My interest in art began around age three, when I drew pictures of deer on the inside covers of the Compton’s Encyclopedia, Volume 5. Drawing on encyclopedias seems to be a bit of a tradition for budding Cricket artists.

In school, I found it easier to concentrate on my favorite subjects, like science and English, if I could doodle in the margins of my notebooks. For some reason, my teachers didn’t think I was paying attention, but I was! I loved school. Most of the artists I know got in trouble for drawing in class, at least once.

I was always daydreaming, making up stories and pretending. Costumes are a family tradition.

My grandmother made the Sami outfit for me. My mother made the dragon costume for my brother, sister, and me. I made the crow costume for my son.

We lived in the country, so I was able to wander through the woods with a field guide and sketchbook. I loved to draw birds, animals, trees, mythological people and creatures, and designs from folk art.

At age 13 I had my first published illustration, a pen and ink drawing of a deer running through a forest, in American Girl magazine, A few years later I landed my first summer job, painting endangered animals on the sides of an eighteen-wheeler truck.

I studied sculpture and graphic design at the University of Illinois. Combining my love of art and science, I worked in scientific visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

Since then I’ve done many art-related jobs: graphic design, set painting, murals, illustration, and creative writing. My illustrations have appeared in Communication Arts, Scientific American, the cover of Science, and, of course, Cricket.

My cover for the September 2011 issue of Cricket won the Magazine Merit Award for best magazine illustration of the year from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Like a lot of artists today, I combine traditional media with digital illustration. I like to make a pencil sketch first, scan it into the computer, fix it up and print it on watercolor paper. I color the sketch with acrylic paint

I prefer to mix my colors from primaries. Red, yellow and blue pigments are all a bit different, so I have a couple of each, as you can see. I also use two browns: burnt sienna and raw umber, and white, but not black. For shadows, I mix dark greens or purples with brown. I try to use the best brushes whenever possible. You can find more of my art at www.ikallick.com

Art is fun, and so are stories, but they are so much more. Pictures and stories help us communicate and make people happy. What could be more fun than that?

I live in Wisconsin with my children, ages 13 and 15, my husband, one fish, a corn snake, and our fearless leader, a cat named Hudson.

I can’t wait to hear what questions Cricket readers might ask!

Hudson, tired from plotting world domination.