Karin Wanderer Learns

Happy Julian New Year!

Have you made any resolutions for 2024? Every year since 2015 I have made the same New Years’ resolution: to make better choices than last year. It’s pretty easy to stick to while allowing for slow, incremental change that I can sustain over time. I want more concrete, specific goals when it comes to art & so I have picked five. Here they are, listed from least to most challenging:

Goal 1: New Art Challenge Approaching!

I love a good art challenge. Finding a fun art prompt can result in me casting my painting plans to the wind & spending all my free time on whatever ridiculousness some word wizard on the internet came up with. Enough is enough! I want to be that wizard! I’m going to give it a week or so to let everyone recover from the holidays & get ready to play… Keep an eye out for #KWPrompts, coming soon to a Tuesday near you!

”PumpkinBat!” cries the wizard, & what can I do but oblige them?

Goal 2: Feature More Artists!

You may have noticed that I have a nice selection of articles on Featured Artists. I want that section to grow & grow! Lately I got sidetracked learning about brilliant author Tomie de Paola & trying to read all his books, which is a tall order- there are over 200! (Big thanks to my local library system, I could never have read dozens of de Paola books without their help!) I want to write about more current artists, & maybe interview them instead of just researching & writing about them on my own? If there is an artist (or you are an artist) who you think should be featured, let me know on Mastodon, Ko-Fi, or BlueSky!

My version of Xingling from “The Nian Monster” by Andrea Wang & Alina Chau

Goal 3: Expand My Shop

That’s right, I have my very own shop where you can get my art on mugs, notebooks, or lovely vinyl stickers for your laptop or water bottle! It’s wonderful! The only problem is me: I hate uploading my new art because the website is slow enough that I get bored, but not so slow that I can actually multitask while doing it. I am very behind on uploading pictures, & this whole entry is me blogshaming myself into actually getting caught up. I wonder if it will work?

It worked!

If there is a piece you wish I sold in my shop, let me know! I will add it & send you a coupon code!

Goal 4: Tell Everyone How Awesome Animals Are

News flash: Animals are fantastically wonderfully great, folks. As a human I am filled with appreciation for animals. As a preschool teacher I am filled with a million facts about animals. As my second-hardest goal for 2024, I am going to get the picture book I have been writing about Marine Animals to the “dummy” stage! A picture book “dummy” is an odd bit of jargon, it essentially means a “mock-up” of the book! This is a daunting goal, but let’s face it- there can never be enough age-appropriate non-fiction books to slake a toddler’s thirst for knowledge!

The Green Sea Turtle is the largest of all the hard-shelled sea turtles.

Goal 5: Touch Grass, Seek Inspiration

This is the hardest goal I’ve set. I want to spend this year going to Museums, Galleries, Art Fairs, etc., to experience a wider range of art. Another facet of this goal would include just walking around outside taking pictures. Why is this the hardest? Because I have agoraphobia. Maybe art will help me bribe myself into going out more? I am willing to try it!

What are your art goals for 2024? What strategies are you using to achieve them? Let me know on Mastodon, Ko-Fi, or BlueSky!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hello & Hello Again!

Every so often on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. You can find a complete list of the recipes at the end of this article. Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

We’re making Bulle- Swedish braided sweet bread!

This recipe takes time, but it is worth it! I love this amazing bread so much when it is freshly baked, either plain or with jam.

Recipe makes 3 loaves this size

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) yeast, dissolved in a small amount of warm water
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup sugar (I use raw sugar, but brown works too)
• 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
• 4 ½ cups AP flour Also:
• 1 egg, beaten well
• ¼ cup sugar, optional

