The art of illustration encompasses visual designs that tell stories or explain ideas in a wide range of formats. Writers and publishers need talented illustrators to bring their stories to life. What would a children’s picture book be without illustrations? A graphic novel without drawings? They wouldn’t be as effective—and they wouldn’t be as fun to read.
We had a wonderful conversation as part of MBPR’s last webinar of the 2021-2022 season, Working with Illustrators: From Creative Brief to Final Illustration, with our panel of publishing professionals: illustrator Sawyer Cloud, agent Atlanta Japp, and art director Danielle Carnito. They discussed client relationships, processes, and best practices when working with illustrators. If you missed it it isn’t too late to listen in to the discussion, just click the links below!
Sawyer Cloud is a freelance artist from Madagascar. Her passion for kids’ literature turned into a living when she couldn’t imagine any occupation other than creating pictures for children. She learned about the publishing industry through books and the internet. Through many independent projects, she built a career as an illustrator, securing representation with Advocate Art in 2020, and has illustrated titles with major kids’ publishers. Sawyer loves sunny days and music. She dreams of owning a small cottage and traveling the world. She lives in Madagascar with her family and her two pets, Arya the dog and Potter the cat. You can check out her work here: https://sawyer.cloud/ or Sawyer can be reached via her agent Atlanta Japp/the Advocate Art team @ atlanta@advocate-art.com)
Three years ago, Atlanta Japp joined the Advocate Art team at its New York City location. Since then, she has ventured across the country to open the company’s first office in Los Angeles, where she manages all West Coast clients, overseeing more than a million dollars in illustration sales. Although she specializes in children’s publishing, she also works with many licensing, product design, and advertising clients. Japp works closely with her artists to support them in consistently creating strong new work. Offering the best available and relevant talent to her clients, she helps her artists climb the charts of many bestseller lists. When she is not searching for new talent, Atlanta can be found enjoying the tasty tacos and beautiful beaches that California has to offer. Atlanta can be reached via https://www.advocate-art.com/ or at atlanta@advocate-art.com.
Danielle Carnito is the Sr. Trade Art Director for Lerner Publishing Group in Minneapolis, where she art directs a wide variety of books in several imprints—picture books through novels, kindergarten through young adult, fiction and nonfiction. She started her career in advertising, then moved north, changed careers to book publishing, and has now spent quite a few happy years collaborating closely with illustrators, editors, designers, agents, and authors to create beautiful and award-winning books. Danielle has had the honor to hire and work with many talented illustrators, including Floyd Cooper, Victo Ngai, Greg Christie, and Selina Alko.