Richard Johnson

RICHARD JOHNSON graduated from Loughborough School of Art and Design in 1999 and has been working as a freelance illustrator since. Presented with the Silver Award for Children's Book Illustration in Images 26 - The Best of British Illustration, Richard works mainly within children's publishing. He has produced a wide variety of picture books, including If Elephants Wore Trousers (Chrysalis Publishing), Lobster Quadrille (Scholastic) and The Young Oxford Book of Christmas Poems (Oxford University Press). Richard has also illustrated many educational and poetry books for children of all ages for Dorling Kindersley and Kingfisher, as well as working to tighter deadlines for publications such as The Times newspaper and BBC Radio Times magazine.

Richard's visual style is figurative and friendly, with strong use of colour, atmosphere and shape. Development of character and location are essential to the work, as is the emphasis on humour.

Richard's glowing illustrations feature in The Lion Five-Minute series.