"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.
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I just returned from a week in New York City; three days spent at the SCBWI conference and three days visiting publishing houses. It was an epic trip! SCBWI conferences are always a blur of information, inspiration, new friends, old friends, and just non-stop fun. I was so happy to be able to spend ample time with friend and fellow mentee, Debbie Ohi. Another illustrator I was happy to spend time with was Mike Boldt, who directed me on a drawing for The ABC’s of Northern Ghana charity project. We also share an agent, so it feels like…
I’ve just finished a new illustration for the project 9 Degrees North: The ABCs of Northern Ghana, which is a charity picture book by the Tools for Schools Africa Foundation. The book will be a compilation of illustrations from varying artists, each creating an image for one letter of the alphabet. My letter was: F for FOOTBALL The text for the page will be: Ghanaian kids love football! They play as much as they can, and dream of one day taking the field with the Black Stars, Ghana’s national football team. As a note, football in Ghana is soccer in…
I recently posted a Before and After look at my portfolio, showing changes that I made from last year to this year. One aspect that I did not include were changes that I made to the actual book design of my portfolio, which I’ll share here. I have a particular love of bookmaking, and since I also love to customize things, I decided to make my portfolio rather than buy a standard one. It’s important to say that using a store-bought portfolio is perfectly fine, and usually it’s better than getting overly craftsy. In the case of my…
Over the past three years that I’ve been pursuing children’s illustration, I have experienced what is likely normal for one new to the field; a lack of focus and direction in my work. When trying to find my voice, I’ve been scattered stylistically, drawing certain ways because I can, but not because I should. Since starting out, I have been working steadily at reining in my hand, and being much more intentional in the way that I draw. At last year’s SCBWI conference, I received the mentorship award, which allowed me to meet with six industry professionals and get…