Big Talk, by Miriam Schlein, Bradbury Press, 1990.

Though they look watercolor-esque (and I believe the book jacket refers to them as watercolors), I did these illustrations with chalk pastels and stencils. I heard about the technique from Diane Dillon, who revealed the secrets of her and Leo’s work at a lecture. This is how they did the pictures for The People Could Fly.

Miriam Schlein was a prolific and well known author who died a few years ago. I had the opportunity to re-illustrate this book, which had been published first many years ago, because of a class I took at Marywood College (Scranton PA) with Fred Brenner, an inspired illustrator and generous teacher. Fred, sadly, died just this past year.

To see an inside spread of Big Talk, click Next.