Helen Dardik for Clothworks

Plenty of Puzzles

Rebecca Jones

Anne Bentley for Galison

Carolyn Gavin for Chronicle Books

I teach a course on Creativebug called Treasure Hunt your Artistic Style. It’s a playful/analytical way you’ll get to know your own style sensibility. Try it here.

I’ll have you pick colors.

These are a few of the things I’ve done over the years. I guess I love yellow.

This charming kit is like paper dolls but magnetic. By Mara Penny for Mudpuppy.

Curl up with Hsinping Pan’s second book in this best-selling series.

Go ahead! Make some percussion!

Daniel Roode for Éditions AUZOU

Feel like drawing and painting? Sarah Walsh’s book for Chronicle invites you to draw all kinds of connecting bridges across her varied and surprising scenes.

Let’s play! This charming kit is illustrated by Flora Waycott

Do you love stickers, journaling and drawing? Take time to play in Katie Vernon’s delightful planner for Chronicle Books.

These fill-in-the-blank cards will make it really fun to write those thank-you notes. By Sarah Walsh for Compendium.

Get ready to see the work of an extraordinary artist. You’re going to see a fresh talent who has an almost otherworldly ability to create mood and storytelling through light and shadow. Meet one of our newest artists, Jennifer Potter, and see why she’s already heavily booked.

Jennifer writes: This piece (below) is inspired by the Japanese folktale, The Fire Quest. A poet sits, reading by his lit candle, and is saddened by the little moths and other insects who fly too close to the flame and burn their wings. He tries to stop them by telling them of the Firefly Queen, most beautiful and wicked of insects, who sends her many suitors on a fool’s errand to bring back fire. All while they are searching and burning, and dying, and being swept away without a thought, she remains cozy in her lotus flower with her lover, the Lord of the Fireflies, who doesn’t need to get fire, for he already carries it with him. I decided to try designing this piece like a book cover.

This appealing image shows off Jennifer’s graphic novel style.

Jennifer Potter’s love of video games is evident in the dramatic views of her environments which beckon you to explore further.

It’s lovely when a digital artist can also immerse themselves in traditional media, as Jennifer has done here.

We are delighted to show you the work of one of our newest artists, Global Talent Search winner Julia Christians. I first discovered her in my Illustrating Children’s Books course. Her wit, the animated quality of her characters, and gorgeous color palettes make for a winning combination. Enjoy!

Julia was given a line of text (below) to illustrate for our Global Talent Search. Look how she takes a simple sentence and creates a believable, soft, and appealing world laced with a variety of characters. I knew when I saw this she would be a star children’s book illustrator.

It’s astonishing how Julia Christians made not just a graphic novel page, but a whole story with quirky characters, a fully-realized scene, and even a plot line! When we saw this piece, we knew we were looking at something special. We could envision getting her lots of graphic novels, book covers, and picture books.
Read more about Julia including what movie she has seen several times here.

See more of Julia’s studio here.