Art from the Bologna Children's Book Fair
Collections from the Illustrator's Wall
Hi everyone!
I was at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair this week, and I collected inspiration for you from the Illustrator’s Wall! Here I am with some of my art on the wall:
This month’s Art Gym is all about drawing emotions, so that’s the specific inspiration I was looking for on the wall. As you know, drawing a range of emotions is central to children’s book illustration. Whether you’re drawing emotions on people, animals, or objects, those expressions need to clearly show what the character is feeling.
Drawing emotions means drawing a wide range of facial expressions and poses. I walked along the illustrator’s wall looking for examples of characters who demonstrated different emotions from happy/excited, sad/disappointed, etc… however it was kind of difficult to find a wide range!
Many illustrators, including myself, showcased cute and happy characters. Feedback I’ve heard before from art directors and publishers before is: They want to see a variety of emotions, which includes cute, smiling characters but also grumpy, confused, and overjoyed characters. So this is a good reminder to push beyond the adorable, smiling characters that we all love to draw, and to show that we can draw lots of other emotions as well. It was interesting to pretend to be an art director and look specifically for non-happy characters. It made me realize how important it is to show variety in order to stand out as an artist.
Below is a gallery of some absolutely lovely work from the Illustrator’s Wall that show lots of different emotions. If you click on each one, you should be able to see it bigger. And if you like anyone’s work, why not give them a follow on instagram? I follow some of these talented artists already, and I’m about to follow the rest! I included everyone’s instagram link. Enjoy looking at their work!
I hope you enjoyed looking at all these emotions, and if you’re feeling inspired to fill your sketchbook with tons of expressions, you can join
and me for this month’s Art Gym: Emotions Workshop. I hope to see you there on Tuesday, April 23 at 11am EDT / 4pm GMT / 11pm MYT!Art Gym is open to paid subscribers of either Adam’s newsletter or my newsletter. Click here if you’d like to upgrade your subscription, or use the sign up link below if you’re a paid subscriber:
See you next week for another post about children’s book illustration!
Katie