What did I like as a kid?

[Kristen Lango]

@Mike-Marttila Happy to be of some use to you and your creative journey I loved looking at yours! It's so cool to see the things that stuck with other creatives

[Kristen Lango]

Hey guys! In keeping with this thread I've been collecting images of the covers of my favorite books I've recently rented from the library. Hope you enjoy seeing this - I'd love to know your recommendations for what else I should check out

[PenAndrew]

@Kristen-Lango Thanks It is great to see as I don't see American books or even libraries!

[Patricia Dishmon]

You know, I was about to comment here all disappointed because I never read children's books as a kid. But now I'm actually really inspired from seeing everyone else's mood boards.

[PenAndrew]

@Kristen-Lango I am now collecting images to make one of these boards.

[PenAndrew]

@Patricia-Dishmon Yes, I am like you. I mainly consumed cartoons, comics and movies so my board will reflect this.

[Kristen Lango]

@PenAndrew That's awesome!! I'm glad I could get the ball rolling

[Patricia Dishmon]

Here is my mood board! @PenAndrew it's mostly cartoons! I threw a couple of dolls in there lol

I went for things that I LOVED as a kid vs things I enjoyed or just kinda liked. I chose things that made my kid brain go haywire. They inspired me to be creative back then and still do now!

[PenAndrew]

Here's more of an illustrator that appeared at the end of my childhood but I loved and his work bridged comics with children's books. That's probably why I loved the idea of doing both. I discovered most of my love of children's books through my nephews and nieces. I really love Tony Ross's illustrations. I found this old copy of Jim and The Beanstalk. Anthony Brown is the king of animal illustrations.

[Kristen Lango]

@PenAndrew Love the Gruffalo and Scheffler's work!

[kirsten-mcg]

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This is such a good idea! Something I've been thinking about lately is how who we were as children is often the most authentic version of who we are. So I just had to put together my own mood board! It's funny looking back on everything I loved. My parents were anti-television, so mostly it's just books. (though I did occasionally watch movies at my grandma's house!)

[Robert Henderson]

@Kristen-Lango

I like this idea, it keeps inspired and on track plus it is just so much fun to muse through all the creative work.

Thanks for posting and have fun with your studies.

[Kristen Lango]

@Robert-Henderson @kirsten-mcg I'm glad you both like the idea! It's great to see what others were influenced by, thanks for sharing!

[LauraA]

@Kristen-Lango I love this idea! I don't know if I have time to do this exercise right now, but I'll just say that you guys could all be my kids!

As a kid I liked: The Snowy Day, Walter Farley, Garth Williams, Tasha Tudor, and Trina Schart Hyman. And anything that had folk costumes in it.

You can do the math if you want...

[Kristen Lango]

@LauraA thanks for sharing Laura! I'm totally with you on the folk costumes! I used to be involved with a polish folk dance group in Milwaukee, and my goodness the color and design inspiration from those folk dresses

I still revisit it in my work sometimes when I play with gouache

[PenAndrew]

@Kristen-Lango I really like this style.

[Kristen Lango]

@PenAndrew Thank you! I definitely want to do more full spread illustrations in just gouache

[Kristen Lango]

Here are some books I've recently rented for inspiration

[HeatherB]

This was a really fun little dive, I am still highly motivated by almost all of these lol

[Kim Rosenlof]

@Kristen-Lango I love the colors on the Wildfire and Mel Fell books. I haven't see the Wildfire book before, I will have to go look for it.