Heather Allen began her career as an illustrator in 2003, working mainly in watercolour and getting her first break with Meadowside Children’s Books. She also trained as a book designer, working for Harper Collins and a smaller design company dealing directly with Macmillan Education and Oxford University Press.

Working as a designer made her far more computer literate, and she soon started to use Adobe Photoshop to create ‘collage’ type artworks. Recently she designed and illustrated her third cover for Sarah May, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Wondergirls’ (HarperCollins Publishers).

“I like to scan in textures and manipulate them in Photoshop to create a handcrafted feel, so they don’t look ‘too perfect’.”

Continuing in the ‘collage’ theme, Heather has recently created some new children’s picture book artworks to add to her portfolio.

“I scan in my pen drawings and watercolour washes, building up the textures in Photoshop until I achieve the desired effect.”

The new artworks are already generating quite a bit of interest in the publishing world!

Categories: General illustration news