Lee White Children’s Illustrator

Lee White is a children’s book illustrator and concept artist living in Portland Oregon.

He has illustrated over 10 children’s books to date including this one by Jacqueline Davies.

He has some wild ideas, just imagine taking your floating giant fish for a walk, or being chariot led by a flock of white geese, how wonderful !

Recently partnered with noted artist agent Paul Rodeen, Lee is writing as well as illustrating his next three book titles. His client list includes Simon & Schuster, Laika, Scholastic Publishing, Verizon, Disney, Viking, National Geographic, Apple, and many more.

Lee also enjoys teaching illustration and concept design and works as a faculty professor for the Art Institute of Portland.

He is slightly taken by large floating objects in his work, as you can see here. Perhaps he dreams of these things a lot.

When he’s not working Lee enjoys going on long bike rides with his wife and son. I got in touch to ask a few questions.

I was wondering where your ideas for your illustrations derive from and also if you’re a little excited by the idea of large floating objects as they seem to reoccur quite a bit lol ?

Most of my ideas come from stories or poems. I really like thinking about how a story evolves and how I can show that in the images. I do love large floating objects as well ! : ) Some of my stories come from little things I notice throughout my day. I just like making new work and getting it down on paper.

Could you also talk us through how you construct the work. i.e. drawing, painted, digital etc 

Most of my images are traditional watercolor although I do work digitally as well. I always start with small clumsy little sketches and work it up from there. The finished illustration can take anywhere from an hour to three days depending on the complexity. I favor M.Graham watercolor paints and Arches cold press paper. Most of my brushes are cheap bristle brushes that cost $.39 from Micheals or Home Depot. Real sable brushes work for some things, but I think the line is too neat and tidy. I like a little bit of chaos and energy in the brush strokes. Once the paint is down, I may add pastel, gesso, colored pencil, and ink as well.

Who do you find inspirational ? artist or otherwise.

I find so many artists inspirational it would be hard to list them all. Shaun Tan and Lisbeth Zwerger are two of my absolute favorites though. I love working to music and I think there is a lot of great music out right now. I have been listening to classical music lately, but before that it was punk rock.

Beautiful work Lee and thanks for giving us a little more insight into your thoughts and your work.

If you enjoyed this post you will also like the work of Tadahiro Uesugi and Pascal Campion too.