Illustrator Spotlight: Noémie Gionet Landry

 

© Noémi Gionet Landry

Aug. 1, 2022

We are excited to feature illustrator Noémie Giant Landry and her banner design for Kidlit411. She won an honorable mention in our Kidlit411 banner design contest.

 

Tell us about yourself and how you came to illustrate for children.

 

I’ve always loved drawing. I also knew I wanted to be a doctor from the age of four. My mother is also a physician, and I followed her during her weekend rounds for most of my childhood.

© Noémie Gionet Landry

For years, as a kid my answer to the question “What do you want to do when you grow up?” was “doctor or children’s book illustrator”. In my last year of high school, I took a career test. The results—health care professional or visual artist. I had good grades, so everyone around kept telling me “you should become a doctor and do art just for fun”.

© Noémie Gionet Landry

 

During my undergraduate studies and my first four years of medical school, I didn’t touch a sketchbook. Then, I slowly started drawing again “just for fun”, but my drawings were really awful.

 

Midway through my residency, I decided “just for fun” wasn’t enough—I wanted to be both a doctor and a professional illustrator. I knew I had a LOT of work ahead of me, so I enrolled in several online art classes, watched countless YouTube videos, and I started drawing, drawing and drawing. Fast-forward five years later, I signed a contract with the amazing Bright Agency. For me, this marked the jump from “just for fun” to “professional illustrator” (although admittedly this means I get paid to have fun!)

 

© Noémie Gionet Landry

 

You are both a physician and a children's author. Do you find any points of similarities in these professions, or are they very separate/different for you?

 

I would say they are completely opposite in every way, which is what I love! When I get home from a day at the hospital, after doing dinner, books, baths and bedtimes with my two boys, I get to shift gears completely, forget all about the stress of being a physician and jump into creating worlds and characters from my imagination.  

© Noémie Gionet Landry

 

Congrats on your banner design for Kidlit411! How did you approach this project?

 

For an unknown reason, I love drawing pigeons… So when I heard about the KidLit411 competition I thought: “What an amazing excuse to draw more pigeons!”, and so I did! 

 

© Noémie Gionet Landry

What is your preferred media?

 

My preferred media are soft pastels and gouache/watercolor. However, I work almost 100% digitally for the time being. I’d love to eventually find a way to incorporate my love of traditional media into my professional work. However, the deadlines for children's illustrations are often very tight and digital art does have the advantage of being faster, especially when it comes to delivering the artwork and making changes. 

© Noémie Gionet Landry

 

 

What projects are you working on?

 

I’m working on a few projects at the moment, all but one being Top Secret! The one I CAN mention is an amazingly hilarious and sweet book series written by Maddy Mara recounting the adventures of a kitten adapting to life in a busy family home. The first book is set to come out in the fall.  

© Noémie Gionet Landry

 

What is something most people don't know about you?

 

I’m deathly afraid of spiders (and most other bugs…) 

© Noémie Gionet Landry

 

Where can people find you online?

 

Website: noemiegionetlandry.squarespace.com

Instagram: @noemie_illustration 

Twitter: @noemie_illustr

 

 

 

Noémie grew up in a small coastal town of New-Brunswick, Canada, surrounded by the ocean. Growing up, she was telling everyone she wanted to become either a doctor, or a children’s book illustrator. Midway through med school, she decided she would do both. She now shares her time between the hospital (where she works as a Rheumatologist) and her home studio, where she sketches, draws and paints surrounded by her wife, two boys, two cats and one tiny Chihuahua.