Meet the Phaidon Kids illustrator - Lisk Feng
The Chinese American illustrator of Phaidon's Our World Series of books has attracted the admiration of Oprah Winfrey as well as legions of kids across the world.
Chinese-born, New York-based illustrator Lisk Feng is renowned for her distinctive visual language, inspired by colours and textures found in nature and the minute-by-minute changes in light she processes in "an illogical way".
Feng's illustrations are frequently marked by their detailed yet stylised aesthetic, reflecting both her Eastern and Western influences. She employs digital media to create her images, though her work retains a tactile quality that evokes traditional printmaking and hand-drawn illustration.
She studied at the China Academy of Art before moving to the United States to pursue an MFA in Illustration Practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). A combination of digital precision and analogue warmth has contributed to her work’s strong visual identity. Her illustrations are often imbued with a dreamlike quality that invites prolonged viewer engagement. She often incorporates sweeping landscapes, delicate linework, and subtle patterns to build immersive scenes. Despite their intricacy, her works maintain a lightness and playfulness that appeals to both children and adults.
Feng has collaborated with numerous high-profile clients, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Apple, and Airbnb. Her editorial illustrations frequently address complex themes, ranging from cultural identity to environmental sustainability. In addition to her varied editorial and commercial work, she is the illustrator of Phaidon’s Our World series of books, Our World, Our Seasons, Our Galaxy and Our Underwater World.
These inspiring, informative, and one-of-a-kind, read-aloud introductions are beautifully designed objects that open and fold back into sturdy circular globes fastened by a hidden magnetic closure.
The series was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as one of her favourite things in 2024. “These beautifully designed books will introduce kids to life underwater, the galaxies above, and their own world here on earth,” Winfrey said.
Feng has received multiple accolades, including awards from the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, and American Illustration. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and design festivals globally, affirming her status as a significant voice in contemporary illustration.
To celebrate 20 years of Phaidon Kids, we’re talking to a number of the illustrators and authors behind our brilliant children’s books. We spoke to Lisk as she was about to move from Manhattan to Brooklyn to reacquaint herself with the nature that so inspires her work. Once you've read our interview with her, take a look in the Phaidon Kids store and check out more of her work at LiskFeng.com.
Can you draw us a self portrait? Sure. Here you are!
First of all, big congratulations on your books being selected as one of Oprah Winfrey's Favourite Things! How was that for you? Thank you…This one is very serious because it was on TV! They put it on Good Morning America. I watched it and thought, OK, this is something that I never imagined happening to a book illustrator, to have a book on TV and on major media. I was just very happy to see media outside of the book world liking the books.
Each book in the Our World series cleverly transforms into a freestanding globe. What challenges did that format pose for you? I would say the biggest challenge is the round shape. People don't understand how difficult it is to draw a round-shape book; the composition is very tricky. For a start, all the four corners get cropped. So, you must design a lot of the less important things as the outer edge of a circle. Also, we have vignettes. We have spot illustrations in round shape, instead of one full page. Those parts are very difficult to design because of the lack of space and lack of corners. I had to create a specific vibe for this book; for example, fisheye effects to give it a strange perspective.
And the round shape is very tall. So, when you have the print in your hand, there are a lot of small details. In order to show kids the full details, I evolved and invented certain solutions, such as drawing tiny snails on the stone, or drawing things slightly smaller and more detailed so that when they are printed, there is the right amount of detail for kids to stare at longer. So, I intentionally put extra details in. The computer file was incredibly large and very detailed.
What sparks your creativity? Most of the time I have to force myself to work because it's getting so close to deadline! When I’m enjoying things too much, I sometimes feel like there is an art director standing next to me and I feel a little chill go up my spine like there's someone poking you saying, “Hey, you need to work!”.
That said, certain elements in my life really matter to me and inspire me. For instance, I notice that I feel and respond to nature differently from a lot of my friends or other people. I notice small things.
I went to the Walden Pond (in Concord, Massachusetts, known for its association with the writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau) and I noticed a stone in the water and I started to use my eyes to look at the combination of the water and how the stone was backlit. And then I started to notice that, oh, there would be a very bright stream underneath the stone, when the stone is in water and in shadow.
I have a very strong connection with things like this. My eyes will look for physical nature facts that I receive, but not in a logical way. I try to I to understand how this works so that I don't need a visual reference to say, draw water perfectly. I prefer doing it this way because it will look less “referenced.” It will look more like it’s from another world, very dreamy.
I tend to understand colour immediately. For example, there is a building I’m looking at outside now. There are two sides, and my brain is thinking about the shadows’ colour and the light’s colour, and how can I use that in my drawing.
