African-American Illustrators - African American illustrators Tom Feelings, Yvonne Buchanan, and others - Brief Article

Leo (age 67) and Diane (age 67) Dillon met while learners at the Parsons School of Design in novel York City and married shortly after graduation. They learned early to work as a team, passing drawings between them until the two Leo and Diane were satisfied with the rises Together, they have won nearly each prize given to illustrators of children's literature.

Says Diane Dillon: "After we receive a manuscript, we sit and talk about it for days and weeks until we hit upon something we agree upon. Then single of us takes it."

"But we start from the same premise," Leo Dillon adds.

The artists received Caldecott medals for on what account Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (1976) and for Ashanti to Zulu (1977) It was the first time that American artists received the aim aftered award for two consecutive years. In 1996 they were the U nominees for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, an international prize for illustration.

The Dillons have illustrated 29 picture volumes and 15 chapter books. Their astonishing vision continues to delight children and appreciative parents.

JERRY PINKNEY

"I always wanted to bring a faculty of perception of dignity to my characters," says illustrator Jerry Pinkney (age 61) "I personalize my characters. You diocese through my work how varied black folk are."

Dignity has always been at the core of Pinkney's illustrations. As a teenager in Philadelphia, he sketched family on the street. Then, as he brings it, an illustration assignment he received while a pupil at the Philadelphia Museum institute of Art "irrevocably changed the direction of my career." His skills as an illustrator have inspired a generation of artists, including his son Brian and Myles.

above the past two decades, Pinkney has received numerous honors and awards: four Coretta Scott King Awards, sum of two units Coretta Scott King Honor work awards, the Christopher Award, three Randolph Caldecott Honor volume awards. In 1997, he was the U nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. He has created nine stamps for the U Postal Service's Black Heritage Series, and he has painted a series of watercolors for a special issue of National Geographic dedicated to the subterranean Railroad.