I’m featuring an unpublished illustrator today, and no, it’s not the first Sunday of the month, when I tend to feature students or folks brand-new to the field of children’s book illustration. But Little Willow emailed this week to point out to me the website of someone named Junyi Wu, and I went all gaga over her artwork and contacted her to see if she could visit today. I think her artwork is so beautiful that I could hardly wait. (Can I get seven cheers for Little Willow?)

Lucky for us, Junyi said yes.

Junyi, who lives in Los Angeles, tells me she works mostly in colored pencils and likes to play around with scale and layers. Below are some of her pieces—delicate, ethereal, otherwordly, and breathtaking, I think, in their clarity—and, when you’re done looking, raise your hand if you fell for them hard like I did.

Here are some Junyi links, if you like what you see here and want to see even more: her website; her blog; and her tumblr.

I’m just gonna hush now and let her artwork do the talkin’. Oh, except to say: Notice how I categorized this post under “picture books.” Junyi isn’t published yet, but hey, I can dream. Right? All images reproduced by permission of Junyi Wu.

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *

1) If I haven’t already made it clear, I like Junyi’s artwork a whole heapin’ lot.

2) Fudge pie hot from the oven. Which is what is happening as I type this, kick #2. The idea came from the six-year-old’s made-up book, called The Pie! It’s about cats baking pies. That’s right: Show me a book called The Pie! and I start foaming at the mouth and digging through the pantry.

3) Check out these literary paint chips. If you run your cursor over the titles of each color, you can read more about each.

4) The same friend who sent me that link sent me this, which I know I’ve seen before and which may have even been posted previously here at 7-Imp, but it’s funny every time. Just in case you haven’t seen it …

5) Last night I went out to eat and had margaritas with three of my favorite friends, and it was a wonderful break from manuscript revisions.

6) So was Slings and Arrows. Finished Season One on Netflix in just a few days — a couple episodes late at night each night after getting work done. Such a great show.
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