Instructions

• Warm the milk enough to melt the butter in it. Set aside to cool.
• Whisk 2 eggs & sugar together thoroughly in a large bowl, then whisk in salt
• Gently mix the milk/butter mixture into the eggs/sugar/salt. (Warning: If the mixture is too warm, it will cook the eggs!)
• Gradually mix in 2 cups of flour
• Mix in the yeast & cardamom
• Keep adding flour to the dough until it reaches a good handling texture. This is how you test for a “good handling texture”: Press the dough gently with a clean finger. The dough should stick to your finger as you start to pull it away, stretching a little, but then snap back to the dough ball instead of staying on your finger.
• Cover the bowl of dough with a clean cloth, & set it somewhere warm to rise until it is double in size, usually 2-3 hours.
• Remove the cloth from the bowl & punch down the dough. This means punching in the middle of the risen dough, releasing some of the air
• Working on a floured surface, separate the dough into 3 equal sections.

Each section will make 1 loaf of bread. Repeat the following with each section:

• Cut into 3 equal pieces.
• Roll each piece out into a “rope” of dough, try to keep all 3 as close in length/diameter as possible
• Braid the 3 ropes into a loaf. It’s just like braiding hair: if you don’t know how, there are a billion tutorials online. If you want to get fancy, you can braid more strands. This will affect your cooking times- my instructions are for a 3-strand braid. If you try a more complicated braid, let me know how it goes!
• Grease 3 baking sheets or put parchment paper on them.
• Put each loaf on its own baking sheet, covered by a clean cloth, & set to rise in a warm place until it is double in size, usually 1 hour.

• Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
• This is where the ingredients from the “Also” section come into play. Just before they go into the oven, brush the beaten egg over the risen loaves & sprinkle with sugar. Brown sugar burns if used in this step, so use raw/white sugar. If you have no raw/white sugar, just use the beaten egg for this last bit.
• Bake loaves for 20 minutes, until golden brown. If your oven is too small to bake them all at once, put in unbaked loaves in your fridge while waiting so they don’t rise too much.
• Let cool completely before cutting

Finish Them!

My favorite ways to eat this bread are plain or with a bit of lingonberry jam, alongside a cup of coffee.

Past Recipes

• Vegan cake
• Plum tea.
• Wolfe3D shared his favorite pizza recipe in my first collaboration!
• Brownies (very good for beginner bakers!)
• Lemon Bars on an Olive Oil Shortbread Crust
• Peanut Butter Bread

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hello & Hello Again!

Every so often on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. You can find a complete list of the recipes at the end of this article. Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

This week, we’re making Peanut Butter Bread!

This recipe is so tasty, easy, & flexible! I love this amazing bread so much when it is freshly baked, either plain or with jam, honey, or apple butter. I love it even more the next day as peanut butter french toast!

Apologies for the bad pic, I was fighting off hungry people.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3 tablespoon peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 3 cups of flour (see below) Flour is flexible in this recipe! You can use All-Purpose &/or Bread flour, & you can substitute a little semolina flour to make it even better. You can use up to 1 ½ cups of semolina flour. My favorite ratio is 2 cups AP flour with 1 cup Semolina flour. Let me know what you try, I love hearing about your baking!

If you use semolina flour, your dough will look like wet sand. That’s ok!

Instructions

• Combine the warm water, yeast, sugars, & honey. Let the yeast proof.
• Add the rest of the ingredients. If you measure the oil before the peanut butter, it will grease the measuring spoon so the peanut butter doesn’t stick. Mix well.

• Grease a bread pan (9x5inch pan) well. Add the bread dough, cover with a dish cloth, & let rise in a warm area for 1 hour. If you use most/all AP/Bread flour, your bread will have a nice rounded top that may rise a bit higher than the top of your bread pan. If you use a lot of semolina, like I did, it will probably not rise past the top of the bread pan.

• Heat the oven to 325°F (163°C).

• Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

• Cool the bread in the pan. The best way to do this is to lay the bread pan on its side. This allows more steam to escape, cooling the loaf faster & not allowing the bottom to get all soggy. Let the bread cool completely before slicing!

Finish Them!

My favorite ways to eat this bread are simply, with a bit of jam, or complicatedly, as french toast!

