I’m so excited to introduce the first KidLit Connection illustrator of 2023! Luciana Navarro Powell is a multimedia artist originally from Brazil and living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of Washington. Her illustrations vary from colorful and fun to mysterious and moody. Luciana’s versatility in mediums and style has resulted in more than a dozen books and many magazine illustrations as well. Her love of the outdoors and observations from nature and the places she’s lived inspire her engaging compositions and color palette. Her illustrations bring to life so many great stories for kids.
Luciana has a background in product design and graphic design, but began her full-time venture into illustration in 2001. Her most recently published book, Happy Birthday, Belly Button (written by Kalli Dakos) just released this week! So, happy book birthday to her! And she has another amazing book, Light Speaks (written by Christine Layton) releasing in April this year as well, available for pre-order. Plus, Two Measly Spots (written by Elaine Gast Fawcett and Sue Schwartzman) was also released earlier this year by independent publisher UpSpot Publishing! Luciana has been very busy with so many book projects. To learn more about all of Luciana’s books and upcoming releases, visit her website at www.lucianaillustration.com.
Be sure to read to the end to find out how you can get a signed art print from Luciana!
An Interview with Luciana Navarro Powell, Picture Book Illustrator
We’d love to know more about you as an illustrator. What inspires you and your art and what do you love about your job creating books for kids?
Thank you so much for having me in your blog! I loved drawing as a kid, and when I was 10 my parents enrolled me in a painting class with a local famous painter in the city I grew up in Brazil. I always enjoyed looking at art, loved Art History classes, but never thought about it as a career. A lot of things inspire me, I look at the world through my pair of illustrator glasses. What color would I use to paint the leaves on that tree, How would I illustrate the sun rays filtering through the tree branches, what shade of blue would I use to paint that tree shadow—that is my brain when I’m outside going for a walk. Absolutely everything is an illustration subject to me.
How did you start making art for picture books? What inspired you to pursue this type of work?
I started taking freelance jobs in illustration when I still lived in Brazil. When I was still in college—I majored in Industrial Design—I connected with an editor that worked with master and doctorate students at the University I studied. She edited their thesis, usually from Humanities majors, and made them into books. I designed the covers and sometimes illustrated interior pages. That led me to illustrate a series of educational materials she edited for a governmental institution that supported agricultural communities, and I really enjoyed doing illustrations for children. From then on illustration for kids publications became my focus.
Happy book birthday this month to HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BELLY BUTTON! Your newest book, written by Kalli Dakos, and published by Amicus Ink, is now available and I’m so excited! Can you tell us more about this book?
Thank you! Kalli Dakos is the author and she is a veteran poet for children with many books published, and reading specialist. The book is about a joyful child who celebrates being one year older, calling out body parts from head to toe that have grown since their last birthday. It’s fun and exuberant and a great read aloud with toddlers and preschoolers, to celebrate a birthday of just the wonderment of growing up!
For this book I used soft pastels, mostly white backgrounds and a bright palette to convey the energy and joyful moments for that kid’s special day.
You also have another book coming out later this spring, LIGHT SPEAKS, written by Christine Layton, and published by Tilbury House. I’m so excited about the art for this—it looks gorgeous! Would you tell us more about it?
Thank you! For Light Speaks I went almost the opposite direction, visually. Because the book is about light, a lot of the pages are dark—either night time or in the darkness of the universe with contrasting bright galaxies. The text by Christine Layton is beautiful—even though it’s nonfiction, it’s sparse and lyrical, and I approached it with a slightly less finished look and bolder composition to try to convey the different aspects of light through the book.
What was your favorite part about illustrating these two books? Additionally, what was one of your greatest challenges working on them?
I love how completely different they are! Happy Birthday, Belly Button is playful and festive, a romp, with a delicious silliness to it. Light Speaks has a touch of mystery, almost—how light manifests in different ways, from the grandiosity of the Big Bang to the small tragedy of the baby turtles being led the wrong way by artificial light. The challenge for Happy Birthday was how to make the story about different body parts into something cohesive—so I created the second layer narrative of the child getting ready for the guests that show up at the party. That is the beauty of the Picture Book, the alchemy of text and pictures.
A similar challenge was tackled in Light Speaks—I weaved a second narrative of the children in the seaside town. They walk at night, catching fire flies with their family and head to the bonfire party at the beach in the end.
We’d love to hear about your process for creating picture book art. Could you share more about your mediums and how you work?
For each book I use a slightly different approach. I always start sketching on paper. I create some parts of the art using analog methods, and everything gets scanned and comes together digitally in Photoshop. For Happy Birthday, Belly Button I wanted to convey a lightness and energy to that rambunctious child. I used pan pastels, color pencils and watercolors, as well as some acrylic for heavier brush strokes.
For Light Speaks I used stencils and acrylic paints, creating some swatches of color and textured that I scanned and later composed on Photoshop. I also used some real light to illustrate! The stars were created by perforating a paper bag and photographing tiny spots of real sunlight inside—check the photo! The Big Bang light explosion is a real light reflection on walls, using some crystal pieces. It was super fun to play with real light to create art for this book about Light.
Could you tell us more about how nature inspires your work and what role it has in your art?
As I mentioned, I walk in the world wearing my Illustrator Glasses—I see everything as if I was going to illustrate it for a book: colors, shapes, peoples faces. I also LOVE plein air painting. My favorite thing to do with my family is adventuring outdoors. I often bring my watercolors and paint where we are! I have painted in a few National Parks, you can see some of my paintings in the Personal Work link on my website!
You also have other book projects you’ve been working on. Can you tell us more about them?
I am currently working on illustration for textbooks, and also a series of 4 board books that I’m preparing for my agent to start pitching to editors. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
What is your greatest hope for your work as a kids’ book illustrator?
My hope is that my illustrations help kids to get lost in the books they are reading—feeding their imaginations as they read, and after. When that happens, there is a good chance that this kid will become a lifelong inquisitive, curious, critical thinker reader—and consequently a better citizen and steward of this planet.
Learn More About Luciana
To learn and see more from Luciana Navarro Powell, visit her on her website and social media.
Review Luciana’s Books and Get an Art Print!
Luciana is offering a special promotion to anyone (US residents only) who purchases and reviews online any of her books. Follow her on social media (Twitter or Instagram) and DM her proof of purchase and screen shot of review (either Amazon, GoodReads, Indiebound, or all) and she will mail you 1 signed, 6×8″ fine-art paper print of any page you choose from the book you purchased/reviewed.
Luciana is represented by Deborah Warren at East West Literary Agency.
Are you a published or soon-to-be published illustrator or author/illustrator who loves creating books about nature, animals, or the environment? I’d love to chat with you for a KidLit Connection interview! Send me a message.
I saw your work at the illustration Showcase in Seattle.