Lori Nichols is the author and illustrator of the award-winning picture book Maple and the Maple series. Her illustrated work can also be seen in the This Orq books by David Elliott, No, No, Kitten! by Shelley Moore Thomas, and Go Sleep In Your Own Bed by Candace Fleming (2017). In this “Illustrator’s Perspective,” Lori shares where she gets her ideas, how her process works, and ideas to keep your own ideas flowing.
I find my creative juices flow better when I have a fair amount of playtime. Right now, we are doing a kitchen renovation. Walls are being demolished and floors ripped up. My world has been turned upside down, so creative juices are not flowing– at least not until yesterday when I took a sharpie and started drawing on the exposed ceiling rafters and unfinished walls. That helped some.