What book, character or artist first got you interested in becoming an illustrator?

We've asked our illustrators to create a drawing of their favorite book character in their own style or draw one of their characters in their mentor's style.

Proceeds from the artwork sold on this page help to support Reader to Reader, a non-profit organization that distributes books to schools and libraries in need. Based at Amherst College, Reader to Reader is run by a dedicated staff, local volunteers and work-study students. Please contact the gallery for infomation about pricing.

Diane deGroat

Although Leonardo da Vinci might not be considered an illustrator in today’s terms, let’s face it—the guy could draw. Even as a child, I was awed by his drawings. Leonardo’s use of line to show form fascinated me, and I would later come to understand the concept when I studied figure drawing many years later at Pratt. Drawing is still the foundation for my illustration style, whether it’s realistic or whimsical, on paper or with digital tablet.

Things I liked about da Vinci when I was a kid: He was lefthanded. He wrote in mirror image…and his name began with a small “d.” While my name began with a small “d,” it took some time to teach myself how to do mirror writing, and to switch from right to left-handedness. By ten years old, I was reading and writing upside down and backwards and using chopsticks with my left hand. I still do.

Tony DiTerlizzi

I vividly remember my mother reading Winnie the Pooh to my sister and me—the magic of hearing Milne’s words through my Mother’s voice as we drifted off to sleep. Though I finally outgrew the stories, the knowledge of those personalities stayed with me. The cast of characters seemed so real and so familiar: each one had their own foibles, they often conspired against each other or faced disasters galore, yet, somehow, they persevered.

You’re probably thinking: All this heart and soul in a bunch of stuffed animals and woodland creatures? Yes! And it was all brought to life with Ernest Shepard’s delightful little scribbly drawings. The humor of the text infused the drawings, and together they brought the stories to life. It was magic in the eyes of a six-year-old. Thirty-some years later, it still is.

Brooke Dyer

One of my favorite books when I was little was If You’re Afraid of the Dark Remember the Night Rainbow by Cooper Edens. I love it's whimsical nonsense and I hope that I can capture a bit of this in my own work.

E.B. Lewis

John Steptoe is someone I’ve admired for a long time. I particularly love the way he was able to capture emotion and gesture while giving his characters a sense of pride and dignity. As a young artist, I remember saying “I want to be able to do that in my own work….” Unfortunately, he left us far too soon. I only hope that I can carry on this legacy.

Scott Fischer

Ahhh to be King of the Wild Things… If I close my eyes I can go right back there. A kid with a flashlight reading Where the Wild Things Are. Laying in bed after closing the book, switching off the flashlight, I imagined my own walls dissolving into a new worlds. There is no other book that inspired my imagination to the heights Sendak did with Wild Things. Max and I walked the fine line between scary and exhilarating together. I was never the same.

Mordicai Gerstein

John Tenniel made illustrations that drew me into an alternate reality made entirely of scratchy little ink lines.

Rebecca Guay

If I’m to be honest, after deep reflection I have to pin my love of art and desire to be an artist on Wonder Woman. My very earliest first grade sketchbooks (the pulpy “rainbow pack” paper from the drug store that soak up marker like a paper towel), are filled with pictures of Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman rounding up jewel thieves, changing from her Alter ego Diana Prince into the goddess herself, and just being generally fabulous from various angles.

Of course, barring an almost unhealthy obsession with The Uncanny X-Men from 1982–1985 (one that prompted my sister tell me on several occasions that I …was not…Kitty Pride, and Colossus was not actually a real person, so having a crush on him was stupid), more high brow and respected influences infiltrated my psyche. I fell in love with the work of Edmund Dulac, all of Greek mythology, JRR Tolkien, Gustav Klimt and so many others…

But the beginning, the genesis of it all, lies at the impeccable, perfect, red and velvety boot of Princess Diana herself.

Karla Gudeon

The classic Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, was a favorite of mine as a child and later of my sons, Sam and Max.

I love knowing that Esphyr was originally from Eastern Europe, like my grandparents and subsequently a Long Islander, like myself. Caps for Sale helps prove my theory that you can’t go wrong with monkeys…

Nonny Hogrogian

The first hint I had of an interest in drawing or painting was at age three when I noticed a painting that my father had been working on. I thought I could improve it and I tried. It was harder than I imagined.

The second time that I thought about art in any form, I was recovering from a minor illness when I was about eight or nine… Someone brought me a Donald Duck comic book. I was fascinated with the simplicity of the lines, and the way Disney gave his characters expression. I practiced how to show anger, surprise, happiness… It worked! It seemed easy and, most of all, I discovered that I loved to draw, and that I had a talent that I would pursue.

Jane Dyer

As a child, my mother read to me every night from a set of books entitled My Book House. There were various illustrators, but my favorites were done by a husband and wife team, Maud and Miska Petersham, in the 1927 printing. One in particular portrayed “Queen Rosebush” sitting upon a throne which sat on a checkerboard floor. Her long braids cascaded down her lap. The Petershams often used checkerboard floors, and when I am asked why I do, I think it is perhaps because these images remain so clear in my mind. I wanted to evoke the enchanted feeling I had as a child as I gazed at Queen Rosebush holding court—this is my interpretation of that illustration.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is so prevalent an inspiration among artists of my generation that it has almost become a cliché to claim it. But I can’t deny the power that this book has had over my work. It’s the gold standard of the page turn. When I design the pages of my books, I think of Max and the Wild Rumpus. There is a certain magic when you turn the pages of Sendak's seminal work; elements like borders, full page bleeds and double page spreads may seem inconsequential to the average reader—they are anything but. They’re as important as the words and images themselves…

Kathryn Brown

Thanks to
Beatrix Potter and George Herriman
The truths of
Peter Rabbit and Krazy Kat
Sunk into the big ears and heart of
Muledred.

Wendell Minor

My first memories are of my mother telling me stories of Mr. McGregor’s garden and the mischievous Peter Rabbit. When I discovered Beatrix Potter’s art later in my childhood, I was enthralled with her beautiful watercolor drawings. Potter was a naturalist at heart and a genius at presenting her animal characters without losing the essence of their real-life qualities. Beatrix Potter continues to inspire me. When I was asked to illustrate a new edition of Margaret Wise Brown’s Nibble Nibble, I could not stop thinking of Potter’s Peter Rabbit.

Barry Moser

The tales of Br’er Rabbit were the tales of my childhood growing up in Dixie. They were the stories I read to my children. Thus, it was a great delight that my first book for children, Jump!, featured the tricky, rascally, rabbit-tobacco-smokin’ rabbit himself.

Mo Willems

Dr. Seuss was there for me when I was a young kid looking to fall in love with drawing and adventures involving mysterious green pants. He was there for me when I was a young animation student looking for inspiration for my retro short films about characters who can’t talk. Again, Dr. Seuss was there for me when I was a young book-maker learning how to construct Early Readers about an Elephant and a Piggie. Best of all, he was there for me when I was a young dad looking for story time giggles from the little girl on my lap.