Natalie Linn is the author and illustrator of the new middle grade graphic novel Bunnybirds.
Q: What inspired you to create Bunnybirds, and how did you come up with the idea of a bunnybird?
A: I was lucky enough to take Calef Brown's 2016 Visual Thinking class at RISD; one week he challenged us to create an animal mashup. As a child I was enchanted by Ursula K. Le Guin's Catwings, so my first thought was "cute critter with wings!" The bunny part came from my childhood pet rabbits.
Here are the sketchbook pages I brought to class (with censor bars over the bad words haha):