Diane Goode | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 14, 1949 |
| Alma mater | Queens College, CUNY |
| Occupation(s) | Children's book author, illustrator |
| Years active | 1978–present |
Diane Goode (born January 14, 1949) is a children's book author and illustrator.[1] She has written several children's books and illustrated over 60,
including New York Times bestsellers Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty and the Caldecott Honor Book When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982). Reviewing Goode's illustrations in Thanksgiving Is Here! (2003), the New York Times said that "Diane Goode's pen-and-ink drawings spin out like ragtime, each squiggle denoting a rustle of silk or a whoop or whisper."[2] Goode lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Goode's mother was French and recited traditional children's stories from memory when Goode was a child.[3] Of her mother, Goode said: "I thought she was perfect, I still think of her as the best possible mother."[4]
She has said that from the time she picked up a pencil, she knew she wanted to be an artist.[3] Goode enjoyed reading as a child, particularly works by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights, which she read six times.[3] She majored in Fine Arts at Queens College.[3]
Before Goode supported herself as an illustrator, she worked for one year in New York City as a substitute teacher.[3]
Goode's first illustrated book was The Little Pieces of the West Wind in 1978, and the first book she authored was I Hear a Noise.[3]
Goode produced new illustrations for a reissue of Noel Streatfeild's classic children's story Ballet Shoes in 1991.[5] In 1994, Goode published Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories and Songs.[6] Goode has collaborated with journalist Cokie Roberts twice, illustrating the bestsellers Founding Mothers (2014) and Ladies of Liberty (2008).[7]
Goode has taught book illustration at the University of California, Los Angeles.[1]
Goode has explained how she comes up with story ideas:
For book ideas — I write them down. Sometimes I get ideas in the middle of the night, and I write them down, even in the dark. It might just be a sentence. I also draw things — like a little character might come into my head. And in my studio, I have a big architect's cabinet with files, and I keep drawings there. They never become a story in themselves, but they may inspire one or be part of one. Because when I start the story, I don't know what it will be — it changes.[3]
Goode creates her illustrations by hand; she does not use a computer.[3] She works around 8 to 10 hours a day, noting that her work as an illustrator is "not a hobby."[3] Goode listens to jazz while she works.[4] She has three studios in her home, which uses for different stages of a project.[7]
Goode's artistic process changes for each project. For Founding Mothers, Goode worked on heavy water color paper in sepia ink.[7] When she was happy with the ink outline, she colored the image with pastels, applied "with small, soft sponges, sometimes using the tip of a very fine brush to apply the pastel in a tiny spot."[7]
Goode's most used art tools are #5B Staedtler pencils, Sakura Pigma pens and brushes, and Windsor & Newton series 7 brushes.[7]
Goode has been awarded the Caldecott Honor, ALA Notables, Parents' Choice Awards, Library of Congress Children's Book of the Year, and other honors.[1]
Goode's work has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in various permanent museum collections.[1]
Goode is married and has a son and two dogs.[3]
Category:American children's writers
Category:American children's book illustrators
Category:Caldecott Medal winners
Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing
Category:Artists from Brooklyn
Category:Queens College, City University of New York alumni
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American women writers