PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: 5 new MADELINE picture books, published by Viking Press… and I’m creating the illustrations (in the style of the original creator, Ludwig Bemelmans)

Back in 2020 I signed the contract for a very interesting picture book project -to illustrate a new mini picture book featuring one of the most well known and beloved characters in picture book history, Madeline… (note: Then in 2021 I signed a multi-book contract to illustrate 4 more Madeline picture books & board books.)

See a video posting about this special MADELINE project on Steven’s YouTube.com channel.

Yes that Madeline! From the famed picture book of the same name with the famous opening line: “In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines” You know the rest…

My career as an illustrator has never been to imitate another artist’s style. However back in late 2019, from out of the blue, Denise Cronin the executive art director of the publishing house Viking Press (Penguin Random House) posed the question to me: Would I be interested in the special project of purposely mimicking the impressionistic and whimsical style of famed author/illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans for a series of new Madeline picture books? (With the official permission of the Bemelmans estate, of course.)

For those who don’t know Ludwig Bemelmans (born 1898 - died 1962) he was a well established illustrator/travel writer who had already penned & illustrated a number of picture books for children when in 1939 his little gem of a picture book entitled, MADELINE was first released. It is about a brave, charming little girl living in an old Paris boarding school along with eleven other girls -and always under the watchful eye of the towering Miss Clavel. It was a hit, striking a popular note with both children and adults… and over the years became one of the most loved and memorable characters in children’s picture book history. The first Madeline picture book in 1939 was followed by four more Madeline titles before Bemelmans’ death in 1962, then with a sixth title released posthumously in 1985.

I seriously mulled over this unusual project offer that had unexpectedly come my way and expressed interest in doing it. First I created a series of test sample illustrations purposely mimicking the Madeline style to show Denise Cronin at Viking Press as well as the people of the Bemelmans estate that I could successfully handle the aesthetic requirements of this unique project. But then nearly six months went by and I didn’t hear anything further from Viking Press. I just assumed the entire Madeline project never obtained an official green light. I was busy with other picture book projects anyway. Then in late May 2020 Denise Cronin did contact me again, officially offering the Madeline project -to illustrate the first title in a 5 book series.

So I said YES… and certainly not for the notoriety because very few people will even be aware that I am the contemporary artist in the background creating the illustrations for the new Madeline picture books in the graphic style of the originator. Nor would this project really enhance my own picture book career arc. My ultimate reason for taking on this project was simple. Because I knew I could do an excellent job of emulating the Bemelmans’ drawing style, perhaps better than anyone else, and I also felt a kind of dutiful obligation to take on this role of artistic guardian of the Madeline character…by hopefully imbuing a strong sense of Ludwig Bemelmans’ wonderful graphic sensibilities into the illustrations for these new picture books! I have always admired and respected Bemelmans’ artistic vision and since these new books were going to be produced with me or without me I figured I should be involved to ensure the illustrations are done well!

Initially Viking Press wanted me to immediately begin work on this first Madeline picture book (entitled LOVE from MADELINE) in order to complete the final art by September 2020, but I was already busy with finishing a picture book for Christy Ottaviano Books/Macmillan plus then had to launch into illustrating a picture book for Little Bee Books as well. So Viking Press agreed to push their production schedule forward such that the final art for LOVE from Madeline wouldn’t be due until April 2021, for a publication release date in February 2022.

So in early 2021 I completed all the final illustrations for the first new Madeline picture book entitled, LOVE from MADELINE. Next, I then completed all the sketches for the second picture book in the new series, MADELINE’S ABC’s. Once those sketches were approved, I then completed all the final illustrations, which were finished at the end of August 2021. Now (as of October 2021), I am still waiting for the manuscript for the 3rd book in the series, MADELINE’S NUMBER’s so that I can get started on the sketches… (note: these new Madeline books are being written by Ludwig Bemelmans’ grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano.)

3/18/24 update: The first 4 new MADELINE books in this 5 book series have all been published and released.. and the 5th title MADELINE’S Kindness is currently in progress and slated to be released in Spring 2025.

Posted here are a few of my very early test illustrations purposely created in the distinctive Bemelmans’ Madeline style, created before the entire project was actually even official. Also posted as a sneak peek are a handful of my sketches and also some of the final illustrations for LOVE from MADELINE, the first book in the series -which is slated for a release date in February 2022, as well as for the 2nd title in the new series, MADELINE’S ABC’s, slated for a release date in Summer 2022.

