Jessica Lanan | Author and Illustrator

Watercolor and ink illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider' Showing a tiny jumping spider looking nervous as it walks on the dirt beneath large garden leaves. In the foreground are two mushrooms and decaying leaves with ants crawling on them. A flying insect is visible in the distance.

"Down, down Jumper ventures, deeper into the garden."
From Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider
Roaring Brook, 2023
Watercolor and ink

Watercolor and ink illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider' Showing a girl in a sun dress jumping off a fence in four frames. In the distance a man in a hat waves at her. Below is part of an illustration showing two stop-motion frames of a jumping spider jumping off a leaf.

How Jumper Jumps
From Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider
Roaring Brook, 2023
Watercolor and ink

"What if you were very small? Smaller than a dog or a cat, a bar of soap, or a bottlecap. As small as a bean."
From Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider
Roaring Brook, 2023
Watercolor and ink

Watercolor and ink illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider' showing a closeup of the face of a jumping spider. Four large eyes are visible.

Jumper
From Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider
Roaring Brook, 2023
Watercolor and ink

"Our world is mostly sea, and you are mostly water, powerful enough to wear away mountains."
From Before You Were Here by Scott Westerfeld
Roaring Brook, 2024
Watercolor and mixed media

Watercolor mixed media illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Before You Were Here' showing three panels with a family of three people building snowmen and playing with a dog.

Building snowmen
From Before You Were Here by Scott Westerfeld
Roaring Brook, 2024
Watercolor

Watercolor mixed media illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Before You Were Here' showing a closeup of a baby reaching up and shining with light, framed by leaves and ripe pears.

"Your muscles lift and flex with light"
From Before You Were Here by Scott Westerfeld
Roaring Brook, 2024
Watercolor and mixed media

Watercolor mixed media illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Before You Were Here' showing a baby's face and chest from the front, with eyes closed. The baby is glowing with light. Behind, rocks and mountains and ligtning are visible.

"You are built of stones and soil"
From Before You Were Here by Scott Westerfeld
Roaring Brook, 2024
Watercolor and mixed media

Watercolor and colored pencil illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Thank You Moon' showing a coral reef at night. Moonlight filters down through rippling water and illuninates the coral below which is spawning. The scene is framed by dark rocks and fish.

Spawning coral
From Thank You Moon: Celebrating Nature's Nightlight by Melissa Stewart
Knopf, 2023
Watercolor and colored pencil

Watercolor and colored pencil illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Thank You Moon' showing a cloudy sky with a full moon. Nightjars circle in the sky chasing moths. The scene is framed by dark trees.

Nightjars
From Thank You Moon: Celebrating Nature's Nightlight by Melissa Stewart
Knopf, 2023
Watercolor and colored pencil

Watercolor and colored pencil illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'Thank You Moon' a dark nighth sky with a house and trees below. In the sky the moon appears eight times gradually waxing from a crescent to a full moon.

Moon phases
From Thank You Moon: Celebrating Nature's Nightlight by Melissa Stewart
Knopf, 2023
Watercolor and colored pencil

Watercolor and colored pencil illustration form 'Thank you Moon' showing a little girl with dark skin and curly hair pulling back a curtain to reval the full moon. In the foreground and around her many animals and plants are visible, including whales, dolphins, a fox, desert cacti, a moth, a tiger, jungle plants and an owl, among many others.

Night menagerie
From Thank You Moon: Celebrating Nature's Nightlight by Melissa Stewart
Knopf, 2023
Watercolor and colored pencil

Watercolor, ink and digital illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'I'm a Black Hole' showing a child astronaut with curly hair floating inside a spaceship. Behind them is the cockpit with a seat and control panel and a window showing stars. To the side of the astronaut is a large display screen showing a black hole.

"I grew and I grew, eating up what passed by. I puled in stars, planets, moons--anything in the sky!"
From I'm a Black Hole by Dr. Eve M. Vavagiakis
Candlewick/MIT Press, 2023
Watercolor, ink and digital

Watercolor, ink and digital illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'I'm a Black Hole' showing a child astronaut putting on a EVA space suit. Behind is the entrance to an airlock and a screen showing two black holes in the process of colliding.

