Artist Feature: Erin Brown Nov 14 2024

This month we are excited to highlight Erin Brown as our Featured Artist. Her background in fine art helps her bring beautiful, whimsical scenes to life!

Erin has always loved the arts and worked in different mediums before realising her passion.

“I studied Fine Art: Painting and Drawing at university, and and soon after, I realised that illustrating books was where my passion really lay. I’ve always found books so magical and being lucky enough to be a part of creating them sounded like a dream job!”

Erin still uses her skills from her studies to create painterly scenes:

“My illustrations always start off with rough sketching before I pull out a big sheet of paper and get stuck right into drawing. After I’ve finished my black and white drawing, I usually scan it into my computer and colour it digitally. I find doing it this way gives me a lot of freedom, and is very forgiving. This way also means I get to retain the lovely hand drawn lines. In recent projects, I’ve been experimenting with painting in acrylic inks and it’s been so refreshing but also humbling to dive back into an old medium. I’d love to work with inks more.”

Her work is not only influenced by her painting and drawing background, but also by her environment. Erin is originally from Northern Ireland and now resides on the island of Jersey.

“I moved to Jersey in the Channel Islands about 6 years ago, and I absolutely fell in love with the island. It’s a beautiful place to live and I’ve found it has massively influenced my work. It has a huge range of scenery, with beautiful woodlands and beaches aplenty. What I love to draw most is nature in all shapes and forms. I find myself really inspired by the smaller things, like bugs and moths and especially pond life.”

Much of Erin’s work focuses on nature. It is clear from her portfolio that she is inspired by the beauty of the world around her. Erin has worked on many projects focused on nature. When asked about her most important project, she said:

“I think when I look back over my illustration career the most important project that pops to mind is the Old Oak books. The books follow the everyday lives of the inhabitants of a hedgerow in the countryside, including the trees! Each book has such a charming story, I was so happy to be able to illustrate them, I was able to draw my favourite things and could really get lost in the detail and beauty of wildlife and plants. Working on these books helped me to solidify what I loved to draw most and my style has continued to develop thanks to them… The books have had support from different wildlife charities in the UK too, which is really lovely.”

While working on this series, she again turned to her surroundings for help:

“The first thing I did for this project was head out into the more rural areas of Jersey to look for inspiration and take some reference photos. After that, there was a lot of drawing! One key thing was being able to accurately portray the trees and different animals, but also give them personality and playfulness. This was a really important step and I took a lot of time to make sure I got the balance right.”

It is great to see Erin bring these inspirations to life and grow with each project. After working with us for eight years, she has been able to expand her skills! When asked about working with Advocate, she says:

“I’ve been represented by Advocate for about eight years and have had the pleasure of working with lots of lovely different agents. I think the advice I took to heart most was that it’s always better to ask. If you think something is unclear or need help with something, always ask the agents. They are on your side and, most of all, everyone just wants to do a good job and create beautiful work!”

Erin is a joy to assist in creating stunning work! Looking to the future, she talks about her new project coming soon:

“It was a real honour to be asked to illustrate a W. B. Yeats poem, especially [The Stolen Child]. I really dived head first into this project. Coming up with a unique world to fit the poem was so much fun. I really wanted to create a feeling reminiscent of old children’s books and old Irish tapestries, so after drawing with black ink I painted elements of every spread with acrylic ink to achieve that effect. I can’t wait to see it printed in the flesh and to share my favourite illustrations from it.”

We also can’t wait to see and share her latest illustrations! All of us at Advocate know there are great things to come from Erin Brown.

Awards:

Great Reads Award 2024 – Into The Witchwood, O’Brien 

The Children’s Book Ireland Recommended Reading Guide – Into The WitchWood, O’Brien

Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award 2023 – Finding Calm In Nature

Northern Lights Book Award, Winner of the Nature Category 2023 – Finding Calm In Nature

Nature Book of the Year 2023 at the Northern Dawn Awards

Finalist 2023 in juvenile nonfiction at Foreword INDIES Awards

Interested in seeing more? Click HERE to see Erin's full portfolio!

Advocate Art illustration agency specializes in art licensing and children’s book illustrations. Based in London, Seville, New York, L.A., and Singapore, we represent leading illustrators who produce children's and decorative work to commission or license.