Amanda Hall

Amanda Hall trained in illustration at the Cambridge School of Art and moved to London to begin her career as a freelance illustrator. After a period spent travelling, she returned to Cambridge and established herself in the world of international picture books for children, creating images for fiction and non-fiction texts written by herself and other people.

Amanda's work is inspired by her interest in the global diversity of peoples and cultures, and she loves to get deeply engaged with her subjects. For instance, she relished the scientific research needed for How the Sea Came to Be: And All the Creatures in It by author Jennifer Berne (published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers), which she illustrated during the Covid pandemic. That research enabled her to depict accurately the origins of the ocean and early life forms, and to convey the amazing diversity of today's marine creatures. Since many of the very early marine life forms remain only partially understood, Amanda had to take a deep dive into academic papers on the subject of how they might have looked, before she could begin drawing.

Her illustrations - for which she uses watercolour inks, gouache, acrylic paints, pencil crayons and digital techniques - have a decorative quality and a strong sense of colour and design. She is now branching out into the world of repeat patterns for use in interior design and other products. A cavalcade of fantastical plants and animals is beginning to emerge from her studio, which is surrounded by a contained but fabulous garden where her illustrations seem to come to life.

Amanda's work illustrated 'Wonders of the deep' in Issue 351 of Resurgence & Ecologist (July/August 2025).

To find out more about her work, visit www.amandahall-illustration.com

All illustrations © Amanda Hall