A party of dapper little penguins on a milk glass launched Julien Chung’s illustration career back when he was seeking a new creative adventure. Being a news designer for a major metropolitan newspaper was very serious business indeed, so drawing quirky animal characters was a way of lightening things up a bit.#Since then, inspired by the minimalism of poster art and postage stamps, his stylized characters and designs have graced products, from pet dishes to beer glasses, and books around the world, from Reykjavik to Tokyo.#With nine published books and several more in the works, Julien has earned accolades for his illustrations from 3×3 magazine, the American Society of Illustrators, the New York Society of Illustrators, Applied Arts, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Nami Concours and SCBWI. His favorite awards are the Glass Slipper Award and the Purple Island Award.#Making art and reading have always been a big part of Julien’s life. An early childhood photo shows Julien (looking serious, but feeling gleeful inside) drawing one, just one, squirrelly dramatic line with a thick wax crayon on a large piece of construction paper and then tossing it aside to attack the next one (so says his mom).#His mom, an artist, had a lovely collection of children’s books illustrated with woodcuts. His dad, an engineer, was a fan of modern architecture and Scandinavian furniture. Both tried to share their cultures with Julien by buying him two books: This Is Munich (she was Austrian) and This Is Hong Kong (he was Chinese) by Miroslav Šašek, but Julien preferred This Is New York with its big red fire engine and gray skyscrapers on the bright yellow cover.#Julien has a fondness for airports, ice cream and illustrated maps. He collects stamps, pins and toys. Christmas is his favorite holiday. He lives near Montreal with his wife in an empty nest so high up they sometimes see a falcon or two fly by as they are sipping their morning coffee. It’s kind of scary being so close to the clouds, yet awesome.#He was born in the Year of the Dog and has a soft spot for man’s best friend. He enjoys drawing, sketching and painting dogs of all kinds. Snoopy, Snowy and Lassie were his best friends. Do not ask him to draw a horse. He cannot draw horses. And he just can’t get monkeys right either.

Kathryn Durst is a children’s book illustrator who lives in Peterborough, Ontario, with her grumpy mini dachshund named Chili Dog. With a degree in animation from Sheridan College, she has worked with various animation studios, including an internship with Pixar Animation Studios. Kathryn now works full time as a children’s book illustrator, and you can find her work in Hey Grandude! and Grandude’s Green Submarine, written by Paul McCartney.

Illustrator Hanneke Siemensma studied fine arts at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. For her work on Little Wise Wolf, Hanneke was nominated for the 2020 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. She lives in the Netherlands.

When Marcus Cutler was a kid he liked to practice drawing by copying superhero comics. People would ask him what he was going to do for a real job when he grew up. He told them that he hadn’t decided, but he would either be the third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays or an astronaut. Well, he was absolutely terrible at baseball, and never quite learned how to pilot a space shuttle. He kept drawing though, and with all that practice he ended up being pretty good at it. So now he does that for a job!#Marcus loves drawing kids’ books. His favorite things to draw are funny and weird characters doing funny and weird things. When he’s not making art, he likes to watch movies, cook breakfast and practice kung fu.#Marcus lives in Tecumseh, Ontario, with his wife and two daughters.~Twitter: @marcuscutler~Instagram: @marcuscutlerillo

Sebastiaan Van Doninck is an award-winning illustrator from Belgium. His clients include Penguin Random House, Thames & Hudson and Usborne Publishing. He is the illustrator of several picture books and the winner of Belgium’s 2015 Picturale Prize for the best Flemish illustrator.