Nicole Tadgell, Illustrator
How long have you been illustrating?
Children's books since 1999. Other works since I was a teenager.
Who Is Your favorite illustrator?
Just one?? That's hard. Trina Schart Hyman, if I had to pick just one. Others would be Wendy Pini, Jerry Pinkney, E.B. Lewis, Jan Ormerod, Alfonse Mucha.
What is your favorite illustration?
One that I did? Probably "Jewelweed Fairy". One from someone else? Probably a scene from Trina Schart Hyman's "Snow White".
What is your latest project?
I just completed some illustrations for Scholastic Instructional, about the Underground Railroad.
Describe your illustrations (type of colors, character type)
I use watercolor and pencil. My art is lively, expressive and kind of sketchy and loose. I love real characters, based on people I know or have met.
What are your future goals?
To do my best work, to have each project out-do the one before it, and keep improving.
What advice would you give aspiring illustrators?
Learn all you can about drawing. Observe. Draw everything, even (perhaps especially) things you don't like. Make everything interesting.
What books have you illustrated?
"Lights Out!" by Angela Shelf Medearis. Color-Bridge Books, 2004.
"A Day With Daddy" by Nikki Grimes. Color-Bridge Books, 2004.
"Moving Day Surprise" by Tina Stolberg. Bebop Books, 2002.
"Fatuma's New Cloth" by Leslie Bulion. Moon Mountain, 2002.
"Joe Joe in the City" Series by Jean Alicia Elster. Judson Press, 2001-03
Nicole Tadgell is an illustrator of children's books. Her first book, "Fatuma's New Cloth" won the 2003 Children's Africana Book Award.
About Nicole Tadgell:
Today, Nicole has eight books and numerous educational pieces published. “I love working on children¹s books,” Nicole says. “Sometimes I pretend I¹m the kid in the book, and do the things they do in the story to really get a feel for each book.”
When she's not drawing, she likes to go hiking with her dogs, working in the garden, reading, quilting, knitting, birdwatching and canoeing.
