Illustration

A Day in the Life: Illustrator Ross Kinnaird

Ross Kinnaird has been a children’s book illustrator for 15 years, and his first and most recent collaborations were both with Dawn McMillan. The first was the acclaimed Why do dogs sniff bottoms? (Reed), and last month saw the publication…

Illustrating a Classic with Sarah Greig

Earlier this year, Hachette New Zealand ran a unique competition: seeking new illustration concepts for Margaret Mahy’s classic The Boy With Two Shadows. The competition was open to artists and illustrated who were not yet published – and the winner…

Book Quiz: Food in New Zealand Picture Books

How well do you remember the tasty morsels in the illustrations of your favourite picture books? See if you can get 12/12 in our food quiz! Test yourself, share with a friend, and let us know on Facebook or Twitter…

Adventuring with Tupaia: A chat with Mat Tait

One of the titles released in the wake of the 250th anniversary commemorations of Cook’s arrival in Aotearoa is The Adventures of Tupaia – a riveting read that does a great deal of storytelling through its illustrations. Becky Popham talked…

Book Awards: the illustration finalists

As part of our ongoing finalist coverage of this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we have some glorious snippets to look at from the five Russell Clark Award for Illustration finalists! There are covers, decadent…

A Day in the Life: Illustrator Kimberly Andrews

Kimberly Andrews is the illustrator of the re-illustrated Joy Cowley picture book, Song of the River (Gecko Press). Here she tells us – in words and pictures – about her daily creative routine, and her container home and studio. My…

How to Capture an Audience (Kiwi-style)

In April, Ruth Paul and Juliette MacIver took their Kiwi author-illustrator talents over to the United Arab Emirates – more specifically, to the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival. Ruth kindly shed some light on the experience for our readers. I couldn’t…

Minky Stapleton’s A-Z of Making a Book

Illustrating a picture book is not a simple A-to-B process. Minky Stapleton (the illustrator of Linda Jane Keegan’s Things in the Sea are Touching Me and June Pitman-Hayes’ Kia Ora! You Can Be a Kiwi Too, both published by Scholastic)…

A Day in the Life of Stevie Mahardhika

Illustrator Stevie Mahardhika is best known for his work for Scholastic NZ, including Row, Kiwi, Row Your Boat and the new picture book Five Little Ducks Went Off to School. Here, he tells us about his typical day and how…

Interview with illustrator Phoebe Morris

Phoebe Morris is the illustrator of a series of acclaimed picture book biographies written by David Hill, which have included the stories of New Zealanders Jean Batten, Burt Munro, Edmund Hillary and most recently Hero of the Sea: Sir Peter…