Craft’s work can be found in the collections of National Portrait Gallery (United States), the Museum of American Illustration in New York City, the National Geographic Society, and other corporate collections. She has received numerous awards for her work, including several gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators, New York, NY.

Her fairy tale books are currently distributed in the USA, other English-speaking countries, Europe, Greece, China, and Korea. Her art has been licensed on calendars, posters, greeting cards, and other consumer goods. Her original paintings, drawings, and limited-edition prints are represented by Borsini-Burr Gallery in Montara, California, and other galleries. Craft and her daughter Marie Charlotte Craft. She has collaborated with many authors and worked with her husband Mahlon F. She has also designed opera posters, fairy tale books and painted cover art for many national magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic. McKillip, Juliet Marillier, and Tanith Lee. Her art has included paintings for the book covers of many well-known fantasy authors such as Patricia A. Since the mid-1990s, she has concentrated her efforts on art for fantasy book jackets. Her work is done with a combination of artist oils and watercolor on clayboard gesso panels.Ĭraft has illustrated eight picture books (fairy tale and classic mythology) designed for children and young readers. She is most inspired by the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Symbolist painters. She has a passionate love of European fine art and draws on a deep knowledge of European art history in creating her work. A majority of her earlier work was for the editorial and advertising market.Ĭraft illustrated the cover art of the older editions of Shakespeare's work for the Folger Library.

After graduating, she came to the United States in 1964 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she continued her studies in design and illustration. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1964 from the Kanazawa College of Art. Kinuko Yamabe Craft was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan on January 3, 1940. Kinuko Yamabe Craft is a Japanese-born American painter, illustrator and fantasy artist.

Cinderella by Kinuko Y. Craft