From the Sketchbook:
Yevgenia Nayberg
This CBC series features illustrators sharing their creative process and providing context for their amazing artwork.
Our featured artist is Yevgenia Nayberg, an illustrator, painter, and set and costume designer. Here, Yevgenia discusses her research for the picture book Martin & Anne: The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank.
Born the same year on different continents, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank faced similar racial hatreds. Both reacted to that hate with words of love, reaching out to build understanding rather than divisiveness. Martin & Anne tells their inspiring stories, encouraging all of us to choose kindness whenever we can.
“I looked into the first (Dutch) edition of Anne Frank’s diary because it is mentioned in the story. I needed to know what her house and her diary looked like. Some imagery I reinterpreted and used in my illustrations and some helped me to emotionally connect with the characters and their times.”
“I researched the photographs of Frank’s and King’s families quite extensively. I also researched the civil rights movement, the protest posters and the racist and antisemitic signage of that time.”
More of Yevgenia Nayberg ’s fantastic art can be found in
Martin & Anne, a picture book written by Nancy Churnin.
