First Word

  Illustrator Interview Michelle Gamble   Q. What drew you to illustrate Ant Trails and Butterfly Dreams – A Story About Happiness ?   A. The author Selwa Berbawy Hamati had published three other books with my company, 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com). I painted on the side, and I rarely shared about my paintings. We were talking one day, and she mentioned her desire to write this children’s book based on her new book Real Resilience – Once Upon a Pandemic . I showed her some paintings, but cautioned I don’t like to paint cartoons. She loved my work and soon hired me to illustrate her children’s book. I was happy that she liked fine art and wouldn’t push to create cartoon-like characters, but more fun and beautiful paintings. In fact, she loved the cover so much she bought the original. Q. How did you decide on the style of the paintings? A. I wanted the illustrations to create a fun, bright, happy world to convey the theme of the book,...

Children's Picture Book Author: Carol Shaver Illustrator: Rachel Smith This enchanting new children's book from my company 3L Publishing was an absolute joy and pleasure to publish. The sweet author who is full of moxy and passion wanted her precious story about a little bear named Cubby who dreamed of flying taken from her imagination to the page. She was able to achieve her goals by working with the incredible talents of Rachel Smith, one of our favorite illustrators. The book's theme is simple: no dream is impossible! All children's books should be distilled down to simple concepts. When you can distill your story thematically down then the story becomes focused and clear to the reader. For children a simple idea is the best. This book is also uniquely different because its size is 11 x 14, which means it's tall and wide. Carol was thrilled with the idea so that little eyes and fingers could take in the vibrant action depicted on the pages. Turning the...