Cece Bell and Tom Angleberger at Hollins

Each summer we have amazing speakers come in to talk to our students. This year so far we've had John Rocco (PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF), Tom Angleberger (ORAGAMI YODA), and Cece Bell (EL DEAFO), who spoke specifically to our illustrators about proudly simplifying one's illustration style - a highly relevant topic right now. She mentioned that Mo Willems says, "I like to create characters that a child reader can learn to draw." Indeed, they make for extremely successful and appealing characters for kids!
     That said, we were all still in awe by the genius behind Cece's seemingly simple style. It's one of the hardest styles to pull off successfully, and wow, she does it!