Illustrators of children’s books work in a unique profession: Their practices are at the intersection of various, sometimes opposing, forces including their personal, artistic vision, their professional conventions, and the social, educational functions of their books. Involving five accomplished contemporary illustrators of children’s picture books who actively engage with diversity issues, this project explores how they navigate such a complex landscape. Through interviews with the artists as well as analysis of their books, their previous interviews, talks, writings, and other artifacts, I locate three areas of practice that proved to be productive sites of negotiation and meaning making: the illustrators’ stylistic expression; their experience as picture book makers, including both industry-specific and medium-specific practices; and their handling of diversity. Analysis reveals the complexity of illustration work. Specifically, the artists’ style is a result of material transaction with the medium and features a tension between consistency and change. It is both personal expression and play and a source of meanings for storytelling purposes. Second, as applied, professional artists, the illustrators have to balance personal interests, practical constraints, and relationships. Illustrating is a complex artistic-intellectual engagement that depends on the fundamental practice of making to know. Third, the participants grappled with the inadequacy of the language of diversity but were ultimately positive. Their contribution to diversity includes both an interpersonal mode of participation, a pedagogical mode of representation in which they deliberately and strategically include images of diversity in their art, and an artistic mode of making as an exercise in intuition, experimentation, and play. This study contributes to knowledge about how picture book artists work and hopes to inspire more effective and enriching engagement with picture books.
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