Original Artwork for "Everybody in Our Family Has Different Hair" from Sandra Cisneros's Hairs / Pelitos

1994. The finished painting used to illustrate the first page of Sandra Cisneros's picture book, Hairs / Pelitos, based on a short chapter of The House on Mango Street. This image accompanies the text, "Everybody in our family has different hair," and sets the tone of the book with family members depicted with fanciful skin tones from green to purple and a variety of hair colors and styles. This image is accompanied by two trial images, one of the same scene with everyone facing away from the viewer; the other is similar but with one figure, perhaps the narrator, facing forward.

It seems likely that Sandra Cisneros (as opposed to the publisher) chose Terry Ybáñez to illustrate her first book for children. Ybáñez is a visual artist who, for many years, was a high school art teacher in San Antonio, where Cisneros lived. This was her first children's picture book, too.

The materials used appear to reflect her art-teacher background. These paintings seem to be tempera poster paint, similar to that used in schools.

Each painting is roughly 12 by 10 inches, on deckle-edge watercolor paper. The main image is fine and is signed in pencil in the lower margin. The image with all the figures facing away has waterstains in the margins (seemingly made prior to the painting) and is signed at the bottom margin. The third image, with the single figure facing the viewer, has a few small spots of paint loss in the red background. This image is painted to the edge of the paper and is not signed.