Author, Artist, and Other-Worldly Traveler.
I have been a professional artist for about 35 years. I really can't remember a time when I was not a fan of fantasy art and books and my childhood was always spent in pursuit of something magical and mythical. As an adult, nothing about that has changed with enchanting Northern California being home to me and my family of nine, two cats…and never a dull moment!
One of my main influences for creating illustrated books is James Gurney's, Dinotopia. I'll never forget the excitement I felt when I first read that book with his amazing artwork. Another influence is my love of traveling. The global expedition in my Circle the Sun books are inspired by my own real-life adventures around our beautiful planet.
I have an extensive following in the fantasy art industry with over 11,000 fans on Facebook. I am an award winning artist with my work being featured in many publications including:
ImagineFX, Infected by Art, Faerie Magazine, Fae Magazine, Beyond Fantasy, Magical Times and much more.
As an artist, I enjoy using a variety of mediums including traditional art, digital art, and photography. Along with taking art and photography at Arizona State University, I also studied creative writing, literature, art history and science. I really love learning new things. Photoshop and digital art did not even exist during my academic life, so I am self-taught in those areas.
In traditional art techniques, I favor watercolors, gouache, ink and more. But I also enjoy the incredible opportunities of digital art which I approach the same way I work with traditional techniques. In other words, I never let the computer do the job for me.
When creating photographic art, I sew the costuming and apply all makeup myself and then shoot on location. These images truly blur the line between fantasy and reality.
I think my personal artistic style comes across cohesively in every medium that I use and never feels mismatched or imbalanced.
Examples of all my artwork and sample pages of my book can be found on my website: www.susanschroder.com