Hi! I’m a children’s book illustrator living in Austin TX with my husband, son and a few doggies.
My clients include Alfred A. Knopf, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Scholastic Book Club, Ideals Children’s Books, Ladybug Magazine, Clubhouse Jr. Magazine, Highlights, Highlights High Five, National Geographic, Hazelden Educational Publishing.
Recent Books:
Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine, by Allison Wortche, Knopf 2011
MINE! by Shutta Crum, Knopf 2011
Sweet Moon Baby by Karen Henry Clark, Knopf 2010
The Looking Book by P.K. Hallinan, Ideals Publishing 2009
Layla, Queen of Hearts, by Glenda Millard, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2010
The Naming of Tishkin Silk, by Glenda Millard, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2009
Coming: I Like Old Clothes, by Mary Ann Hoberman, Knopf 2012
Amy Farrier is an illustrator and designer with a degree in English literature. After years of working with words, she picked up a paintbrush and got hooked on watercolor. And the wonderful art and stories found in children’s books. Inspired by morning walks, nature specials, and funny life moments (some of them involving a certain sweet dog and spicy cat that live with her), she is happily working away on some art and stories of her own.
Lalena Fisher illustrates children’s textbooks for clients including Oxford University Press, Scholastic, and McGraw-Hill. She also designs logos, posters, books, and websites for a variety of clients ranging from fine artists and musicians to small businesses. A native Texan who has recently returned to Austin, Lalena spent 14 years in New York City where she created characters and backgrounds for Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues and The Wonder Pets, and designed information graphics for The New York Times.
She has a Master of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. For her final year of college, she lived in Monterrey, Mexico, learning printmaking and Mexican history.
Lalena is currently working on several of her own children’s picture book stories, and a short animated cartoon. She is also a songwriter and guitarist.
Shelley has worked for clients such as the New York Times, Berkley Books, and Faces magazine. She’s created mystery book covers, magazine art, nature posters and more. But her true passion is children’s picture books.
Her first picture book, Little Lions, Bull Baiters & Hunting Hounds: A History of Dog Breeds was awarded the 2008 gold medal in juvenile non-fiction by ForeWord Magazine and received a non-fiction research grant from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Her second book, Upon Secrecy, was selected as one of the best children’s books of 2010 by Bank Street College of Education. Harness Horses, Bucking Broncos & Pit Ponies: A History of Horse Breeds will be in stores October 2011.
Shelley is also an arts educator, teaching art appreciation for The University of Phoenix, and studio art classes at Dougherty Arts School, The Art School at the Austin Museum of Art—Laguna Gloria, and University of Texas Informal. She also visits schools to talk to kids about writing and illustrating.
She and her husband Jeff, daughter Harper, and three pups have lived in Austin since October 2010.
Hello! My name is Marsha Riti and I am a freelance illustrator based out of Austin, Texas. I have a BFA in studio art from the University of Texas in Austin. I love to create and I take inspiration from early comics artists as well as some new ones with a slight mid-century twist. I have illustrated my first book titled “The Picky Little Witch” written by Elizabeth Brokamp. It’s due out this upcoming September 2011 by Pelican Press.
The first thing you need to know about Tiffanny Varga is how to spell her oddly spelled name. That’s two F’s and two N’s in Tiffanny!
The next thing you need to know, is that Tiffanny Varga is a watercolor illustrator and 10-year veteran animator and concept artist for the video games industry. She has worked on games for Microsoft, Atari, Big Huge Games and Electronic Arts, as well as smaller Indie Games Studios, notably the award-winning Mad Minute Games and the very awesome Steel Penny Games, where she is currently helping them make the best-looking Facebook game out there (Coming Late August!)
When Tiffanny is not making cool games, she’s painting like a crazy person, doing studies, art challenges, illustrating humerous life stories, and posting it all on her growingly popular blog, Tiffanny’s Sketchbook. (Again, with two F’s and two N’s, that’s why you need to know how to spell her name, so you can find her blog on Google!)
Tiffanny also likes to brag about and dote over her gorgeous trophy-dog Gracie, a super intelligent, athletic, and pampered Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.
Emma J. Virján was born in Texas, under an Aries moon, on a Wednesday evening, her Dad’s bowling night. This might explain her attraction to shiny, hardwood floors and crunchy, snack bar French fries. Her career as a graphic designer and illustrator started when she gave everyone handmade business cards for Christmas when she was five years old.
Nacho the Party Puppy, her first children’s book, was featured in the 2008 Texas Book Festival. Get to know Nacho (and Emma) at www.NachoTheDog.com.
When Emma isn’t drawing, she spends her time reading, making lists, cutting out images of the numeral 5, and collecting produce stickers.
Amanda paints detailed environments (similar to the backgrounds of cartoons) for independent video games, some award winning. In her personal work, she blends digital, ink, and drawing techniques to create warm, fanciful, often monochromatic illustrations that reflect her love of surreal childhood imaginings.
The style of her work is greatly influenced by folk art, antique illustration, the landscapes and corners of places she’s lived in and traveled, and her own childhood memories.
She spent her early years in such places as Germany, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Wyoming, and currently lives and works in Austin. Her favorite things include pencils, paths through trees, carousels, historic hotels, and spooky stories.
