Where would kids be without children’s book illustrators? Probably a lot less interested in reading. This holiday season, Westmont College is hosting an exhibition by three of the field’s acclaimed children’s book illustrators in its newly opened “Storytellers” exhibit.
Illustrating children’s books is a lot more work than it looks. An illustrator needs to adhere to the story but also expand on it with his or her pictures.
“There’s a textual storyline and a visual storyline,” said Gregory Manchess, one of the artists exhibiting his work. “Those two can blend, and then separate and then come back.”
Manchess has also illustrated for National Geographic and Time Magazine.
For C.F. Payne, another exhibitor and a regular illustrator for Reader’s Digest, as well as a collaborator with actor John Lithgow on his first children’s book, it’s also about creating a space for children to imagine their stories.
“You try to move them around the arena of where the story’s taking place,” he said.
For kids learning to see the adult world, or adults learning to see their kids’ world, the work of Manchess, Payne and Viennese illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger will be on display starting this weekend at the Reynolds Gallery at Westmont College, and going through Dec. 13.