I think this way all the time. My brain is a little busy. I have ADHD. I think too much. I look at a sunset, and people say, “Oh, how beautiful,” but I am looking for where the purple goes. Nature is something I learn from. I’ve never been forced to study nature, but I absorb energy from nature.
I’ve lived in Manhattan for the past three years. And I’ve hated it because I feel that I’ve lost a lot of my romantic sense of life. I’ve just decided to move to Brooklyn. The location I picked is right next to the Botanical Garden and Prospect Park, so that I can walk in nature. I do believe that nature cures everything. It's important to me. I feel I must do some big move, so that I can continue to express my love of nature through my books.
How else do you get inspired? I collect vintage children's books from different countries. Even the USSR has great collections, especially from old times, the 1950s and 1960s. When I flick through them, I feel like I see the history of the kids and what they were doing and really enjoying back then, and I realise that some things never change. If I have a kid, I will use those original formats to introduce the world to them, instead of telling my kid that the digital world is dominating, and that they should catch up. I am super against that to be honest.
How would you describe your style? I invented a style myself more than ten years ago inspired by my love of printmaking. I loved all the printmaking textures and marks I learned in school: screen printing, risograph prints, lino printing. I like all the printing processes. So, I try to look for brushes and paper textures, things that look like that. I often try to mimic dried ink or pencil. I have that in my work all the time. I find that very satisfying.
What are the important elements at play in your work? To me, my colours play a very important role in my work because of the light in the natural world. My colours are affected by the daylight, nighttime, sunlight, and all different shades of shadows. I try to play with the light differently so that it looks kind of dream-core. It’s almost like they are from a different world, or from an Asian world, but nostalgic and romantic at the same time. The colours are gentle but vibrant. I personally want to create some sort of a style in between that, which has “fact check approval,” and a simple, “processed” scene. I sense that a lot of the parents really like my use of colour. Because the books are for younger readers, it’s up to parents or caretakers to buy the book, not the kids themselves.
What were the first things you started drawing as a child? Princesses! Beautiful girls. People. I was six or seven. I was creating storyboard stories for myself at that time. A neighbour’s older sister taught me the trick of how to draw a princess’s face. You draw a little fish that's her nose, something like that, you know, like a little song that you can remember to draw. I repetitively practiced drawing that face. I started to draw whatever I saw in comics or from anime. Today I like to draw animals, especially cats.
Did you go to college? Yes. I decided to be an illustrator when I was in middle school. I started publishing in high school at a very young age in China. I entered multiple competitions and eventually a young adult magazine noticed me and invited me to draw a series of illustrations for them. Then I got another invite from another magazine, also for middle schoolers. I drew lots of high school diary series. They used my work for two years. After that, I decided to apply for an illustration major because I felt like I was already doing it, so why not try the schools? I got into the China Academy of Art and after I graduated, I came to the US and studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art’s grad program.
Who are the artists you continue to be inspired by? Momoko Sakura. She is definitely my favourite. Her drawing styles for illustrations are very strange. She's not a stereotypical manga person. Her style is more something you’d find in an indie comic. I return to her books a lot because I got to buy a whole set when I was young. They inspired me to make comics. She was my major inspiration, but now I have a lot more favourites, for example, Karlotta Freier and Tatsuro Kiuchi.
What's interesting about books for you? It's a toxic relationship! You’re gaslighted by books. I don’t enjoy the process because it takes so much time and the pay is less! Phaidon is actually very good in that respect. But the magical place for a bookmaker is when you receive the sample books – that moment is golden. Every time I get a box of saym ten copies of my books, I take them out. It's like a newborn baby and I definitely feel the excitement. Then I forget the whole pain of the process I went through to create it, and I think, OK, this is fun. I'm ready to do it again!
I feel that a physical book itself gives me excitement every time I go to it. I’m probably just a person who really enjoys buying books and holding books, just experiencing how they feel. AI is everywhere, but I think physical books will never die because of this reason. People have been worrying about physical books being wiped out for years, but I think a lot of people are obsessed with them and they will be around for many years. Right now, it’s a balance. I buy digital books if the book is ugly, but I really want to read it.
I feel kids should read more physical books. I see how some kids behave when they're introduced to digital media too early. For example, when the iPad was invented, everything changed. Kids forgot about how to draw on paper. They take photos of an object on an iPad and trace on top of the photo digitally. I can tell a lot of the things kids draw now are from photos because it's too accurate for a seven- or eight-year-old. I feel the physical book sometimes gives kids the original, and the original feeling of human touch.
Check out the Our World Collection in the store.