Nick Harris – Designer

I'm a full time children's book illustrator who has been beavering away quite a long time, working as a freelancer. The plan is to write and publish my own tales over time. Still happy to work with others' words while I build to that.

It's a career I've been pursuing for over thirty years now. I began life as a real media watercolourist primarily, although there were diversions into acrylic and oils, and quite a lot of b/w ink work. I started making the move to digital around the year 2000 due to industry pressures and have been worked totally that way for over fifteen years now.

Projects have ranged from historical scenes, through children's classics to fantasy puzzle books. I was fortunate enough to work with Philip Pullman on the first edition of Firework-Maker's Daughter (1995), for which we both won a Smarties book prize. I also got to work with one of my childhood heroes, Richard Williams, the internationally acclaimed animator. As well as some advertising projects, he brought me on board as part of the background team who worked on the fully animated intro section for the 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ' movie (1988). If that all sounds like ancient history, be assured that in the intervening years I've been working on a variety of projects, which include Dragon Quest and Star Quest for Usborne (best described as fantasy world versions of Where's Wally, in a different style) and two titles in the Templar 'Ology' series. Those titles being 'Egyptology' and 'Mythology'. More recently I worked on 'Where's the Knight' and 'Where's the Fairy' (Sterling Children's Books), not to mention a Fairy Bible for Octopus Books.

My work tends to revolve around figure drawing and characters. Narrative is the driving force for me though and I try to create atmosphere and dynamic tension of some sort in most of my art. That's what interests me ultimately. My style probably doesn't lend itself to the very young reader. It's quirky rather than silly, or so I have been told. If you are seeking something that walks a line between drama and humour, somewhere between realism and caricature, then maybe your words and my images might make the perfect marriage. My goal is to enhance your words. In the perfect world, perhaps even take us somewhere new that neither of us would have reached alone? A whole greater than the sum of its parts.

If any of that appeals to you do please feel you can approach me on here to discuss the possibility of working together. I don't bite. Who knows where that conversation might take us . . . . . ?