Past Recipes

• Vegan cake
• Plum tea.
• Wolfe3D shared his favorite pizza recipe in my first collaboration!
• Brownies (very good for beginner bakers!)
• Lemon Bars on an Olive Oil Shortbread Crust

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hello & Hello Again!

Every so often on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. You can find a complete list of the recipes at the end of this article. Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

This week, we’re making Gold Bars!

This is my absolute favorite citrus recipe. I make the filling with lemons,oranges or a combination of both! What really makes this recipe special, though, is the olive oil shortbread crust.

Shortbread Crust

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 325°F 3 (163°C).
• Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish & line it with enough parchment paper to hang over two sides. Without parchment paper, lifting the bars out of the pan without breaking them will be difficult.
• Mix flour, sugar, & salt in a medium bowl.
• Add the olive oil & mix just until a lumpy dough forms.
• Put the dough in the pan. pat flat with your hand, & prick all over with a fork.
• Bake for 50-55 minutes, rotating halfway through. You want the crust to be lightly golden brown. Remember that this is going back into the oven, so it shouldn’t get too dark!
• While that bakes, mix up the filling.

Lemon or Orange Filling

This recipe can be made with lemons or oranges or both. For simplicity’s sake, I am just going to say ‘lemon’ & we’ll all agree you can do whatever you want. Let me know if you try limes!

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 6 large eggs
• 7 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

• Combine the sugar, lemon juice, eggs, flour, oil, zest, & salt in a large bowl. Whisk until it is smooth.
• When the crust is puffed & golden brown, pull it out of the oven. Re-whisk the lemon mixture.
• Pour the mixture onto the hot crust, then return to the oven.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the edges are puffy & the center just barely jiggles when you nudge the pan.
• Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cover & refrigerate until cold.

Finish Them

Gold Bars are very tasty as they are, but there are a variety of toppings you can try! I don’t like my sweets to get too sweet- I usually just sprinkle a tiny pinch of salt on my Gold Bars while they cool on the wire rack. Of course, this is dessert. If you want sugar on top, I won’t stop you. Once the Gold Bars have fully cooled, you can dust the top with a bit of powdered sugar. However, if you really like your sweets sweet, you can make a glaze by whisking ½ cup of powdered sugar & 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Pour over the fully-cooled bars. Allow the glaze a few minutes to set- if the Gold Bars are fully cooled it won’t take too long! Once your topping has been applied, lift from the pan & cut into squares.

Past Recipes

• Vegan cake
• Plum tea.
• Wolfe3D shared his favorite pizza recipe in my first collaboration!
• Brownies (very good for beginner bakers!)

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Every so often on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. I’ve shared my favorite vegan cake recipe & my best plum tea. Wolfe3D shared his pizza recipe in my first collaboration! Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

We’re Making Brownies!

This is one of the oldest recipes in my collection. It is both simple & easy. According to my exhaustive research, there are infinite brownie recipes on the internet. There are prettier brownies, there are fancier brownies- but I can make these when I’m down to my last spoon. To me, recipes like this are invaluable!

Ingredients

• ¾ cup butter, melted & cooled enough that it won’t cook the eggs
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• Spices to taste (I use cardamom, cinnamon, & a touch of cloves.)
• ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoons salt

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).

• Grease an 8x8 pan. (If you use sticks of butter to bake this, you can use the paper wrappers to grease your pan. An 8x8 pan is small enough that there is usually enough butter left on one wrapper to grease the whole pan!)

• In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly.

• Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly.

• Combine the flour, cocoa, spices, baking powder, & salt in a separate container. Gradually blend this dry mixture into the egg mixture.

• Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

• Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

• Let the brownies cool completely in the pan. Do not rush this! If you cut them while they are still warm they will dry out fast & you will lose that wonderful brownie-y texture.

Quick History Lesson

There are many different stories about who invented brownies. The most popular claim is that brownies were created for an event at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. I would have thought such a simple, delicious dish was much older!

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

… Chibi?

