Children's picture book watercolor illustration for
Finding Joy

Written by Marion Coste
Illustrated by Yong Chen
Published by Boyds Mills Press, a Highlights Company, October 2006
ISBN-13: 978-1-59078-192-0
ISBN-10: 1-59078-192-9

A picture book for all ages. Full color illustrations in watercolor. 32 pages.

This watercolor painting shown the mother is on the way back home on the airplane with the Chinese girl they just adopted from China. The mother is talking to the little, and the little girl is talking to the mother, they are smiling, they are laughing. You can see the love between this new relationship. They are so happy, that it seems this little Chinese girl is meant to be this mother's daughter.

I tried to simplify the background, and keep the readers' attention on the mother and the child, and the love between them.

One thing that I learned from illustrating this piece, that is one of the regulation. When an adult is with a child on an airplane, the child's baby-seat should be the one near the window.

Book Summary: When Shu-li is born, her mother and father wrap her in a blanket and take her to town. The government says that a family is allowed to have only one child. So they lay shu-li on the ground beneath a bridge. On her blanket they pin a note that reads This is our Shu-li. Please take care of her. No room for girls. Fortunately, She-li is found and taken to an orphanage. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a husband and wife in North America hope to adopt a baby from China. Marion Coste's moving story of a mother who makes the long journey to a faraway land to meet her new baby is tenderly illustrated by Yong Chen.