"Behind the book"
A behind-the-scenes video detailing the process of writing and illustrating Home in the Woods.
Eliza Wheeler is an illustrator and author of books for kids, teens, and the young at heart. Her book Miss Maple’s Seeds was a NYT bestseller, and her book Home in the Woods was dubbed “Gorgeous” by the New York Times book review. Eliza is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Mailing List Sign-up
COMING SOON: Sign up for my newsletter “Creativi-Tea Time” to get a bi-weekly bite of creative inspiration!
Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.
I had the loveliest conversation with Gina on the Storyland Podcast, a Chinese podcast of conversations with children’s book authors and illustrators around the world. I so appreciated the thoughtful questions she posed about all the details of creating my book, HOME IN THE WOODS. APPLE PODCASTS LINK: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eliza-wheeler-1000578242396 PLAYER FM LINK: https://player.fm/series/3394128/341112052 NEWS ARTICLE LINK: And they created an equally lovely news article with photos, art, and sketches from the book, which you can read here (set the website to translate to your language if needed): https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VtcUSkOMUfA7u88epX3Lbg
When I create art for a book that’s written by another author, I don’t jump into sketching and drawing right away. Even for stories I haven’t written, the process still begins, for me, with writing. When I’ve taken on a manuscript to illustrate, the first thing I do is print it out, get in a cozy and undistracted place, and read through the story as I would a finished picture book. In my first and freshest reading, I want to capture all notes that come to mind in a stream of consciousness. You can see in the above image on…
My newest book with Pat Zietlow Miller is WHEN I’M WITH YOU, and is a joy-filled friendship romp: Here are 2 great coloring sheets for kids or students to color. (Click on the download link arrows below these images for high quality PDF files to print) Underwater scene:
I get asked pretty frequently for information about how to be a children’s illustrator, or how book publishing works. I’ve compiled the most basic beginning info to share (which you can see, is a lot!) for anyone who’s looking for it. This is based on my personal knowledge and experience, but there are a lot of ways to skin the cat of book publishing, so see this as starter info. *Note* The following information relates to traditional publishing. Self-publishing is another topic, (one of which I haven’t any expertise or advice on), but you can get some intro information for that…