive line.

What items are an essential part of your creative space? 

Space, time and a cup of tea.  Lovely paper with a selection of brushes, water-colour, ink and gouache.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

As an Illustrator, I love gouache and watercolour.

Review: It's OK to feel the way you do

Here is the follow up to Josh Langley's fabulous book Being You is Enough. I have an eight year old daughter, who is socially a bit awkward and a reluctant reader.  She gobbled up Being You is Enough, took it to school to share with her class, cuddled it in bed, and read it multiple times. So I was really keen to get my hands on It's OK to feel the way you do--I was not disappointed.  My daughter instantly recognised the format of the book, grabbed it and immediately began to read.  

Review: Being You is Enough

Josh Langley has created a very important book.  It is simple, colourful and humorous, but most importantly it touches the heart.  Being you is Enough shares the messages that it's OK to be different, no-one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes--being you is enough! 

The clear words of wisdom are presented with minimal text, spread out over 117 pages. This format makes for easy reading, ensuring the important messages are easily accessible.

Meet the Illustrator: Jules Faber

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Crayon clutched in fist with tongue poking out in concentration!

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

My bookcases! I love books and comics and graphic novels. Being able to admire the spines in the frequent moments of just thinking is really inspiring.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

I love simple, old-school pen and ink. I always have and always will.

Meet the Illustrator: Gabriel Evans

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

Traditional, contemporary, textured, energetic, versatile, detailed.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

There are the obvious items including paints, brushes and paper. Other essentials include my trusty hairdryer to speed the paint’s drying process, good music – the wrong genre can ruin an illustration, and, of course, good lighting. I’ve heard neat, organised studio spaces are also essential – is this true? I’ve never managed to get it that orderly so can’t be sure...

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

Watercolour and gouche – these two mediums, especially the former, are such wonderful and expressive mediums to work in. The creative possibilities are endless.

Review: Shapes of Australia

A gorgeous, colourful book, full of patterns and shapes inspired by Australia's landscape, both natural and man-made. 

From the first page you are transported into a dreamlike wonderland of colour, shape and pattern. Bronwyn Bancroft has used bold colour, intricate pattern and geometric shapes to represent aspects of Australia including, forests, oceans, cities and farms in a beautiful expression of creativity.

Meet the Illustrator: Adam Wallace

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less. 

Ummmm, ahhhh, look at photos try 

and cartoonise them!

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Pencils (for drawing). Textas (for drawing over the pencil). Music (for listening to and also so the neighbours can’t hear me yell at my pictures).

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

I use Sharpies. Always Sharpies! For paper, any old A4 that doesn’t bleed is good by me. Yep, it’s all nice and high-tech!

Review: Two Rainbows

Two rainbows is a beautiful book showcasing a clever comparison of colours in the city and in the country. 

The pages are organised into paired double spreads. Each colour is shown as a spot of bright in an otherwise grey city scene with the alternating page celebrating the same colour in a simple monochromatic farm landscape. For example, yellow is a danger barrier in the grey city, while yellow is ducklings in a sun drenched, wheat field on the farm.