Illustrator Spotlight: Sarah Raymond
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| © Sarah Raymond |
Jan. 1, 2025
We are pleased to feature illustrator Sarah Raymond and her website banner design for Kidlit411! Welcome.
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| © Sarah Raymond |
Tell us about yourself and how you came to write and illustrate for children.
Hi there! I’m Sarah, from Hamilton, Ontario (waterfall capital of Canada), where I work from a home studio—a spare bedroom filled with sketchbooks, art supplies, tech, sewing stuff … and Alice, the sleeping poodle. As a middle grade teacher, I’ve combined interests in education and art by writing and illustrating resources for language learning. I especially love middle grade, nonfiction comics that bring learning to life for kids. The learning resources have been a stepping stone to graphic novels. I’m represented by an agent from Transatlantic, and we currently have fingers crossed about On the Rise, a book of graphic nonfiction in which the goddess of grain narrates the history of bread.
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| © Sarah Raymond |
I’m also a fan of cooking, hiking and walking Alice. I have two grown-up kids, my bestest creations of all time.
What is your preferred medium and style?
I flip between pencil sketching and working on a Wacom tablet with Affinity Designer software. To hone observational skills, I go to life drawing sessions and also travel sketch. (Thank you to the many wonderfully unsuspecting models on their phones, sitting on park benches.) Although I often draw from references, I’m most inspired by abstracted images from, say, midcentury illustrations and medieval illustrated texts. I’m a sucker for pattern and textile design too, with opaque colours and strong, simplified shapes.
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| © Sarah Raymond |
When I need to unplug from illustrations, I sew upcycled fabrics, wool especially, and convert them into puppets-- another dimension of learning materials to get kids listening and talking.
Congrats on your website design for Kidlit411! How did you approach this project?
My Kidlit411 Bird on a Wire project began with pencil scribbles of various birds in love with reading. I figured a telephone wire would make a kind of public library for chirpers, engrossed in their books and all the better for it because they’re reading together. I took a photo of my pencil sketch, airdropped it into Affinity, my graphics program. With a trusty wacom pen, I made a digital line sketch. Once approved by the art director (uh, that was me), I overdrew the sketch with the digital pen, disappeared the sketch, and added colours underneath the line art from a limited palette.
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| © Sarah Raymond |
What projects are you working on now?
I’m noodling around with other middle graphic novel ideas, including one about a wilderness animals’ game show. There’s also a story in the works about a poodle aka the Professor of Squirrology. I continue doing short comics for learning French, too, and those go onto my online education site.
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| © Sarah Raymond |
What is one thing most people don't know about you?
I grew up in a converted yellow brick country church. At night I avoided the wall of windows that faced the nearby historic cemetery … didn’t want to see anything I couldn’t unsee!
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| © Sarah Raymond |
Where can people find you online?
https://www.instagram.com/sarah_who_draws
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/madame-yak
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| © Sarah Raymond |
Sarah Raymond is a writer, illustrator and professional daydreamer, with a teaching career that’s led to a line of illustrated language-learning resources. She finds inspiration from people-watching, retro design and folk art.
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