Illustration Friday 2014, and Happy New Year!

January 6, 2014 Cheryl Kirk Noll

Warmest wishes to all during this "Polar Vortex." May your 2014 be productive, healthy and filled with peace and love.

A Happy and Joyous New Year to All!

This week's Illustration Friday has the prompt word: "TIME." How appropriate for a new year.

I'm floating on the automatic high of "starting fresh," as I do every January. Still, I'm posting an old piece... "Time Passes." Although it's remains one of my favorites, it is 13 years old! Perhaps I'll do an update in a decade or two!

Latest Work: Cover for Cobblestone Magazine, October 2013

September 27, 2013 Cheryl Kirk Noll

©Cheryl Kirk Noll, Cover Illustration for October 2013 Cobblestone Magazine

My latest work just hit the newstands... the October cover for Cobblestone Magazine: Valley Forge, The Real Story.

Cobblestone is an American History magazine for young people.

I was pleased when the designer for Cobblestone asked me to do a cover about Valley Forge. I'd already done research about VF when I worked on "The Black Regiment of the American Revolution."

The focus for this illustration was on 17-year old Joseph Plumb Martin. He marched into Valley Forge with the Continental Army in 1777, and it is believed that he kept a journal of his experiences. At the age of 70, he wrote his memoirs, considered the best first-person account of the life of a private soldier in the Revolutionary War.

©Cheryl Kirk Noll, "Black Regiment of the American Revolution."

Illustrator

August 15, 2013 Cheryl Kirk Noll

I've been working as a children's book illustrator most of my life. I specialize in historic and multicultural subject matter, but recently have been expanding my portfolio towards younger children, with animals, and a more playful look.

My traditional work is watercolor.

From "The Black Regiment of the American Revolution," by Linda Crotta Brennan, © Cheryl Kirk Noll

an illustration of "Angel Island," the west coast equivalent to Ellis Island, art © Cheryl Kirk Noll

from "A Basket of Bangles," by Ginger Howard, ©Cheryl Kirk Noll

From "The Doll Hopital" series, by Joan Holub, art © Cheryl Kirk Noll

from "The Crane Wife," by Ena Keo, Steck-Vaughn, © Cheryl Kirk Noll

In the last few years, I've added a textured look using colored pencil.

"Secrets in the Attic" © Cheryl Kirk Noll

from a story about the Japanese detention camps in America during WWII, ©Cheryl Kirk Noll

Life is Sweet

June 7, 2013 Cheryl Kirk Noll

Illustration Friday # 28: SWEET, RISD CE graduation, and chickadees

Life is Sweet  ©Cheryl Kirk Noll — Life is Sweet ©Cheryl Kirk Noll

You can see the passage of time... here the snowbell flowers are budding.

Spring is my favorite time of year. Classes finish up. Students graduate. Flowers bloom and babies hatch.

This year has been particularly productive for my garden. A cute little birdhouse that my dad gave us at least ten years ago has it's first tenants this year.

Our chickadee family settling in at Songbird Hollow in the styrax obessia (Fragrant snowbell tree)

The flowers have blossomed. Breath in the fragrance!

A black-capped chickadee couple made Songbird Hollow their home. The birdhouse hangs from a styrax obessia (Fragrant snowbell tree) right outside our back window, so we were thrilled to watch the pair nest-building. On Tuesday, I heard the babies peeping for the first time when their parents arrived with food. Within two weeks, they should be flying away.

It's a life-affirming process to watch.

After the 4 day heat wave, the snowbells are gone, but roses are out!

My job as the adviser for the Children's Book Illustration certificate program at RISD-ce is a thrill for me too. I often meet students when they start the program, and I always have them for at least one class, meet with them for the final portfolio critique, and have the honor of handing out their certificates.

I'm thankful to my brilliant program coordinator, Francoise McAree, to the CE staff, and to the fine teachers in the program who have led these students along the way.

I'm so proud of this year's 11 graduates. I'm as proud as a mama chickadee, and I can't wait to see where they fly, now that they've left the nest.

l-r sitting: Roya Ma, teacher assistant Susan Novich, Sherry Brodeur, Sarah Luz, l-r standing: Laura Foltz, Jeanette Bradley, Instructor Judith Moffatt, Mary Jackson, Emily Laramee, Meg Sodano, Peter Sentkowski, Anne Wert (missing: Karen Sculos)

To see more about the graduating students and the program, go to the programs informal blog,

Drawing Together

Illustration Friday # 27: TRIBUTE

May 5, 2013 Cheryl Kirk Noll

cover to Rochel Coleman's Tuskegee Airmen album, ©art by Cheryl Kirk Noll

This week, I'm posting an older piece for the Illustration Friday "Tribute" prompt word.

This is a CD cover I did for Rochel Coleman, a professional storyteller who has lived in Providence. His uncle was one of the historic Tuskegee Airmen, black pilots who flew combat missions over Africa and Europe in WWII, and one of the stories that it tells is a tribute to these men, who broke racial barriers.

On a related note, I recently read an interesting YA book by Sherri L. Smith titled "Flygirl." It was about a young black woman who "passed" (as white) in order to serve in the Women's Airforce Service Pilots during WWII.