The Magnificent Julie Rowan-Zoch

Through the 12x12 Picture Book Challenge, I have met many talented illustrators, some of whom became good friends (and two of those are also my wonderful critique group mates!). Julie Rowan-Zoch is one of good friends who constantly inspires me.

We exchanged postcards one day recently - that's fun! I need to exchange with my artist/illustrator friends more often - and I was so taken by them, I had to share with the world (or at least the small percentage of the world that reads my blog).

Here are Julie's business card and promotional postcard:

This is the front of the promotional postcard. It's brilliant the way she tied the front and the back together around the central characters.

One of the things I admire most about Julie's work is how she can make a piece look so simple and yet convey such emotions and narrative at the same time.

Is this darling, or what? Reminds me of the fun time I spent in the Netherlands...but much cuter.

 In addition to being super talented, Julie is also generous. She created illustrations to celebrate all her Facebook friends' birthdays. Here's one she made for me the first year I "met" her:

 And this is the one for last year:

a little frog must have told her I've owned chickens for about 12 years

Julie's talent has now been recognized far and wide and she's been signed by the prestigious Wernick & Pratt literary agency. Check out Julie's success story at Julie Hedlund's site.

Hope you'll go look at some of Julie's art at her website and Facebook page. You'll be glad you did!

p.s. following advice from my very wise friend, Sylvia Liu, I am changing comments back to being always open

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams