My name is Miriam Latimer. I live in North Devon with my husband Seb. I have been a children’s book illustrator for about 6 years since I graduated from UWE Bristol with a first class honours in Illustration.

I have written and illustrated 3 books of my own: ‘Wheelie girl’ published by Hodder, ‘Shrinking Sam’ and ‘Emily’s Tiger’ both published by Barefoot books. I have also illustrated books for other authors, and for publishers such as ‘Kingfisher, Ladybird, Intervisual books, Hodder and Barefoot books. All these books have been translated into several different languages to be sold abroad.

The books I Illustrate are mostly for children between the ages of 4 to 6. I usually draw people, especially children, but my Illustrations are not life-like. I have been told my style is ‘big heads and tiny bodies’. I mess around with perspectives too, so I draw things not as you would see them. My work is bold and bright, using mostly acrylics and a bit of collage. I love collecting bits of paper and fabric to use in my illustrations.

I usually illustrate stories which have something quirky about them, be it a child who shrinks, turns into a tiger, or imagines they are a mermaid! I like stories which let the imagination run wild.

Workshops
In the past I have done Illustration workshops within schools, usually for one class at a time, so for about 30 children. I prefer to do workshops for primary school ages 5 -11. I would prefer not to do school assemblies. The workshops I have done in the past have been between half and hour and an hour.
I usually read the book, give a presentation of work where the children help to work out the process involved in illustrating a book, a demonstration of me illustrating, and then I give them a task for them to illustrate something. An example of this is for the book ‘Shopping with Dad’, where I get the children to illustrate a nonsense label to wrap round a baked bean can to take home and hide in the food cupboard. In the past there has been some amazing labels including ‘kitten pie’ and ‘newt eye soup’.

Books
‘Wheelie girl’ published by Hodder
‘If Mum and Me were mermaids’ published by Hodder.
‘The princes bedtime’ published by Barefoot books
‘Shrinking Sam’ published by Barefoot books
‘Emily’s Tiger’ published by Barefoot books
‘Shopping with Dad’ published by Barefoot books
‘Choose to Re use’ by Piggy toes press
‘Don’t kiss the frog’ by Kingfisher.
‘Tooth fairy in trouble’ by Kingfisher.
Books I have some illustrations in are:
‘Christmas carols’ by Ladybird.
‘Rhymes to share’ by ladybird.