Eric Carle's Blog

Eric Carle

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of the more than 70 picture books that I have written and/or illustrated. I was born in the U.S. and was raised in Germany. My background is in graphic design but since the late 1960's when I illustrated Bill Martin Jr's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I have been creating books for children. My illustrations are collages made with my own hand-painted tissue papers, a technique many children have replicated and enjoyed in their classrooms and at home."
http://www.ericcarleblog.blogspot.com/

Alexis Deacon Master Draughtsman

it's good to see picture book illustrators that also have exquisite draftsmanship qualities:

http://www.alexisdeacon.co.uk/galleries/punch/index.html

from an article in the guardian:
"A distinguishing feature of Deacon's illustration is the unusual quality of the line, which he achieves by photocopying and enlarging his original drawings. He started this when he didn't have the confidence to work on a larger scale, and he found that the photocopier gave the line "bulk and body", enabling him to develop the drawing with greater freedom. He also takes an inventive approach to colour, which involves oiling the paper to make it transparent, then applying paint from behind. This gives the illustration a muted luminosity without obscuring the line"
which can be read in full here which also includes some quite sad and worrying information about Deacon's health::
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/24/featuresreviews.guardianreview24