I'm in awe of illustrators. I think it's because I can't even color inside the lines. And my stick figures never resemble people. Sadly, I can only draw with words. But luckily, we have folks like Karen Lee around to make up for those of us with an inaptitude for art. Her latest picture book, My Even Day, by Doris Fisher and Dani Sneed (a couple of my local SCBWI friends), is definite proof of her wonderful illustrating skills. I asked Karen a few nosy questions, and she gave me some thoughtful answers.

1.)    Your illos have such deep colors and a fantasy feel to them. Have you ever illustrated anything with a more "portrait" look? Would you like to?

It's interesting to me that you see the colors as deep. I work in watercolor and I am always trying to get the color richer and since it is inherently a transparent medium it doesn't want to be deeper and richer. I have had more than a few people suggest that it may be time for me to switch to an opaque paint but I keep falling back on this old technique. I did more portraity kinds of work in college and on my own early in my career but it's been a while. I would love to come back to it again someday!

2.) What inspires your illos? Any particular music or cartoons?

I have so many influences and am inspired by so many things it's hard to nail them down but I find myself looking at the same artist's work over and over.  Kadir Nelson, Tony DiTerrlizzi, Peter Ferguson, my old friend NC Wyeth and Adam Rex all have dynamic drawing and powerful compositions. I also love Tim Burton's movies and his musical cohort Danny Elfman's scores. I love unusual instrumentation in music – the use of orchestral instruments, accordion or banjo plus a totally rocking bass line. I love the cartoon Teen Titans (I have a crush on Robin) for the clever use of style changes to convey emotions. I guess I look for those things in my art too. If I weigh what attracts me to books, music, movies, art –everything - the main elements are humor or irony – preferably both, a mastery of skill, a unique twist on common themes and a sense of wonder and magic.

3.)    Do you have a favorite color? Are there any colors that you have to stop yourself from overusing?

Ack – I always use the same palette – it drives me nuts. I set out to do something different – go so far as to lay out paint swatches and do little thumbnails of a color palette that is different and I still end up using the same old blues and greens. My husband works digitally and he will park an image with a color scheme he likes on the side of his painting area to sample colors from – it is one of the nicer things about digital imaging – you really can click a few buttons and slide a few bars to change your palette.

4.)    You ALMOST went to clown college? What kept you? Can you paint some wicked scary clown faces?

Okay – here's the Freud on that. I come from a pretty big family – five kids – so I felt like I had to work a little harder to stand out. I am an attention seeker deep down but also an introvert. I chose rebellion - I come from a family of engineers and accountants so for me the thought of going to Clown College was pure rebellion, but more than I could really swallow. So I chose art school – much safer. I haven't painted clowns because I don't really like them.

5.) If your life was a movie, which actor would be cast to play you and why?

Because she can do absolute geeky, goofiness as well as hand wringing angst and tight lipped disapproval, I choose Emma Thompson to play my role. Plus I'd be so cool with a British accent.