Chibi is an art style of over-exaggeration. Its origins are said to date back to Japan’s Edo period. The contemporary form of chibi arose from Japanese anime & manga developed in the 1970s; original credit is often given to a robotic cat named Doraemon from a manga of the same name. Anime series such as Dragonball & Sailor Moon, Studio Ghibli movies, & popular merchandise lines such as Hello Kitty are often credited with spreading the art style around the world.

Isn’t That Just Kawaii?

Yes & no. Kawaii essentially means cute. Lots of things are cute without being chibi. Chibi is a subset of kawaii. Something that is chibi is kawaii, but not everything that is kawaii is chibi. The English word comes from the Japanese word chibi (ちび). This word is considered rude if used to describe an adult, but appropriate when used to describe small children, smol objects, or cute art.

It would be polite to call this lil friend a chibi-doragon (チビドラゴン)

The Momentous Importance of Epic Proportions

Chibi art follows a small number of extremely important rules. 1. Chibi characters have very large heads- often anywhere from ⅓ to ½ their total height. (A more realistic proportion would be for a person’s head to be ⅙ to ⅛ their height.) 2. Chibi faces are mostly filled with their huge eyes. The mouth is very small & the nose is often left out entirely. 3. Chibi characters follow an extremely minimalist design.There isn’t space for a lot of detail! Most chibi characters have simple outfits & accessories. Since their enormous heads are the focus, extra effort is usually put into their hair or hat. 4. It must be kawaii! I have seen some “gross” chibi characters as the art form develops over time, but even the gross ones are pretty cute!

TL;DR: Chibi characters’ features are pushed out of proportion to an almost obscene degree. That’s why the chibi style is sometimes referred to as the ‘super deformation’ style or ‘S.D.’ for short.

Contemporary Chibi

Chibi art has only grown in popularity over time. From Hello Kitty to Funko's Pop! Vinyl, this is a style people love. You don’t even have to like anime to want chibi action figures of your favorite live-action characters or mythical beasts.

How-To Books for Chibi Art

[Quick review of my review policy: All of them are unpaid & unsolicited!]

Cute Chibi Mythical Beasts & Magical Monsters by Phoebe Im You Can Draw Manga Chibis by Samantha Whitten & Jeannie Lee You Can Draw Manga Chibi Characters, Critters & Scenes by Samantha Whitten & Jeannie Lee Drawing Chibi by Kikai Anime Manga for the Beginner: Chibis by Christopher Hart Chibi Art Class by Yoai

Do you have a book recommendation? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Every 2 months or so on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. Last time Wolfe3D shared his pizza recipe in my first collaboration. The time before that, I shared my favorite vegan cake recipe Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

This week, we’re making Plum Tea!

This recipe is delicious hot or iced.

Ingredients

• 4 ripe plums
• 1 cup sugar – any kind
• 1 cup water
• Lots of ice
• Your favorite tea*

*I used Apricot Medley (#NotSponsored) this time, but have made this recipe in the past with many different herbal & black teas. Part of the fun of this recipe is getting to experiment with whatever tea you like!

Directions

• Stem, pit, & quarter 4 plums. You do not need to peel them. If the plums are very small, you only need to cut them in half- but you may need 5-6 plums to get the same results.

• Put the plums into a tall pot with 1 cup of water & 1 cup of sugar.

• Bring to a boil, remove pot from heat, & let sit, covered, for 20 min.

• Uncover, remove plums, & let the simple syrup cool.

• Pass the time by eating the extra-delicious plums on fruit salad, granola, ice cream, etc. They will keep in the fridge for at least a day, maybe longer- but they get eaten so fast in this house I’ve never managed to find out how long!

• Fill ½ of a pitcher with ice, then fill ⅓ of the pitcher with syrup

• Fill the rest of the pitcher with your favorite iced tea.

I love that this one recipe makes both drinks & snacks, with minimal effort. The hardest part is waiting for the syrup to cool!

