Meet illustrator Colleen Kong-Savage

Today, I’m thrilled to talk to illustrator and artist Colleen Kong-Savage. I also had the pleasure of meeting her in real life at ALA in Philly! She’s a blast to be with! We also have a book together coming out TOMORROW, and she will talk about Fortune Cookies for Everyone! too!

Q1: What was your journey to becoming a children’s book illustrator?

Full transparency—it’s taken me well over a decade to get to this very modest point. I used to focus on fine arts. I worked large. Big things are so satisfying to make, but who has room for large work in NYC? So I moved on to design and illustration. For a while, it was for small businesses. But I so love picture books: the stories, the voices, and the variety of illustration styles. Even before I had my child—now an adult—I’d spend hours relishing them on the floor of Books of Wonder. Picture books are perfect capsules of art and text, with which we communicate our humanity in a way that even a child can understand.

Q2: What kinds of artistic media do you create art in?

As an illustrator, I’m known for my mixed media paper collage. As a teaching artist, I’m known as a muralist. I’ve been toying with the idea of combining the two disciplines. This spring, I did my first large-scale collaborative collage with three classes of 3-12-year-olds. Students painted big sheets of Kraft paper, which I cut and collaged into a simple cityscape. They also did self-portraits to populate the windows. I think we were all pleased with the final work… however, I was reminded why I am now an illustrator, not a fine artist—where am I supposed to put this big thing? Luckily, NYPL BookOps said they need something for their walls in their Youth Collections department, so we are donating it to them.

Q3: What was the biggest challenge in illustrating Fortune Cookies for Everyone!?

The biggest challenge was to illustrate a story of the past, anchored in the present. I very briefly entertained the idea of doing all the historic scenes in sepia-toned black and white, but I wasn’t willing to give up color for half the book. Ultimately, isn’t history part of the here and now? I went for a surreal mingling of the past and present in each scene. In addition to allowing our main characters to interact with characters long gone, I also used the patterns in Grandma’s wallpaper and scrapbook in every history scene to further the bond between various time periods. Plus, every now and then, I’d work spirals into the composition to indicate to the reader that there was a transition.

Q4: You have lived all over the world, including the Philippines, Zambia, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, and now New York City. How has that affected your creative style?

I’m not sure it has… but I do enjoy the fact that the papers I work with also come from all over the world.

Q5: What’s next for you?

I’m working on a book about NYC! I’m so excited. Fifteen years ago, I completed my very first picture book manuscript, “Subway Line to Bedtime.” It was inspired by my daughter, who was always pestering her dad for anecdotes about the subway. Editors said the manuscript featured too much New York, which would limit the market for the book. So I took NYC out, reworked it, and it evolved, but didn’t go anywhere… until Red Comet Press happened to mention that they would love to do a book about NYC. So I’m reworking the manuscript yet again, the whole story, this time trying to cram as much of this beloved city into its pages.

Photo by David Handschuh

p.s. Related posts:

Meet Kai Gietzen, illustrator of Boxer Baby Battles Bedtime!

Meet Mike Yuen-Killick, Editorial and Creative Director at Red Comet Press!

SUMO JOE Illustrator Nat Iwata

Meet My Kids: Guess Who?