Illustration Services

As well as all things editing, at Cat and Quill, we also offer bespoke illustration work. We offer cover and in-text illustrations, as well as character artwork and other pieces perfect for marketing and bringing your world to life! As a bonus, if you’ve also edited with us, we will, of course, have read your manuscript and will be able to provide even more input on how to represent your world visually compared to an external illustrator working with just a brief.

We take pride in the visual representation of your manuscript, and work extremely closely with our clients to ensure we meet your exact vision. You are involved every step of the way from concept sketch to colour selection through to final rendering. We offer work in a range of styles and media, including both digital and traditional artwork. You can be confident that all illustrative work is hand-drawn, and we never use AI at any point in the process.

The Commission Process

The following images show the typical commission process, in this case for a digitally drawn character concept artwork. When producing an illustration, we work very closely with the client asking for their feedback and approval on several key stages. This ensures that the client receives exactly what they're after without the need for lengthy revisions. Click to enlarge the images below and compare between stages.

Commissions begin with a basic concept sketch to get a general idea of composistion, pose, and elements of the artwork. This is based on a client brief. Once the general composistion is approved, the sketch is refined and details are added, potentially going through several edits to ensure all elements of the drawing are perfect. Once the sketch has its final approval, the design is locked in and very rough colours are laid down for the client to approve the overall colour scheme.

Once colours are approved, the artwork goes through stages of detailing which is the most time consuming part of the process. The general colouring style is decided before the commission process begins, in this case, a semi-realistic approach was selected. After detailing is complete, final lighting and colour tweaking is added. Traditional media have slightly different progressions and therefore the key approval stages and points where the artwork is 'locked in' can be a bit different. You will always recieve thorough information on the methodology of any medium you choose.

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Book Illustrations and Character Design

Character portrait for the Chronicles of Terrania series. Drawn digitally.

Illustration for the Chronicles of Terrania series. Drawn digitally.

Creature Design

Unicorn design with a realistic colour pallet. Drawn digitally.

Creature concept designs and sketches. Drawn digitally.

Dragon concepts, painted in watercolour and gouache.

Dragon skull illustration. Drawn in graphite.

Animals and Natural History

Great Auk, drawn in charcoal. Brevirostruavis, a primitive bird, drawn in colour pencil and copic marker.

Plesiosaur skull drawn in pen and ink.

Triceratops battling, drawn to accompany a research paper investigating fighting techniques. Drawn digitally.

Cartoons

Cartoons in various styles, drawn digitally.