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.
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…