We speak with the German artist about her new illustrations for Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, including portraits generating atmosphere and poetic imagery.
Serendipity is a beautiful thing, and in the creative industries, it leads to even more beautiful things. But, as the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get.
Let’s go back 10 years to when German illustrator Isabel Seliger first submitted her portfolio to the Folio Society, a publisher of deluxe editions of classic books. The feedback Isabel received was that there weren’t enough faces in her work. Although she didn’t then force herself to draw faces, it’s an area she’s developed to become a recognised portrait illustrator.
Now we’ll fast forward to August 2024, when she received an enquiry from the Folio Society. That would be exciting enough on its own, but the brief was to illustrate ‘Klara and the Sun’ by Kazuo Ishiguro, a book Isabel had just finished listening to on audiobook and one that had deeply touched her. Serendipity? Hard work? Who knows? But things had come full circle.
“It’s such a great and special story, and Klara is maybe the most wonderful character I’ve ever read,” enthuses Isabel. “I’d just finished it when I received a commission from the Folio Society to illustrate this very book! It felt simply surreal. It was incredibly exciting to work with this book because the author’s writing had touched me so deeply, and because I knew he would be approving my illustrations.”
Bound in cloth and with metallic endpapers and a slipcase, the Folio Society’s edition of Klara and the Sun came out this week. The cover image sets the tone with a wistful portrait of Klara, the Artificial Friend in Ishiguro’s story, who observes the world, hoping a human will buy her and become her friend.
“I was commissioned to design a cover, slipcase, endpapers and seven interior illustrations,” says Isabel. “I read the book three more times before I was able to suggest the scenes for the interior. I spent two weeks at the seaside and worked my way through the book, observing the light around me with intense focus. I was perhaps as obsessed with the sun as Klara is. For the book, I gave the characters faces, which I found to be a great challenge and responsibility. But I had to let go of any worries and just trust my instincts.”
Isabel’s style and creative outlook seem ideally suited to this particular story, setting the mood for the reader. It’s a look Isabel has honed pragmatically over the years as she’s graduated from pen and ink sketching to digitally colouring ink drawings, and on to a completely digital process using Procreate on her iPad and Photoshop on a Mac, equipped with a Wacom Intuos tablet.
Annette Gordon Reed for The New Yorker.
Francis Ford Coppola for The New Yorker.
From the Fortune Tellers series for NYT Kids.
“I like to create atmospheric, mysterious and poetic motifs that play out in an inner rather than an outer world,” she says. “I love working with elements – objects and abstract motifs – that, when viewed together, tell a bigger story. I like to create moods with a series of images.”
In recent years, the Berlin-based artist has continued to grow in strength, particularly in the editorial and publishing markets. From October 2024 to January 2025, she illustrated the weekly Book Currents column in The New Yorker, blending the portrait of each columnist with themes from the books being discussed.
She has created some wonderful pieces for The New York Times, too. Last year, she illustrated an article about what life on Mars might do to the human psyche. This followed work for the NYT Kids section in 2020 and in 2023, including twelve illustrations on the theme of fortune tellers. “I love it when a commission allows me to approach a topic in a freer and playful way, like the fortune tellers project,” she says.
Undo – artwork for Black Dragon Press.
Cover for Der Schwarm by Frank Schätzing.
While artificial intelligence is sometimes the topic of Isabel’s illustrations, she believes that in editorial illustration, it will make life harder, especially for those still trying to establish a name for themselves. “I wouldn’t pay so much attention to what you think is in demand,” she advises. “Really look inside yourself and find the thing or things that really interest you, that you feel like doing and that you’d like to explore further. Experiment and work on creating a strong personal signature. I also think being reliable and approachable is essential.”
As for Isabel’s next challenge… We’ll have to see. With Klara and the Sun, she has already conquered her dream project, and magnificently so.
