My name is Denise Fleming. I write and illustrate picture books for the younger child. My books are focused on great language. In my books you usually find rhyme or refrain, repetition, alliteration and verbs. Those are the things that are most important to me.
I use a lot of verbs, a lot of action words because I hope when people read my books, they will act out the books because I really think picture books are like small plays. The books are illustrated in a process called pulp painting which is a hand-made paper process and it’s wet cotton fiber that’s floating in water and I pour it on a screen and I build up later on top of layer of wet fiber.
I cut stencils for particular shapes or I draw with the fiber in squeeze bottles. And when I have the effect I want, then I flip the paper off, press it and dry it. So I actually make the picture and the paper at the same time.
If you look at the pictures really closely, if you take a magnifying glass, you sometimes can see the little tiny fibers or little threads.
