Breakout Session: Technique and Style with Rashin Kheiryeh

Rashin Kheiriyeh is an internationally recognized, award-winning illustrator/author, animator and painter. She's illustrated almost 100 children’s books in countries such as United State, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Emirates, Ukraine, Turkey, Spain, South Korea, China, Brazil, India and in her home country of Iran, Rashin is also known as the character artist of the most popular Iranian animated TV series there, Shekarestan (Sugarland).

Rashin shares a quick tour of her 3rd floor Washington D.C. art studio with us, she loves all the bright light she gets, so helpful for painting. 

She walks us through her illustration career path: First making art at home as a child, then focusing on it in school before hustling for children's illustration jobs by approaching local magazines and entering bigger and bigger illustration competitions. Those actions lead to her garnering the attention of international book publishers, and almost 100 books later, Rashin shares a live painting demo with session attendees.

Rashin in her Washington D.C. studio

Characters from Shekarestan TV series, Iran's most popular animated show

Rashin shared her process for starting a book's illustrations. Once she receives the finished manuscript, she reads it and then sits with it for a while which lets her dream about it and try to get connected to it. Early on is the best time for an illustrator to ask the author any questions they might have: What she or he was feeling about the characters, the environment, etc. For Rashin, the sketching part is the most important fundamental part of the picture book making process: Deciding the look of the character, the compositions, the placement of the text and the the the entire layout of the interior. For Rashin this can take 5-6 months and a lot of back and forth before everything is approved, but then it's time for the most exciting part of the job for her—painting the final illustrations.

Rashin's latest book with Beach Lane Books

As Rashin paints for us she talks about how she decides what kind of medium, technique, materials, and color palettes she wants to use for final art—big questions that every illustrator has to grapple with at the start of every new book.

Rashin's live painting demo during her breakout session