CONSIDER THIS:

2007-09-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Online educational resources

need original custom artwork

More and more online educational resource websites are in need of small art elements they can own. Collier Creative Group can do that. With the demand for a unique appearance, grabbing artwork elements off the internet via google just doesn't cut it anymore. Educational sites need an exclusive identity. If you operate a website for kids with educational value, we can illustrate a mascot, coloring or educational pages, and even do animated gifs. Think about the how you want the public to see your site.

MEET KIT, KIM, KATIE AND KEVIN:

2007-09-22T01:54:00.000-07:00

KIT GRADY
Email • Homepage • Art Gallery

Drawing has always been my first love. I was always drawing on something. But after creating a large playmate in dark crayon on my parent’s brick home and a trip to time-out, I knew I needed to channel this creativity. I majored in art at Virginia Commonwealth University and later studied under Caldecott winners Uri Schlevitz and Gale Haley.

I have produced greeting cards, a children’s activity page for newspapers and medical illustration work. I also needed a vehicle to draw my pictures so I wrote stories. I authored and illustrated Jiggsy’s Neck for Windswept House publishers. I have just completed my first early reader book with Kaeden Books, with art and story for “Just One More, Mom.” My illustration work also includes religious education projects for The United Methodist Publishing House /Cokesbury.

I enjoy visiting schools and teaching art classes.

My palette is filled with bright colors and creatures full of expression and activity. I’m always trying to create a “ magical world” for my characters where even the simplest things hold wonder.

I am a member of the Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Society.

Work I like to Do:

I love creating picture books for all ages, especially for ages 4-10. I also enjoy creating board books, concept books and early educational materials. I confess animals, children and creatures with expression are my favorite.

I work digitally in Photoshop with a painterly flair. I can also work in black and white or for spot illustrations.

Kit's Most Current Illustrated Book Release:

JUST ONE MORE, MOM
Written by Kit Grady
Published by Kaeden Books
PURCHASE ONLINE NOW

A Partial List of Clients Include:

Kaeden Books Publishers
Windswept House Publishers
The United Methodist Publishing House/Cokesbury

KIM SPONAUGLEEmail • Homepage • Art Gallery

I don’t know why, but as a kid I never liked plastic decorations! I remember making many paper illustrations of Christmas scenes decorated with glitter to go around our dining room archway – this became my unofficial job at our house every year! One day my grandmom entered me in a Bradford House restaurant coloring contest – “color the bunny,” the prize, a paint-by-number set. This tiny victory sparked my interest and helped me to set sail into an adventure in art!

I graduated from The Art Institute of Philadelphia with a graphic arts degree. Out of school, I began working as an associate designer of children’s curriculum for Cook Publishing in Illinois. It was there, while hiring illustrators for projects, that I realized how much I wanted to be the one behind the drawing board.

For the past twenty years I have worked in different genres of art, from graphic design, mural painting, children’s cartoon portraits to children’s curriculum design but my passion and focus is primarily in children’s book illustration.

The imaginative side of illustration has always drawn me in. Characters that have warm expressions and are playfully illustrated with lots of color always catch my eye. I believe good illustration should create a sense of wonder to the reader. In every project, I seek to be true to the spirit and feeling of that book.

Pastels, watercolor and markers are the main mediums that I work in.

Work I like to Do:

I enjoy working on picture books for kids of all ages but my experience lies mainly with books for children ages 5-8 years. I have work in three mediums – I use pastels for more elemental stories, watercolors for illustrations that need detail and pen and ink for black line art illustration used mainly for middle grade fiction.

I enjoy the control pastels give in illustration work – simple, bright and colorful. Watercolor has it’s own pleasant surprises, I like that it can be a little unpredictable and yet soft and expressive. Black line art has its beauty in texture and pattern. I like them all.

Kim's Most Current Illustrated Book Release:

ANGEL'S FIRST JOB
Written by Carol Davis Gustke
Published by Dragonfly Publishing
GO TO BOOK PAGE

A Partial List of Clients Include:
Concordia Publishing House
Christian focus Publications
KidzBlitz
Athse Publishing
Guardian Angel Publishing
Ithaca Press
Llumina Press
Images Press
Dog Ear Publishing
And Stories For Children, Fandangle and Wee Ones Magazine

KATIE ATKINSON
Email • Homepage • Art Gallery

In all my years of school a big part of my notes were always the doodles in margins of the page. I loved to use my imagination and draw, it felt like magic to me. My uncle is a well known portrait painter and he was a great influence on me as a child.

I graduated from the University of CT with a B.A in French and a minor in Art, spending my Junior Year in France. After college I moved to NYC and worked in the “bullpen” doing storyboards for William Esty Advertising. I also took many courses in Illustration from the Parson’s School of Design. After several years in the advertising and design fields, and doing freelance illustration on the side I moved back to CT. I wanted to create artwork that was more personal and meaningful to me. After getting married and having children I really got inspired to create my own art again, after falling in love with reading children’s books to my two young boys.

