The Official Artwork site for illustrator
Nick Harris
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Nick Harris is a UK born and based illustrator of children’s books.
He’s been a full time freelancer since 1982.
To commission work -
Brief Biography
Born 1958 in the UK, Nick grew up in a small seaside town called Gosport, before moving with his parents to Gloucester aged 11.
He always loved drawing which led him to switch his attentions from his original idea of becoming a doctor to pursuing a path through Art college, on the way to becoming a freelance illustrator(he reckons that potential patients had a narrow escape). It’s a job he’s done full time since leaving college in 1982.
Nick’s agent Virgil has always been able to keep him busy. The slightly old fashioned style that pervades Nick’s work still seems to be in demand. Projects have ranged from illustrating classics like king Arthur and His Knights, to more modern themes like Star Quest.
Nick collected a Smarties Book Prize in 1995 for his work on Philip Pullman’s book ‘Firework Maker’s Daughter’, and was lucky enough to be a part of the team that made the 1985 film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, (But only in the animation background department, he stresses) .
Nick still lives in the UK with his wife of over 20 years and works for the children’s book market. His pet rat watches him work (but only when she can be bothered). The family cat thinks his lap is better than the sofa (just about). The dog doesn’t care.
Progress
Once Nick has a rough idea of what he wants in a scene, he tends to start with a loose drawing of the main character. One of the biggest advantages of the PC is the ability to change things and move them round. That is usually followed by blocking in the main compositional shapes. It’s easier to see if it’s working that way. Nick then takes advantage of ‘layers’ to keep elements separated, while he works on them. He relies heavily on his traditional skills and still thinks ‘in paint’ though.
Corel Painter X
Sketchbook Pro
Sketchbook Pro
A few example stages of how some of the digital images shown on this site developed.
Corel Painter X
Artrage2.5
