Nothing beats my own life and experiences. I often find myself drawing upon people and events from my life to inspire my work. In fact, My Day With Dad and My Day With Mom were drawn from special memories I had from growing up with my parents.

Animation is another one of my biggest inspirations. There are too many projects dear to my heart to name them all, but I always pull out the artbooks from Pixar, Wolfwalkers, Over the Garden Wall, and Steven Universe, or watch Princess Mononoke for the millionth time to prepare for a project.

I’m also inspired by my favorite things to draw. Whether it’s food, nature, patterns, and animals, I seize any opportunity to incorporate them into my art. When you’re drawing something you love, it’s hard not to be inspired!

“There is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can’t be improved with pizza.” – Daria

I have lived in both Chicago and New York, so pizza has always been a big part of my life. Before you can tell me New York pizza is better, you need to have tried tavern style Chicago pizza first. Deep-dish is a different thing entirely. My current favorite topping combos are double sausage, onion, bacon, and pepperoni with hot honey. Fruit does not belong on pizza. Looking at you, pineapples. Vito & Nick’s Pizzeria (Chicago, IL) and Little Pops (Naperville, IL) both have the best thin-crust pizza I’ve ever tasted, but I have a lot of love for Crosta (Brooklyn, NY). While my preference is thin-crust, I don’t sleep on the deep dish from Pequod’s (Chicago, IL). No fast food pizza please. Please query me for additional pizza-related opinions, quotes, and recommendations.

Before any project, I rip a tag off a mattress, do the hokey pokey in reverse, and pet a corgi for good luck and vibes. After that, while every project is a little different, there are certain fundamentals that are consistent. I will do a kick-off call where expectations are discussed. From there, I plan, brainstorm, and outline. This is the longest part of the process because it’s the foundation. I’ll surround myself with inspiring books, my laptop, iPad, sketchbook, and notepad because I never know where my ideas will be best articulated.

Once I have my ideas out of my head, I will do digital rough sketching in Procreate. For a client, there will be a couple of passes of the sketches on my end so they are refined for critique. I like my sketches to be a close reflection of the final product. Once sketches are approved, the next step for me is refined pencils then ink. Coloring is the second longest part of the process as the palette is very important to me to get right. Upon approval of the color, the files will be delivered to the client based on their specifications.

Chicago, IL

Cactus Juice Zine – Avatar: the Last Airbender Charity Zine (2020)
Terror Time Zine – Horror Theme (2020)
Art of Change Artbook (2020)
Banished – TV Pitch (2020)
Connect the Dots – Buzzfeed Unsolved Zine (2021)
Elements Zine – Avatar: the Last Airbender Zine (2021)
Wicked X Lovely – Villianess Zine (2022)
Alias Zine – Batman Zine (2022)

WEBSITE: http://raecrawford.com
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/itsraecrawford
COMIC INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/imbrokencomics

Yes. I’ve done school visits about my artist journey, publishing career, and readings of my books. For younger kids, the themes of the book I’m presenting are explored and discussed. This often includes a reading and Q&A. For teens and college level, the discussion is more geared toward career. This is often accompanied by me doing portfolio reviews. Please reach out to Janna for more details.

Digital (Procreate)

Board books, Comedy, Comics & Graphic Novels, Hand-drawn typography, Illustration, Licensing comics & art, Picture books, Portraits, Writing

Good Nights Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspired Young Changemakers (Rebel Girls, 2022)
Rebel Girls Animal Allies: 25 Tales of Women Working with Wildlife (Rebel Girls, 2023)
My Day With Dad (Holiday House, 2023)
My Day With Mom (Holiday House, 2024)