Living in Norfolk “the ice box of CT” with it’s many snow days, and being home with my children inspired a series of winter illustrations. Because my second son was born prematurely and required much medical care I decided to donate the use of one of these paintings each year to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Christmas Card fundraiser. I took this first published card to the National Stationery Show in NY and there made the contact with Good Cause Greetings. Since that time I have done over 40 Holiday greeting cards (most of them for this publisher.)

I began placing these images and others I had wanted to paint in the Stock Illustration Source. My first break into Children’s book publishing came in 2000, through this agency with the sale of my Noah’s Ark illustration as a book cover to Publications International for “Children’s Book of the Bible.” Over time I now have over 80 images on this site. Because they market images globally online, I have had the opportunity to be published internationally and in many different markets. Over the years this experience has shown me what types of images will have broad appeal and sell over and over again. Having a series of work on the holidays has also brought 20 of my illustrations to publication as Christmas Seals for the American Lung Association.

Work I like to Do:

I love creating a beautiful, universally understood idea or concept that will have broad appeal and sell over and over again. Bright, vibrant colors and a decorative, yet focused approach can be seen in my work. I work traditionally in mixed media, combining arcrylic, watercolor and sometimes colored pencil. I also have had a lot of experience doing black and white line art. I would love to do a book on world peace, that would be an outreach all over world.

Kate's Most Current Greeting Image:

PEACE ON EARTH DOVE
Published by Good Cause Greetings
PURCHASE ONLINE NOW

A Partial List of Clients Include:

Hyperion Books
Publications International
The American Lung Association
Good Cause Greetings
Kristin Elliott, Inc.
Faulkner and Gray
American Lawyer Media
American Arbitration Association
Pacific Press Publishing
Pearson Education
International Business Publications
Sempra Energy
UK/Pensions Week
WB Advertising
The Hartford Courant
Prentice Hall
A. Mondadori Publications

KEVIN COLLIEREmail • Homepage • Art Gallery

Fascinated with comic books and animated cartoons as a child, I began to create and scribble out my own characters when I entered grade school. By the time I was 10 years old, I was drawing my own little story books, using carbon paper to produce copies, and selling them to neighborhood kids. I thought, you can make money using your imagination?

Exiting college with a knack for art, layout and design, I was hired as Art Director of the Grand Haven Tribune (MI) newspaper in 1981, where I have worked ever since. My designs and special features artwork have won awards from the Michigan Press Association, United Press International, and the Associated Press. I have taught hundreds of art classes in my community during this same time frame.

In 2004, a short story I wrote caught the attention of Baker Trittin Publishing, and I was contracted to write a chapter book based on it. The book, "barthpenn@heaven.org" was published that November, and it launched a writing career. In 2005 I was chomping at the bit to draw for the children’s market and picked up several publishers who contracted me to illustrate for them. Since then, I've had over 50 books published.

One valuable asset I possess being an illustrator, is I am also known as a published author. So, when I illustrate books for other writers, I understand where they are coming from, too. And, I illustrate their books the way I would illustrate a project of my own, putting imagination and creativity first. It’s an entertaining profession, one where lines dance into figures that become the characters children will adore.

Work I like to Do:

I cater to children’s picture books and illustrated chapter books for ages 4-14. I favor stories that call for animals that have human-like attributes. Virtually all of my work is created with pen and ink which is scanned into my iMac and then colored in Adobe Photoshop using various techniques. I have also created pencil illustrations for certain projects, in both black and white and in color.

I enjoy working with my computer to turn line art into bright, dimensional illustrations that defy traditional mediums. I employ many special effects within the art that creates an appearance that is both magical and fosters wonder as to how it was created. My trademark techniques give characters a luminescent quality and vivid colors.

Kevin's Most Current Illustrated Book Release:

RUFUS TWEED, THE FATHER OF GREED
Written by James Tague
Published by Xlibris Publishing
PURCHASE ONLINE NOW

A Partial List of Clients Include:
Baker Trittin Press
Little Light Press
Dragonfly Publishing
Xulon Press
Lahont Publishing
Sable Creek Press
New World Publishing
Lifevest Publishing
Outskirts Press
Writers Exchange Publishing
Guardian Angel Publishing
Athse Publishing
Xlibris Publishing
Dog Ear Press
Ithaca Press
Holy Fire Publishing
Hidden Picture Books Publishing

And Stories For Children, Fandangle, Wee Ones Magazine, Verse-Makers, Dragonfly Spirit Magazine, Candlelight Stories, Kid Magazine Writers, Humpty Dumpty Magazine and Once Upon a Time Magazine.

COLLIER CREATIVE GROUP

CONSIDER THIS:

MEET KIT, KIM, KATIE AND KEVIN: