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.
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'HOME IN THE WOODS' Book Video
A behind-the-scenes video detailing the process of writing and illustrating Home in the Woods.
For readers of ‘What Rosa Brought’, here are links to explore more about my process of making the art for this beautiful picture book, written by Jacob Sager Weinstein about his mother’s childhood experience of losing her home and family life in Vienna after the Nazi takeover in 1938, and their immigration to the United States in 1939. Share ‘WHAT ROSA BROUGHT‘ with your local school, library, or house of worship. Thanks so much for your interest!
For picture book projects the cover art is (usually) the last piece of art that I work on. It’s also the image that takes the most work and goes through a more rigorous vetting process — channeling through the Sales & Marking teams to make sure the image that will represent the book is the best one from the perspective of all sides of the process. I begin with thumbnail sketches of cover concepts and talk through them with the art director (Dana Fritts), editor (Ben Rosenthal), and author Jacob Weinstein. Authors aren’t always brought into this process, but in…
A behind-the-scenes look into the art-making process for ‘What Rosa Brought’ When making art for a book with historical subject matter, there are many research rabbit holes to fall into (as shown in my post about researching Vienna in 1938), as well as searches that come up dry. In the case of ‘What Rosa Brought’ searching for photo reference for furnished interior apartments in Vienna, Austria pre-1940 was where my research came up empty. I could find photos of, and movies set in, opulent private homes and public spaces, but the interiors I needed to draw were for Rosa’s family; specifically…
A behind-the-scenes look into the art-making process for ‘What Rosa Brought’ When it comes to illustrating a specific location and time period, I go a bit OTT in the research phase. ‘What Rosa Brought’ takes place in Vienna in 1938-1939, and I while I would have loved to have been able to travel there in person as I did for ‘John Ronald’s Dragons: Story of J.R.R. Tolkien’, it wasn’t possible logistically and financially to get to Vienna while working on this book, so I had to find alternate ways to do visual research. The art features many scenes around the city,…