Artist Feature - Dubravka Kolanovic Jun 30 2015

Dubravka Kolanovic is always very busy creating beautiful new illustrations for children's books and greeting cards, so it's nice to catch up every now and again to see what she's been up to. Her uniquely recognisable style is created using traditional materials which she builds up to create her soft and enchanting illustrations. Duba's love of nature is clearly present throughout her portfolio, from her adorable animals to her atmospheric landscapes. We all love her work and know you will too!

I live in the lovely Mediterranean town of Zadar on the Croatian Adriatic coast. My working place is a studio room in my apartment overlooking little marina. My family is big support in my creative work and my two sons love to come to my studio room and comment my drawings - they always offer the best critique! Our dog, Meda, is always under my desk during long working hours.I work traditional way using soft pastel and watercolour. In the heat of work it could get really dusty and messy on my desk and under so Meda does not stay white all the time!

I studied illustration at Savannah College of Art and Designs and majored in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Being a children's book illustrator is really wonderful job that gives me opportunity to live in some happy and colourful world every day.

My biggest inspiration was always a nature.

When I was little girl I was bringing home lost and hurt animals and now I join the volunteering programs all over the world to help conservation. Volunteering at remote and precious parts of the world like Amazon rainforest, the rainforest of Borneo, Antarctica, saving scalesia rainforest in the Galapagos, helping conservation of koalas, hyenas, Pacific leatherback turtles or meerkats in Kalahari desert; and every visit to nature is a source of endless inspiration.

Some of the most beutiful experiences were using my illustration skills to draw elephant for kids in the remote village in Thailand which they signed as a promise to share their habitat with endangered elephants. Or finding my polar bear Christmas card selling to support Eskimo museum in far away Arctic, where I have spent some time past winter helping scientis gathering crucial data about climate change.

We illustrators are privileged to be able to share our ideas and emotions with little children throught our work and teach them to be kind to each other and kind to our fragile and only blue planet.

I should say that I am also very proud of the work I did for UNICEF. There are many children in this world that deserve better life and I feel that we all could make a difference.

It has been really great working with my lovely agents at Advocate and with their help I can enjoy just being creative and concentrate on my artwork. I have recently finished a very cute series of books for Yoyo aimed for babies and have also worked on designs for Papyrus cards . I am also working at the moment on a picture book based on my story with Collaborate about little jelous silly bear who needs to adjut on sharing his parents with new baby brother and we hope to find good home for our project.