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Alina Chau is an award-winning artist. You may know her past animation work on projects such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What you may not know is that she quit her job at LucasArts in order to pursue her own artistic dreams! Today, she is an author & illustrator whose palette, plants, & people absolutely blow me away. I have read every one of her books available at my library. Her words & watercolors are overwhelmingly beautiful.

Alina Chau, Illustrator

Bonnie's Rocket written by Emeline Lee Bonnie wants to build a rocket ship. Hundreds of miles away, her Baba is developing equipment for the Apollo 11 space mission. This story follows Bonnie as she tries several different rocket designs & gets letters from Baba talking about their work. The book includes several different rocket-building activities for children! It is best for ages 5 & up. If you have space-obsessed 3-4 year olds, you might be able to read it in sections as it is a bit long & wordy for small children. The activities look very fun & require supervision. A great book! If I worked with slightly older children I would definitely have this in my classroom. I spent more time than I should have painting scenes from Chau’s books this week

Lunar New Year written by Hannah Eliot This sweet book introduces the readers to the Chinese Zodiac & Spring Festival by showing how one family celebrates, taking the time to briefly explain the significance of their traditions. The illustrations are beautiful & detailed; there is so much to talk about on every page! A very fun & informative read, good for preschoolers as well as older children.

The Rise (and Falls) of Jackie Chan written by Kristen Mai Giang As you may have guessed from the title, this is a biography about the powerhouse stuntman & brilliant actor Jackie Chan. This book goes out of its way to emphasize how hard he trained & how careful he is about his work. I loved learning more about Jackie Chan’s life! This book would be good for ages 4 & up. There is a bilingual edition but I have only seen the English one.

Double Happiness written by Nancy Tupper Ling In a series of illustrated poems we follow our main character as she & her family moves very, very far away from her Aunt & Uncle & Nai Nai to a new home. This is a great book for children ages 5-8, with a very sweet story that demonstrates healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with something as emotionally stressful as moving house.

The Nian Monster written by Andrea Wang Three days before Chinese New Year, Xingling’s grandmother explains how many of their traditions are meant to keep the Nian Monster away. It’s a good thing she does, Nian returns to eat the city that very day! Can Xingling use her wits to save the day? I love both the story & the illustrations so much! Especially the paintings of the monster, which manage to be bright & colorful & intimidating all at once; that is a hard balance to strike! I would read this with anyone 3-5 years old, but older audiences will probably enjoy it, too.

In the Spirit of a Dream & We Are the Change, both collaborations with many artists I enjoyed both these books quite a lot! Unfortunately I read them so long ago I don’t remember specifics. It’s definitely worth checking out if your library has them!

Alina Chau, Author/Illustrator

Marshmallow & Jordan I absolutely love Marshmallow & Jordan! I sat down to read just the first few pages of this graphic novel one Saturday morning, & ended up finishing it in one sitting. On her way home from school, Jordan hears crying. She finds that it is a white elephant crying over their injured leg, & decides to bring it home to take care of it. The rest of the story is even more magical than the beginning! The characters are well-crafted & believable in a way most authors don’t manage when writing tweens/teens. Characters who use wheelchairs are few & far between in comics. Chau clearly put a lot of work into understanding how the main character would navigate her world in a wheelchair, & it shows. The character designs & environments are beautiful! The story is so compelling; it made me care about sports just because Jordan & the other characters do! This graphic novel is recommended for ages 8-12, but I think older readers will also like it.

Alina Chau, Unstoppable Force Of Nature

Chau’s creativity seems to know no bounds. Her style works well with many artists/authors. This article only managed to cover a small portion of her work; I had to cut myself off because it was getting so long. I look forward to seeing what she creates in the future!

Would you like to know more about a specific picture book or comic book illustrator? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

The Amazing Author/Illustrator

It absolutely breaks my heart that more people haven’t heard of cartoonist Nie Jun. His watercolor comics are beautiful. His use of greens stops me in my tracks page after page after page. He paints insects with as much love & attention as people. I spent this whole week finishing all my other work at the last minute because I wanted to paint so much of his!

