09/30/2026
Andrea Wickert is a children’s book writer and illustrator who combines traditional watercolor and gouache with digital drawing to create playful and colorful picture-book worlds. During her Micro-Residency, she completed one book dummy and made significant progress on another, using the residency to bring together manuscript drafts, character sketches, page thumbnails, color palettes, and rough illustrations in preparation for querying agents.
One project in the works follows a mouse-run museum whose tiny curators try to understand humanity through the objects people have left behind. Inspired in part by the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA, Andrea spent time researching mice, collecting visual references, developing an alphabet-based structure for the story, and testing a palette that balances the museum’s muted historic tones with the bright, neon colors she loves.
The residency also gave Andrea space to spread out her writing, research, and painting materials before the final month of her PB Rising Stars Collective mentorship program. It has given her the opportunity to refine her picture-book manuscripts and prepare to approach literary agents this fall.
Congratulations Andrea, wonderful to see all your hard work come together!
