childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - pussageno
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - pussageno
John Aardema
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illustration - pussageno-Of course, Papageno is the bird-catching character from Mozart's "The Magic Flute".  I must tell you that inspiration for this picture also came from Nick Cave's Soundsuits.

How many birds do you know?

A robin?
A black-capped chickadee?
A blue jay?
A red-headed woodpecker?
An owl?
A red-winged blackbird?
A parakeet?
A parrot?
A quail?
A grackle?
A cockatoo?
A toucan?
A sparrow?
A pheasant?
A cardinal?
A bluebird?
A kingfisher?
An oriole?
A purple finch?
A yellow finch?
A scarlet tanager?
A creeping nuthatch?
A ruby-throated hummingbird?

See, I bet you know a lot more than you thought you did! - Aardema, John
Of course, Papageno is the bird-catching character from Mozart's "The Magic Flute". I must tell you that inspiration for this picture also came from Nick Cave's Soundsuits. How many birds do you know? A robin? A black-capped chickadee? A blue jay? A red-headed woodpecker? An owl? A red-winged blackbird? A parakeet? A parrot? A quail? A grackle? A cockatoo? A toucan? A sparrow? A pheasant? A cardinal? A bluebird? A kingfisher? An oriole? A purple finch? A yellow finch? A scarlet tanager? A creeping nuthatch? A ruby-throated hummingbird? See, I bet you know a lot more than you thought you did!
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Next four illustrations from John Aardema:
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - claude claude the vampire moth-This is Claude Claude. He's the main character in my picture book dummy--Claude Claude, The Vampire Moth-- which won first place in the 2006 SmartWriters.com book dummy division! Yay, me!
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - claude's class-This is Claude Claude's classroom. He's not there because he's skipping school. He must be celebrating the fact that I won first place in the 2006 SmartWriters.com book dummy division.
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - verve-An art director told me she really liked my work, but asked if I could draw a character consistently over the amount of illustrations needed for a picture book. She suggested that I draw some animal characters in different positions and add it to my portfolio.

I wanted animals that were very different from each other, and I decided the group would consist of a mammal, a bird, and an amphibian. South Africa’s indigenous species gave me a variety to choose from. Here is the next character study in the series. Verve is the first character I drew. I picked a vervet monkey because I liked the challenge of drawing a character with a face that is all black. It’s a unique look and it gave me a character that’s very visually striking.
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - crockadilly-Here is the another character study in the series. I drew the bird and the monkey, and had decided the next character would be an amphibian. I wanted a water character to keep the group well-rounded. I chose a crocodile because that would give me a tall, upright character. I also decided to make the crocodile uncrocodile-like by giving her the personality of a little girl. The color pink was an afterthought. Since the other two characters were of a warm palette, and the environment she would be drawn in would either be blue (water) or green (jungle), I picked a color that would visually tie her to the other characters and make her stand out from the background.
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - pussageno childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - pussageno
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - pussageno
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - pussageno
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