"I am not done: soon I will weigh more than a million suns."
From I'm a Black Hole by Dr. Eve M. Vavagiakis
Candlewick/MIT Press, 2023
Watercolor, ink and digital

Watercolor, ink and digital illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'I'm a black hole' showing a child astronaut with dark skin and braids wearing a EVA spacesuit. The child is facingn forward and is visible from the shoulders up. To the side are two graphs showing gravity waves.

"You can learn more about us by watching our waves."
From I'm a Black Hole by Dr. Eve M. Vavagiakis
Candlewick/MIT Press, 2023
Watercolor, ink and digital

Watercolor, ink and digital illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'I'm a Black Hole' showing a room at night. A child stands in front of a large picture window looking out at the night sky. The child is holding a model spaceship.

"So when you look at the sky, you will know that I'm there"
From I'm a Black Hole by Dr. Eve M. Vavagiakis
Candlewick/MIT Press, 2023
Watercolor, ink and digital

Watercolor illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'The Lost Package' Showing a little girl sitting on her bed in a pink bedroom drawing on a cardboard box with a red marker.

Packing the Box
From The Lost Package
Roaring Brook, 2021
Watercolor

Watercolor illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'The Lost Package' Showing a truck driving down a road in pre-dawn light with one door open and a package flying out of the back.

Watercolor illustration by Jessica Lanan from 'The Lost Package' Showing a cross-section of a post office with customers waiting to send packages, a mailroom where packages are sorted, and a loading area with mail trucks.

Brown-skinned girl wearing yellow skirt and green tank top standing on tip-toes to put a letter in a black mailbox

Watercolor llustration from the title page of 'The Fisherman and the Whale' showing a small fishing boat on a rough sea of blue and gray.

Vertical spread from 'The Fisherman and the Whale' showing a cross-section of water with the whale trapped in fishing lines while the fisherman dives to cut the ropes loose.

Watercolor illustration from 'The Fisherman and the Whale' showing a happy whale swimming and diving while a man tumbles in the water and a boat bobs above the surface.

Watercolor illustration from 'The Fisherman and the Whale' showing a father and son standing at the end of a small dock looking out at water and islands and mountains partially hidden by mist.

Photograph of interior spread in the picture book 'The Fisherman and the Whale' showing a watercolor closeup image of a human eye on one side and a whale's eye on the facing page.

Watercolor illustration from the picture book 'The Fisherman and the Whale' showing a large humpback whale breaching out of the ocean in front of a gold and orange sunset shy with a man and boy waving from their boat in the foreground.

Detail of a watercolor illustration from 'Finding Narnia' of young C.S. Lewis (Jack) reading in a chair while an imagiary viking stands behind him.

Watercolor illustration of Narnia from 'Finding Narnia' of a snowy forest with a faun standing under an umbrella next to a lamp-post.

Photograph detail of watercolor map illustration from the interior of 'Finding Narnia' showing the lands of Narnia and a detail of the lion, Aslan's face.

Watercolor illustration from 'Finding Narnia' of a lion standing on a rocky precipice with a distant valley and dawn clouds behind.

Watercolor illustration from 'Finding Narnia' showing two boys in a dusty, cluttered attic opening the door to an old wooden wardrobe.

Watercolor illustration from interior of 'Finding Narnia' showing the White Witch riding through a snowy forest in a sleigh drawn by two reindeer, while two beavers look on from the foreground.

Watercolor illustration of the front entryway of the Boulder Bookstore

Watercolor illustration from the picture book 'Just Right' of the milky way galaxy.

Detail from watercolor illustration 'Just Right' showing a girl standing at the edge of an opening in the museum floor with molten lava inside.

Photogrraph of watercolor illustration form picture book 'Just Right' showing a family looking up at a large model of the Kepler space telescope. Labels indicate different parts of the telescope.

Watercolor detail from picture book 'Just Right' showing an African-American family of four walking toward a space exhibit inside a museum.

Watercolor illustration from 'Just Right' showing a hot sun with a planet orbiting very close by. In the foreground stands a girl who is indicating that she is very, very hot.

Watercolor Illustration from 'Just Right' showing a family sitting together a bench on a hill at night, while a young girl stands beside a telescope. In the background, we see a night vista with a sky filled by the stars of the milky way.