About Janan Cain

Because she's a mom, Janan Cain knew she had a marketable concept for her first book. But it was her responsibilities for two young children that dictated how The Way I Feel was created.

An illustrator and graphic designer since 1982, Cain has worked with many different techniques, including pen and ink, gouache, acrylics, airbrush, colored pencil, scratchboard and computer illustration. But she chose pastels for the vivid illustrations in The Way I Feel because she was so frequently interrupted by her young daughters.

"With pastels, I could stop in the middle of a drawing to make lunch, bandage a knee, help find a lost toy—or even take an ice cream break," points out Cain.

Cain earned an Associate of Arts degree in visual communications at the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver. She worked in package design, graphic design and illustration, both in Colorado Springs and the Chicago area, until beginning a free-lance design and illustration practice in Riverside, Ill. in 1993.