© D. Yael Bernhard See the lioness hiding in this grass? Hopefully it takes a little effort, as this is an illustration from my second picture book, published in 1992 by Holiday House, titled "Alphabeasts: A Hide-&-Seek Alphabet Book." Though I was both author and illustrator, there wasn't any writing – just the name of one animal per page representing a letter of the alphabet. The challenge of illustrating this book was hiding the subject matter – frogs blending into lily pads, hummingbirds hovering among flowering cacti, lizards lurking among houseplants – yet once young readers find the creature, it must be obvious that it’s there. It took a lot of thought to figure out how to do this. I learned a lot about how animals are camouflaged in nature – an elk’s antlers among the criss-crossed branches of trees; an ape’s mask-like face just another patch of shadow among big jungle leaves; a caterpillar creeping among the patterns of foliage, and so on.
Share this post
Image of the Week: L is for Lioness
Share this post
© D. Yael Bernhard See the lioness hiding in this grass? Hopefully it takes a little effort, as this is an illustration from my second picture book, published in 1992 by Holiday House, titled "Alphabeasts: A Hide-&-Seek Alphabet Book." Though I was both author and illustrator, there wasn't any writing – just the name of one animal per page representing a letter of the alphabet. The challenge of illustrating this book was hiding the subject matter – frogs blending into lily pads, hummingbirds hovering among flowering cacti, lizards lurking among houseplants – yet once young readers find the creature, it must be obvious that it’s there. It took a lot of thought to figure out how to do this. I learned a lot about how animals are camouflaged in nature – an elk’s antlers among the criss-crossed branches of trees; an ape’s mask-like face just another patch of shadow among big jungle leaves; a caterpillar creeping among the patterns of foliage, and so on.