Katy Bratun has illustrated more than thirty picture books. She creates artwork in both a whimsical and realistic way, using mostly traditional mediums, including watercolors, acrylics, colored pencils, and pastels. Her goal is to create images that are wonderful places for children to go. Bratun gives two explanations for her interest in illustrating Josh's Halloween Pumpkin: fall is her favorite season, and she simply fell in love with Kathryn Lay's story and setting.
Born in Ogden, Utah, Bratun grew up in New Mexico and began to draw as soon as she could hold a crayon. As a child, she drew with wild abandon on every surface she could find—most of the time, the walls of her family's apartment. She also created narrative pictures involving birds, bears, and fish in jackets and hats. Bratun's taste in subject matter has not changed. She has kept her child soul and now shares the characters of her past by illustrating children's picture books. In her spare time, she and some of her friends make crazy projects, applying paint, clay, or glued items to any surface they can find as a remembrance of her childhood.
Bratun received a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of New Mexico. After working as a flight attendant, she moved to Salem, Massachusetts, and studied illustration and business at the Art Institute of Boston. Bratun's art has appeared in picture books as well as in advertisements and on greeting cards, puzzles, posters, museum banners, stickers, kids' craft projects, and game boards. She makes school and library appearances where she enjoys talking about the creation of picture books with children, whom she considers budding artists full of creativity. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and belongs to the Picture Book Artists Association. Katy Bratun is a picture book illustrator and writer, working from her studio in Salem, Massachusetts.
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