Well, there is a difference in how I approach the books, the variety of books that I work on. I would say that when I write and illustrate my own work, now I have learned to first write the story and then take the manuscript and, like if it weren’t mine, and then think, put my illustrator hat on, and think about how best to illustrate this book.
It has taken me many years to think that way, but I had a very good teacher in one of my editors who taught me this very valuable lesson. And it’s very good that I do it this way because since I do different kinds of books, it is almost like
it is almost like if I had to
to change the zone.
When I am doing a picture book it’s different than when I am… retelling myths, legends, and folktales from Latin America or when I am
lately I’ve done a YA (young adult) book. So it is all very different. In terms of illustration, illustration my own
illustrating my own work or illustrating another author’s work now has become about the same thing because as I said, I really approach
I take the manuscript and I try to do the best, what the manuscript is telling me that I need to do for it.
And if you see as an illustrator, if you look at all the books that I have done, I wouldn’t think that if you don’t see the
if you’re not
if you don’t know the name of the illustrator, you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s the same person because sometimes I change techniques and ways of approaching the illustration drastically.
So I don’t know that that is good or bad. But in terms of illustrating other authors’ work, I would say that one thing that I really love is to get in touch with that author and have a conversation. I think that the book benefits tremendously from that. I am very open at what the author has to say.
And so far my experience has been that the author really is very open as to how I see things. So it’s been very enriching for every single project in which I have worked with another author.