Illustrator
Sarah is an award-winning illustrator, concept artist and book designer. She has worked with clients in publishing, film, and animation and has illustrated more than 50 books. Sarah is best known for her long-lived and well-loved series such as Fearless,
Violet Mackerel, and Marmaduke Duck. Her illustration is inspired by a love of narrative and with each project she experiments with new ways to tell visual tales, working across a range of eclectic media – paint, ink, pencil, collage, sculpture, photography and 3D digital
modelling. She has 4+ years experience working in-house as Associate Art Director at Walker Books Australia, where she collaborated with some of Australia’s finest picture-book illustrators.
An experienced presenter with a teaching background, Sarah is in high demand as a speaker at schools, festivals and universities throughout Australia and internationally. Her restless creativity fuels her hilarious, high-energy presentations, which involve lots of audience participation and a great blend of silliness and serious learning. Students will be inspired to think laterally and trust their creative instincts, and will learn solid practical skills in art and story development.
Sarah’s most recent books are: That’s Not a Hippopotamus! by Juliette Maciver (2017, Gecko Press) winner of Best Picture Book in the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards 2018; Worse Things by Sally Murphy (2021, Walker Books Australia), an Honour Book in the
CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2021, The Grizzled Grist Does Not Exist by Juliette Maciver (2022, Gecko Press); Solomon Macaroni and the Cousin Catastrophe (2022, UQP) and Solomon Macaroni and the Paris Predicament (2023, UQP) written by Ashleigh Barton.
Sarah is also proud to be an ambassador for the children’s literacy charity, Room to Read.
SHAPE SHENANIGANS! Join Sarah and learn how to turn simple shapes into complicated characters – from cute and cuddly to monstrous and menacing. Get a sneak peek at her latest work-in progress, Wonky Circle (ABC/HarperCollins Oct 24), and learn how illustrators tell stories with pictures.
Sessions will focus on Fearless (ABC/HarperCollins) and That’s Not a Hippopotamus! (Gecko Press)