Pip & Quill Illustration Commission work

Illustration studio · Burlington, Vermont

Pictures that carry the story.

Pip & Quill draws picture books, characters, covers and editorial artwork for publishers, authors and editors — in pencil, gouache and a lot of colour.

Start a commission See the plates
An illustrator's drawing desk seen from above, with a half-painted picture-book spread, brushes in a jar and a palette of paint
Fig. 1 — A spread in progress: gouache, pencil and a mug that has gone cold.

The plates

Four kinds of picture, one drawing hand.

Each plate gathers a small cluster of work from the studio — characters, picture-book spreads, covers and editorial. Captions underneath, the way they should be.

A spread of pencil character sketches on a drawing desk, with a hand holding a pencil mid-stroke
Fig. 2Character sheet in progress, pencil on paper.

Plate I

Characters

Faces, creatures and costumes coaxed out of a scribble, then worked up until they can carry a whole book on their shoulders.

  • Character line-ups
  • Expression sheets
  • Costume design
An open picture-book dummy spread on a table with watercolour washes drying beside a jar of water
Fig. 3A dummy spread, washes still drying.

Plate II

Picture books

Sequenced spreads that share the storytelling with the text — page turns, quiet beats, and one small hero worth following to the end.

  • Spreads
  • Book dummies
  • Cover to cover
Painted book covers standing and stacked on a studio table beside colour swatches and brushes
Fig. 4Cover artwork on the easel, jackets in the stack behind.

Plate III

Book covers

One image that has to hold a shelf, a thumbnail and a reader's attention at the same time — drawn with room left for the title.

  • Jackets
  • Series looks
  • Type-ready art
An open magazine spread on a desk showing a large painted illustration beside columns of type
Fig. 5Editorial illustration, printed and checked.

Plate IV

Editorial

Illustration for magazines, newspapers and online features — a single image that lands the idea fast and stays in the reader's head.

  • Spot art
  • Full page
  • Conceptual

The studio

Drawn by hand, in Burlington, Vermont.

Pip & Quill Illustration is an independent studio for children's book and editorial artwork. The work starts with the story — who the character is, what each page has to carry, where the turn should land — and stays hand-drawn from the first pencil thumbnail to the finished, print-ready spread.

Publishers and art directors get one steady point of contact and artwork that belongs to the book it sits in. Authors get a collaborator who reads the manuscript properly before drawing a thing.

Every project is quoted individually.

How it works

From first scribble to finished spread.

Four steps, whether it is a single spot illustration or a whole picture book.

01

The brief

You send the manuscript, the notes, or just the idea. We settle on the mood, the cast and what each page has to do.

02

Sketches

Pencil thumbnails, character line-ups and a rough dummy, so the pacing is right before any colour is mixed.

03

Color

The agreed direction is painted up, spread by spread, with one palette holding the whole book together.

04

Handover

Final artwork delivered print-ready and sized for the book, with jacket and cover art alongside the interiors.

Commissions

Let's make the pictures.

Publishers, authors and editors — send the manuscript or the idea, and I will write back with how the artwork could work.

Burlington, Vermont Pip & Quill Illustration