He is the perfect author to continue my #WatercolorBooks series. I will be talking about watercolor comics & picture books & their illustrators from both an artists’ perspective as well as that of a preschool teacher, where applicable.

The Breathtaking Books

My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder is the loveliest comic I have ever read. The stories focus around a child named Yu’er, her grandfather, & the people in their small neighborhood. It is marketed towards 7-10 year old readers, but I’m in my 30s & enjoyed every page. Really, it is a book for everyone- although some of the storytelling devices may be a bit confusing for children younger than 7. All of my paintings were from this book.

I ran out of time to do anything beyond reading Seekers of the Aweto. Two brothers seek (can you guess? … No, what an odd guess! ) Aweto, aka little plant spirits that can be used for medicine. The first book was amazing! Nie Jun’s love of insects has been cranked up to 11, his mythical creatures are a sight to behold, & his landscapes are dazzling! This comic series is great for anyone ages 12 & older. The second Aweto book came out this year & my library has not gotten it yet. I am very excited to read it!

This is Yu-er’s grandfather, a true insect aficionado.

The Lovely Lianhuanhua

One of Nie Jun’s earliest inspirations was Lianhuanhua – old Chinese sequential art. Lianhuanhua was the precursor to modern Manhua – modern Chinese comics. It is a very interesting form of art worth checking out, if you're interested! While I have been calling Nie Jun an illustrator for clarity’s sake, he calls himself a Manhuajia, or ‘humorous cartoonist.’ Does the word ‘manhua’ sound familiar? It eventually made its way from China to Japan, when it became the word ‘manga’ we all know & love today.

Spoiler alert: cats are awesome.

Would you like to know more about a specific picture book or comic book illustrator? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hi folks! It's your friendly neighborhood Karin here! Now is an auspicious time to review my review policy. All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions. ~KW

Isabella Kung Knows All About Cats

Isabella Kung is an author & illustrator whose watercolor art has lived rent-free in my mind since the first time I read No Snowball. In an interview with CanvasRebel, Kung said, “Children are amazing and it is an absolute honor to delight and entertain them, to teach and show them our world, to empathize and tell them they are not alone…” This is exactly how I feel about reading with children. She is the perfect author to begin my #WatercolorBooks series. I will be talking about watercolor comics & picture books & their illustrators from both an aspiring artists’ perspective as well as that of an experienced preschool teacher, where applicable.

Watercolor cats are a weakness of mine

Kung is the Author/Illustrator of No Fuzzball! & its sequel No Snowball! She captures a wide array of the emotions – & the narcissism – of cats in these two picture books. No Fuzzball features bright illustrations focused around one adorable black cat, the eponymous Fuzzball. Fuzzball is an unreliable narrator, written in such a way as to be age appropriate for preschoolers. As a super fan of dialogic reading, I love this book. Talking about whether or not a character’s words match their actions has always led to very interesting talks with my students! In the sequel, No Snowball! the family adopts a new kitten. How will Fuzzball handle it? The answer is so sweet – not to mention so amusingly cat-like! – that this has become one of my standby books for children having trouble with the idea of becoming a ‘big sibling’.

I might have gotten distracted from writing this article by painting cats.

Kung is also the illustrator of Lesléa Newman’s A B C Cats & 1 2 3 Cats, which required her to illustrate over 120 cats. These books are wonderful! The illustrations are gorgeous. There is a rhythm to Newman’s rhyming that makes it extra fun to read, which is good because this seems like the type of book kids are going to want to hear over & over & over again.

Kung is a prolific illustrator whose work has won many awards & honorable mentions. This is one of my favorite of Kung’s illustrations, & here is a video of her painting it. Also deserving of mention is that her book titles both have punctuation, putting them in exalted ranks along with classics like Thud! & Guards! Guards!

What an adorable ball of demonic rage!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.