About Courtney Autumn Martin
09/11/2011 9:45pm by folio
Greetings!
I'm Courtney Autumn Martin and I'm super pleased to be this week's featured artist on That's My Folio!
After graduating with an Illustration degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006, I held a variety of jobs before finally embarking on a full-time children's illustration career in 2010. Over the past few years I've worked on picture books, book covers, classroom readers, magazine spots, painting kits, and museum murals.
My images are created using a pencil drawing on paper that is painted digitally in Photoshop using a custom pastel brush and a swirly gesso texture overlay. Working digitally allows me to work faster than I would traditionally, though admittedly I'm still slow as a turtle (but I'm getting better).
My first illustrated picture book, Ballots for Belva (written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen) was published in 2008 by Abrams. A bit of a trial by fire, I had only 60 days to complete the book from sketch to final--a daunting task for a first-time illustrator. Coincidentally, I've remained working at a similarly hasty pace ever since, as many of my current projects are for the quick turnaround educational market. Clients have included Scholastic Education, Macmillan McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Publications International.
I am represented by Nicole Tugeau of the children's illustration agency Tugeau 2. It is my hope to eventually write and illustrate my own books, but for now I find it enjoyable to bring pictures to other authors' stories. In addition to illustrating, I love painting, photography, and designing for web and print.
My husband (fellow illustrator and designer Adam Hunter Peck) and I live cheerfully in our book-filled home in Slatersville, RI (not too far from Providence) with our two cats, Griffin & Miette.
If I weren't an artist, I'd be a full-time kidlit reader and proffessional cat hugger, though I suspect it may not be a financially lucrative career choice!
Cheers,
-Courtney
Courtney Autumn Martin's Illustration Portfolio
