Children’s picture books
Guests for the Illustration for Children season podcast are award winners, Jane Buckley, Senior Art Director children’s picture books, Simon & Schuster and illustrator Chanté Timothy. With host, Rachel Emily Taylor.
Our guests discuss how an art director works with an illustrator, what you should include in a children’s book portfolio, what the book making process is, promoting the book after publication and more.
Find out the backgrounds of our podcast guests and host below, and listen below or search Inside Illustration on Spotify, Apple or where you find your podcasts.
Jane Buckley, Senior Art Director children’s picture books, Simon & Schuster
Random House, Little Tiger Press, Kingfisher and Dorling Kindersley. Throughout her career she’s worked with a variety of award-winning illustrators such as Benji Davies, Sara Ogilvie, Nadia Shireen, Liz Pichon and Kate Hindley.
Jane started her journey studying Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, and as a painter and film maker with a keen eye for a good story, the picture book world soon beckoned. Through her determination and hard work she now finds herself as Senior Art Director of Picture Books at Simon & Schuster UK.
Chanté Timothy, Illustrator
Chanté, who was long listed for the Klaus Flugge Prize in 2023, is an illustrator who loves experimenting with movement, vibrant colour, character design and storytelling.
The second in her series with author Tola Okogwu, Daddy Do My Hair: Deji’s haircut is recently published, she has also contributed illustrations for, amongst others, Hey You! by Dapo Adeola, where she was part of a team of 19 Black illustrators creating illustrations for the title, which won Book of the Year: Children’s Illustrated at the 2022 British Book Awards. Coming up in 2023 is Keisha Jones Takes one the World, the first part of a series written by Natalie Denny which Chanté illustrated.
Chanté is a Pathways into Children’s Publishing 2019 – 2021 Alumni.
Dr Rachel Emily Taylor, podcast host
Rachel is the Course Leader of BA Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. She has undertaken residencies at the Foundling Museum, the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Bowes Museum, and the Horniman Museum.
Her research explores how illustration practice might communicate the historical person’s ‘voice’ and examines the value of multiple voices in the museum.
Rachel’s book, Illustration and Heritage, explores the re-materialisation of absent, lost, and invisible stories through illustrative practice and examines the potential role of contemporary illustration in cultural heritage.
