Judy Watson

I’m an illustrator and graphic designer working from a home office in Melbourne. I use a variety of media and frequently combine hand-rendered work with digital. I am happy working both on the drawing board and on the computer, but particularly like the combination of crisp and clean digital flat colour with paint-on-paper textures and brushstrokes. I also enjoy the occasional adventure in the more ordered world of diagram and technical information, most often using Adobe Illustrator. I enjoy manipulating text in combination with images, and particularly like typesetting speech balloons. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about a well balanced speech balloon! Much of my work over the last few years has been in book illustration for ABC Books, HarperCollins, Penguin Australia, Allen and Unwin and Walker Books. Prior to that I did much of my work for councils and environmental organisations where my work covered graphic design, cartooning, educational illustrations and diagrams mostly in the context of gardening and revegetation, but I also designed and illustrated several festival posters. I’ve done a range of work for Museum Victoria, combining my design and illustration skills. Posters and book cover art are among my favourite illustration and design activities. Picture books are another thing very close to my heart and I have recently been enjoying a return to black and white dip pen and ink illustrations.