Brian Pinkney

From a very young age, Brian Pinkney loved to draw and paint. Using old brushes and scraps of paper, he tried to replicate his father’s watercolor art. Brian painted in a large closet that his mother had converted into a child-sized art studio. His passion for drawing and painting eventually led him to the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

While earning a master’s degree in Illustration, Brian discovered scratchboard – a lesser-used medium that actually scratches designs into an inked board. His scratchboard art has since won two Caldecott Honor Medals and two Coretta Scott King Awards. Brian illustrates his own stories and those of other authors. He most often collaborates with his wife, author Andrea Davis Pinkney.

Books by This Author

Max Found Two Sticks

By: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 3-6

Max recreates the city rhythms all around him with his two sticks. His imaginative play reaches a climax when a real marching band comes down his street and a drummer gives him a pair of drumsticks. Pinkney’s animated scratchboard illustrations further enliven the text.

Books by This Illustrator

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down
By: Andrea Pinkney
Illustrated by: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9

The words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired four students to protest in a way that ultimately changed the United States. Their peaceful dissent at the segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, would "combine black with white to make sweet justice." The "Greensboro Four" began their sit-in on February 1, 1960 and contributed to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The text suggests storytelling and is accompanied by light-lined but evocative illustrations; back matter completes this compelling portrait.

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