Art Inspiration Part 11: Melissa Castrillon

As an artist, composition, and color are challenging concepts to learn. That said, after discovering Melissa Castrillon's children's books I immediately fell in love with her work. Melissa Castillon graduated from the Cambridge School of Art with a degree in Illustration and a master specializing in Children's book illustration. Melissa is known for her work for MIghty Min, The Balcony, Can You Keep a Secret and many more. 

Looking at Melissa's illustrations, I grew very fond of her work because of her choice of color palette — I enjoy her use of bright vibrant use of colors. 

Mighty Min | 2019

Another aspect of Melissa's work I admire is her composition technique. Looking at Melissa's use of composition, her illustrations flow very fluently with the use of botanical framing, negative and positive space, the use of format (for example, The Balconcy to illustrate how tall the apartment is), and many more. 

The Balcony | 2019

Lastly, Melissa's work is very inspirational to me because her illustrations are very enchanting in terms of being able to tell an effective story through the characters as well as the use of elements like the use of botanical flowers, colors, and texture. 

If I had Little Dream | 2017

Overall, Melissa's Castrillon illustrations are very whimsical and enchanting which is achieved through the use of color and compositional techniques like formatting. From her work, I was able to learn more about composition as well as how to choose a color palette that will captivate the audience.