Bali Bali Blog: A special illustrator: ELIZABETH MONAHAN

Hello everyone!
Today I want to introduce you to a very skilled illustrator: Elizabeth Monahan. His illustrations are both adorable but very precise in representing the character of the characters through small but telling details.

Pride and Prejudice

Biography: (The next post will be the translation to Spanish. Very soon, I promise!)
My name is Elizabeth Monahan and I am a freelance illustrator and artist. Ever since I can remember I have always scribbled on bits of paper – as a child I loved nothing better than to fill drawing pads with characters and stories from my imagination and I have been lucky enough to carry that passion into my adult working life.

I draw inspiration from what I see around me, and always carry a sketchbook with me to record people and places. These can often form the basis for later illustrations. I am fascinated by people and I try to inject personality into my drawings; the lifting of an eyebrow or the curl of a lip can say so much about a character, and I experience a real sense of achievement when this works well. I also enjoy creating animal characters with personality – dragons are a particular obsession!

I’ve illustrated a number of children’s books for Oxford University Press, Channel 4, Harper Collins, and Dominie Press, and recently completed a new edition of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, published by Quarto. I also undertake private commissions and my works are held in private collections all over the world.

My latest project is a self-published illustrated edition of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I wanted to honor the bicentenary of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ with my own tribute, and decided to produce a newly illustrated edition that focused on the satirical nuances of the plot rather than the more familiar romantic themes. I’ve been really encouraged by the success of my ‘Cast Of’ series, a set of paintings that I produced in 2011, featuring all the main characters from each of Jane Austen’s six novels. I’ve been selling prints of them through my own Etsy shop, ‘BlueSkyInking’, and also through the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, UK. I hope to illustrate all of Austen’s novels. My next challenge is ‘Mansfield Park’ for its bicentenary in 2014, followed by ‘Emma’ in 2015 and ‘Persuasion’ on 2017. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and ‘Northanger Abbey’ will perhaps appear in 2016, but I may need a rest by then!

Flea Market Sketch

I enjoy visiting art galleries and photographic exhibitions. I particularly enjoy the work of the Turner prizewinner, Grayson Perry, the English satirical painter, William Hogarth, and the artist, Lucien Freud. My favourite photographers are Don McCullin, Elliot Erwitt and Walker Evans.