Take a look! And wish me luck! It will certainly be fun -but a bit of a daunting task- to illustrate Madeline with the pressure of knowing the witty and refined spirit of Ludwig Bemelmans will be watching every stroke of the pen I make…

note: the sketches were created with crayon and ink on paper, however the final illustrations are being created all digitally -which gives me the flexibility to draw and redraw lines over and over again if necessary, to ensure that I am capturing the essence of the Bemelmans’ distinctive drawing style.

And below is a sneak peek at the cover for the 2nd book in the new series, MADELINE’s ABC’s… scheduled for release in summer 2022. As of this posting I am diligently working on the preliminary sketch stage for the 3rd book, entitled, Madeline’s NUMBER’s -which will be released in 2023.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: The Crayon Man picture book wins the prestigious 2020 Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature

The Crayon Man -The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons (nonfiction) written by Natascha Biebow & illustrated by Steven Salerno -published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019, has won the 2020 Irma Black Award for excellence in children’s literature.

The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Irma Black Award) goes to an outstanding book for young children—a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable, each enhancing and enlarging on the other to produce a singular whole. The Irma Black Award is unusual in that children are the final judges of the winning book. Thousands of children in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and the United Arab Emirates participated in the voting process. (This year the award ceremony scheduled for Thursday, May 14th 2020 was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic)

see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man

This picture book follows the success story of American inventor Edwin Binney -manufacturer in the early 1900’s of black inks, black dyes, and black pigments -until the day he was inspired to invent and produce the first smudge-free COLOR crayons made just for kids… which he and his wife named CRAYOLA Crayons. The initial box had just 8 colors and cost 5¢. Crayola Crayons went on to become one of the most iconic and popular brands ever.

“Salerno’s illustrations reflect the formality of the era, which he playfully disrupts with splashes of color: in one spread, a line of pigment-spattered workers end a day of crayon experimentation. Readers are likely to be fascinated by the process of “grinding, grinding, grinding up rocks and minerals into fine powders” and the rich colors that result” -Publishers Weekly

“Biebow’s first nonfiction picture book flows with conversational smoothness ... The attractive full-page -and, accordingly, brightly colorful - illustrations mix realism and whimsy" - Booklist

"In this chatty, engaging picture book, Biebow provides the historical context around the invention of Crayola crayons....What [Caldecott Medalist] Jon Klassen achieves emotionally in his characters' eyes, Salerno manages with eyebrows here" -Kirkus Reviews

-2020 Winner of the Irma Black Award, Excellence in Children’s Literature

-2020 Best STEM Books award list

-Black-Eyed Susan Book Award list (MD)

-A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

-2019 An Amazon “Best of the Month” selection in Children’s non-fiction

-North Carolina Children’s Book Award list

-CFSID Horned Toad Tale Award list (TX)

-Charter Oak, Children’s Book Award list (CT)

-Beehive Award for Children’s Informational Books, Honor Book (UT)

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: preliminary rug designs

These drawings/paintings of mine posted here are part of a series of 16 images I created recently… tentative potential rug designs for a current speculative venture, and also being a motivation for branching out into other areas in the design world. The task has been quite a breath of fresh air because making these early stage preliminary drawings/paintings is so unbound compared to my assignments creating picture book illustrations and illustrations for magazines and advertising… (They were created digitally, combined with painted gouache textures)

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: giant window display graphics for on-site promo of One Hill South

The Related Companies/ One Hill South

Back when the Time Warner Center first opened a number of years ago, located at Columbus Circle in NYC, I was commissioned by the developer, The Related Companies, to create a series of illustration magazine print ads promoting all the new retail shops at the TWC. It was a terrific assignment. Now, all these years later, I was again commissioned by The Related Companies, this time to create illustrated window display graphics promoting their new residential apartment building complex in the Capitol Riverfront section of Washington DC... named ONE HILL SOUTH (on K Street). I created three 4-panel scenes which when printed were 9 feet tall x 76 feet long in total. I created the art images in Adobe Illustrator, as vector-based images were required to enlarge them up to the full window size during the printing reproduction process. Posted here are some detail views of the actual window installations on-site, as well as views of some of the illustrations I supplied to them. It's cool seeing my images reproduced so large!