Becca Syracuse

@bookdesignbee.bsky.social

Associate Art Director • Children's Illustrator Rebeccasyracuse.com She/her Rep'd by Natascha Morris/ The Tobias Agency

I've been totally obsessed with finding a way to make "Would You Still Love Me if I was a Worm" into a picture book. I'm envisioning a high-contrast board book? Maybe it's got a hole in the middle for finger and YOU'RE the worm 😂

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The HARDEST part of needle-felting for me is patience. The process is SLOW, and it's hard to resist sharing in-progress stuff before the vision is fully realized. These guys are a small part of what will hopefully be a bigger composition if I can juuust figure out how to get them to stand upright

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I've been feeling SO inspired by Laura Venditti's felted Adult Swim spots, and wanted to try my hand at a short animated loop. This was....a total failure, and VERY hard lesson in pre-planning. It taught me a lot about set construction and lighting, but for now it's still-life.

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Sprayed edges are all the rage right now (iykyk) and it's been so interesting to see how designers have adapted to having a whole new surface to design that wasn't available before. We're all still figuring out the limitations, but this was a fun first swing. Obviously it was BEGGING for teeth!

It's EXTREMELY cool to see "Black History is Your History" on The Jennifer Hudson show today! This title was a huge collaborative undertaking (years in the making!), and includes a trove of gorgeous interior portraits by the sensationally talented Adriana Bellet!!!

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I've made the executive decision that I don't want to needle felt all the strawberry seeds from the original sketch. What should he be holding instead?? If you had a little mushy familiar, what would he help you carry home after a long day of foraging???

Tried my hand at needle felting for the first time, and I am very excited by the potential of it!! There were no coherent instructions included in the kit I ordered so I deviated from the script quite a bit, but I think it turned out super cute anyway!!!! He looks so polite!

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Pretty sure every art director has at least one White Whale artist they've been dreaming of working with for YEARS, who they simply CANNOT find the right project for ( I see you pitching them for every. single. project juuuuust in case).

Lots of new people here, so let me reintroduce myself: I'm Becca. I'm an Associate Art Director in Children's Publishing. I use this account to research artists, share my work, and hype up YOUR creative projects! I also love hockey and internet cats. Say hi sometime!

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SO happy to share that HAROLD THE ICEBERG MELTS DOWN was named as a Blue Spruce Honor Book at the Forest of r Reading Festival!!! What an enormous honor! Congratulations to the winners and nominees! I am positively overjoyed to be included on such a spectacular list of creators! 🥗💚♻️

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In an effort to beat burnout, I've put away the iPad, and pulled out the Big Drawing Pad™️ and good ol' crayons. I love how much more confident my lines look when the medium is chunky and totally unforgiving!!

A large fluffy cat sprawled on his back across a big drawing pad.Bild

I LOVED Sailor Moon growing up, but seeing "Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer" first (when I was probably waaaaayyyy too young) is what fundamentally changed my DNA and set the course for the next 30 years of my life.

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#illustrators I'm currently looking for an artist whose work is more painterly/ atmospheric/ bordering on abstract for a YA project. Please reply to this thread with a few samples of your work with a link to your portfolio if you think you might fit this criteria 🎨🖌️