I opened this package in the mail, thinking my birdwatcher dad had sent me some weird gift. But it was actually a promotional book made by the The Jacky Winter Group, an agency representing Australian illustrators. The book cover is a reproduction of an old bird field guide and the theme of the book focuses around the idea that each illustrator is a “city bird”. The book is full of double-sided postcards of about seven works by each artist they represent plus a short bio written in proper birding language explaining the artist’s plumage, call and habitat. I was excited to get introduced to so many new awesome illustrators at once- Fontaine Anderson, EAMO, and Dylan Martorell (wait is he Australias’s Kevin Hooyman?) Also in this package was a cute stamped envelope with my name handwritten on it, full of bookplates by all the different artists. What great ways to promote illustrator’s work! Limited copies of the field guide are sold in stores in Australia- find out more here.

© Julia Rothman 2007