Bologna Children's Book Fair Comes to Korea!

Every year, writers and illustrators from all over the world come together to Bologna, Italy to showcase their work. The Bologna Book Fair and the SCBWI Bologna Symposium are held in conjunction with each other.

And each year, Korea was the Guest of Honour. This exhibit was titled Round and Round in a Circle. As the guest of honour, the Bologna exhibit came to Seoul and our SCBWI group took a field trip out to see it!

There was so much talent at the fair. Overwhelming! My head was spinning though I'm not an artist, I was inspired.

Here's a recap of some of the fun stuff that I saw:









Past year highlights








The Chusok Harvest Moon created by Ho Jang from Korea.







Created by Igor Olenynikov from Russia








Alireza Goldouzian from Iran uses fingerprints and cut paper.









Ji-Yee Jung from Korea created an unusal illustration with fabric.







Jai-hee Han- Korea










Puss and Boots by Ayano Imai with watercolors and pencils







The End!

Visiting Illustrator- Korky Paul

My son, Caleb, decided he wanted to be an artist last summer when we were at the SCBWI LA conference. He was facinated with the illustrations at the conference exhibit and ever since then, he's had a passion to draw.

So.... when Korky Paul came to speak at our school, we HAD to go see him. Korky Paul is an illustrator for numerous popular books in the UK. Our art teacher, Sally, hooked us up with some one on one time with Korky including autographs, drawings, and tidbits on how to draw.


Caleb didn't talk much (due to awe struckness) but he was soaking up every minute and carefully watching how Korky drew.



Here are some tricks and ideas that Korky, who is an instructor for Oxford University in England, passed on to us.

1. Draw everyday
2. Add blue to your blacks to bring out the light in the picture.
3. When you draw, think about the how and that will bring the magic into your drawings.
4. Imagination is everything
5. Watercolors bring life to your drawings. He liked to draw with a black pen and fill in with watercolor. The watercolors are easy to use, adds shadow, versatile, reproduce well, and captures life and movement in your painting.


6. If your left handed (as is Caleb), start on the right of the paper and move across.


7. If your right handed do the opposite.

Though we were sad to say, we came away with some real treasures.