Author Panel: Birth of a Picture Book - Suzanne Kaufman

Suzanne Kaufman

Suzanne Kaufman is an author-illustrator of Confiscated. She has also illustrated several other picture books, including the New York Times bestselling picture book, All Are Welcome and the recently released Take Your Pet to School Day.

She shared that her creation process is complete and utter failure and displays a slide with a stack of sketchbooks several feet high, which she would "rather call play." Suzanne also considers her work to be therapy. When she's sad about the world, she creates art.

Working on nonfiction picture books gives her so much freedom, citing her work on 100 Bugs: A Counting Book. She also shared that she looks for real people—that unique, authentic self—to portray.

Her most recent release

How do you choose touches that are unique to the book you are working on?
When asked what touches are unique to books you work on, Suzanne shared, "It's subversive. The librarian in All Are Welcome is Maya Angelou. I put as much as I can in each illustration. Basquiat is my biggest inspiration."

For more information about Suzanne and her work, visit her website or follow her on Twitter.

Suzanne Kaufman: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY15SCBWI

Suzanne had a great thing happen to her at the conference - her work was selected as an honor winner in the Porfolio Showcase!

Suzanne Kaufman

More about Suzanne:

Born in the Midwest, Suzanne Kaufman grew up on healthy doses of Saturday morning cartoons and macaroni and cheese. She has been monkeying around with children’s books, animation and cartoons since she was little.

Over the years, she’s done everything from animating special effects for Universal and Discovery, to animating award-winning videogames. One of those games—Sly Cooper—won the Children’s Title of the Year award. She currently lives in Seattle with her sweet husband and two energetic daughters and is a senior lecturer for film and video game animation. She’s the author/illustrator I LOVE MONKEY. You can visit www.suzannekaufman.blogspot.com to check out her sketch of the day.

Suzanne's website: http://suzannekaufman.com/ 

Portfolio Showcase Award Winners Announcement

It's an exciting moment as Sarah Baker announces the two honorees and the winner, who will get three appointments with art directors!

Winner: Mika Song

 Honors: Jean Kim

 Suzanne Kaufman 

Suzanne Kaufman: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

Suzanne is in with two images from Laurent Linn's "Implementing Self Promotion For Illustrators" breakout workshop,

And two images from Holly McGhee's breakout workshop, "Developing Your Illustration Style/Brand":

Suzanne Kaufman is a award winning animator/author/illustrator of I LOVE MONKEY and just released her first Kindle book PRINCESS AND THE PEA for Amazon Children’s Publishing. Over the years, she’s done everything from animating special effects for Universal and Discovery, to animating award-winning video games. Before moving into children’s book publishing she was the Animation Lead at Sucker Punch Productions for Sly Cooper trilogy of games that were awarded the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences “Innovation in Art Direction”, “Innovation in Animation” and “Children’s Title of the Year”. She lives in Seattle and teaches character animation and illustration at Digipen Institute of Technology.



Find out more at www.suzannekaufman.com and www.suzannekaufman.blogspot.com for her sketch of the days post.