Dahlia Broul: 2011

Kathy Temean, writer, illustrator, Regional Advisor in New Jersey for the SCBWI and all around industrious woman has interviewed me for her weekly online article "Illustrator Saturday".

Everyone should read Kathy's blog; there is a great deal of beneficial information pertaining to all aspects of the children's book genre. She interviews a new illustrator every week, posts information she gathers from industry professionals like editors and agents and discusses writing techniques with authors.

My Interview Here: CLICK

Kathy Temean Wordpress: CLICK

Dahlia Broul was born in Manhattan in 1983. As the daughter of 2 New York City yellow taxi drivers, she spent most of her childhood drawing in the passenger seat. Wat

ching the city pass by, she recalled, “Everything was about color and light”.

At a young age, with the strong encouragement of her mother, she studied at the Museum School. Museums such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum and the New York Historical Society were frequented on a weekly basis. This led to a deep appreciation for art history and the methods of old masters. Dahlia has cited a wide range of influences including classic artists as Pierre Bonnard and John Singer Sargent, to such contemporary illustrators as Leo and Diane Dillon and Gregory Manchess. She attended Art and Design High School and later went on to study fine arts before graduating with a BFA in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Dahlia has finished writing and illustrating an unpublished children’s book about her unconventional childhood. A young girl spends the day driving around New York in her mother’s taxicab but imagines a whole other world. A place where waterfalls cascade over buildings and taxicabs turn into submarines that ride on the backs of whale sharks.

In addition to painting, she currently teaches an art curriculum at the Brearley School, the 92nd Street Y, the Chapin School as well as the Manhattan New School P.S. 290. She can be found drawing pastel portraits at Spring Street Studio every week. “Drawing and painting are the backbone to what I do, but connecting with the reader on an emotional level is most important”.

Did you go to school for art and or illustration?

Yes, my schooling in fine art goes as far back as middle school. I then attended Art and Design High School. Afterwards I took classes at The Art Students League, SVA and Pratt, studied fine art for two years, and later earned my BFA in Illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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