Nicole Tadgell is an award-winning african american illustrator for children. Her luminous, expressive illustrations warmly portray childhood life for children of all races. Nicole's work has been featured in Martin Salisbury's "title", Magazine title (new zealand), Worcester Living Magazine, ?. Original watercolor paintings have been exhibited at Quinsigamond Community College, ArtsWorcester, and in group showings at the Eric Carle Museum of Picturebook art, Huntington House Museum and the Society of Illustrators.
Nicole spends her days with Davis Advertising in Worcester, MA, as Assistant Art Director.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Nicole has lived in Texas, New York, and Massachusetts, where she now resides.
Bibliography:
First Peas to the Table by Susan Grigsby
Lie Detector by Matt Bridger**
The Present by Matt Bridger**
Saturday Plans by Matt Bridger**
The Trebuchet by Matt Bridger**
Smack Dab in the Middle of God's Love by Brennan Manning and John Blase
In the Garden with Dr. Carver by Susan Grigsby
Lucky Beans by Becky Birtha
No Mush Today by Sally Derby
Grandaddy's Season* by Gwen Lavert
Five Loaves and Two Fishes by Julie Stiegemeyer
Waterworks* by Gwen Lavert
Jammin', Rockin', Toe Stompin' on the Rooftop* Gwen Lavert
A Day with Daddy by Nikki Grimes
Lights Out! by Angela Shelf Medearis
Josias, Hold the Book by Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren (Americas Award)
Moving Day Surprise by Tina Stohlberg
I'll Fly My Own Plane by Jean Alicia Elster
I'll Do the Right Thing by Jean Alicia Elster
I Have a Dream, Too by Jean Alicia Elster
Just Call Me Joe Joe by Jean Alicia Elster
Fatuma's New Cloth by Leslie Bulion (Children's Africana Book Award -
book is out of print)
*not published in the U.S.
**publication in 2013.
Awards:
2013 Learning Magazine’s Teachers Choice Award - First Peas to the Table
2011 Growing Good Kids Award - In the Garden with Dr. Carver
2006 Americas Award - Josias, Hold the Book
2003 Children’s Africana Book Award - Fatuma’s New Cloth
1999 Mary T. Holland Awards - Merit Award for Illustration
Client List:
Albert Whitman and Co.
Bebop Books
Color-Bridge
Charlesbridge
Judson Press
Lee and Low
Macmillian McGraw
Moon Mountain Publishing
Pearson Learning
Thomas Nelson
Scholastic
Zondervan
Was she bad? Hopefully Santa still gives her cookies for Christmas. :)
I am not only a children's book illustrator, I am a Doctor Who fan! To indulge myself, I bought a pair of converse all-stars like David Tennant often wore.
I masked off the sneakers with blue painter's tape, composed my ideas in Photoshop... and started!
I painted just the areas showing art with 2 coats of matte black gesso, leaving the stitching white. I cut circles of painter's tape to cover the round converse seals.
The inside-facing sides have the TARDIS exterior blue(s) - one sneaker with the "old TARDIS" blue, the other with the new blue.
My natural light bulb made it look like it was still black, but when I turned on my florescent lamp, it radiated like neon!
After it was dry, I peeled off the masking tape on the seals.
Next I gently sanded the converse round seals (to make the paint stick better, and to conceal the printed letters and stars), and painted them with 2 coats of white acrylic.
Then I traced the symbols in pencil, and filled them in with micron pens. For sharper details, I used an Xacto. I added blue paint to give it richer, less flat look. On the Gallifrey seal of Rassilon, I added distress marks, highlights and shading.
Next was the harder part - painting the TARDIS. I drew it as big as I dared, yet now I can see I could've managed it smaller after all. I wanted them both to be subtle, with stars and space and wibbly-wobbly stuff.
Using my magnifying lens was essential!
On the spines, I added "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX". When it was all dry, I covered them in two light coats of acrylic varnish, and I was finished! Peeled off the paint, used an Xacto to uncover the eyelets.
Not sure how they will wear over time, I have heard a lot of people use fabric paints or markers for this. We'll see what happens!
Zahrah the Windseeker is a wonderful fantasy novel by
Nnedi Okorafor! I made this a "cover" image after reading this book I bet I would have loved it when I was a teen., too. :) Also experimenting with color - mixing in layers on the paper rather than on the palette, and using more translucent, staining pigments.
Another gem from Soraya's photos! Had fun bleeding color and experimenting with color mixing right on the paper - not the palette. In love with Quinaqidrone colors...red, gold! Manganese blue, purple, and prussian blue, too.
Saw a stock photo that tickled me...followed it loosely. More fun with color! Not keen on the yellow bknd., though.
Saw two girls crossing the street one day. The movement of their legs, the way they were dressed was interesting, so I drew this from memory. Might color it...
After completing a very "tightly rendered" project, I wanted to do something much more loose! I like to look at photos that spark my imagination and inspire me to draw, and I found this photographer/artist - Soraya Jean-Louis McElroy - whose photos really grabbed me.
She kindly granted me permission, and so here are the images I made from her photos. Usually when I use photos for inspiration, I change them a LOT so they don't look like they are from the photo. But Soraya's photos were perfect the way they were, so I didn't change very much.
Part of the experiment was to use colors differently - to let them blend on the paper rather than mixing them myself and trying too hard to get consistent colors, or layering them up and risking the art being "overworked".
Since I really needed new art for my
agent's fall mailing, I worked on creating a "story". Soraya had a series of photos showing two girls, one with a birthday crown, another with a girl's gap-toothed grin in the shade of a willow tree, and another with two girls walking arm in arm.
So I changed a few things, imagining the girls are walking away from an old borded up house - what if it was Grandma's?
What if the birthday crown was a treasure, buried in the back yard?
I'm going to be at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art tomorrow at 2:30pm to do storytime for kids. :)
I'll be reading "First Peas to the Table" by Susan Grigsby. :)
I'm going to be at the Bayswater Book Festival!
July 28th in Center Harbor, NH. Along with 9 other authors and illustrators. Should be fun time, swing by if you can. :)
Playing with photoshop painting! Mmm, pie! It's starting to be really fun now instead of just frustrating. I can get brighter colors, change my mind as often as I want, and paint in an additive fashion - without wasting paint or breathing in fumes. Next, I want to see how much I can integrate traditional and digital media so that it is fun and satisfying.
Digital drawing/painting of a stylized apple on my Wacom tablet, in Photoshop CS5.
Kids and teachers might just love this one! Grow and harvest your own peas, might just win like Shakayla! Check it out here.
I kept all of dog's tags. Strung ribbon through them, made a loop, and they're Christmas tree ornaments. :) This one I did on cold press watercolor paper with Winsor Newton colors.
What if...
Squirrels eat pumpkin...are they Zombie Squirrels?
A scary moonlit night...the old tree stump looks like it might have a face...
This is a book I'm really excited about! Classroom gardening, spring, contests and kids! It's called First Peas to the Table and it's coming out this spring from Albert Whitman & Co. Susan Grigsby and I teamed up again, and it's a great story. More to come - teacher's guides, coloring pages, an maybe even a contest!
Visit and like the new
Facebook page! :)
So many kinds of love. I'm reading
8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola-Rhuday-Perkovich and seeing the different kinds of love in Reggie's life is what inspired me to sketch this.
I'm not done reading it yet, so don't give away the ending! ;)
How cute! If santa doesn't, I sure will! :D