Overview

David Catrow was born an artist. From the moment he was able to resist eating the crayon in his hand, he’s been drawing. Today he’s a cartoonist, an illustrator and a painter with a constant need to explore the potential of his ideas, playing with them in his head and on the canvas. His dream project would be to live in France and art direct a film about rabbits and other furry creatures.

Training

David is a self-taught artist. He’s learned about a whole range of creative media by trial and error. He studied pre-med and wanted to be a doctor, but art was his true path and it has consumed him.

Approach

Anything David creates begins with a ‘what if?’ After playing with ideas and concepts – working out if it’s a pea or a planet he’s painting – he’ll come upon a sparkling moment that gets his pencil or brush moving. He’s driven to get it onto canvas and let it live. David’s creative muse is a gnarly, comical, evil, painted mask he found in Mexico. It hangs in an honoured place on his studio wall, playing to the darker side in his paintings.

Style

David’s style is very personal – he draws in his own, natural way. His aim is to capture the feeling, and let the viewer experience it. As a book illustrator, his role is to convey the story, setting, characters and their interactions. But he also aims to find something that’s not there in the words, binding in a subtle layer that shapes the characters beyond what’s written on the page. The images themselves are notable for their expressiveness, colour, depth and detail.

Client List

• Simon and Schuster
• Harcourt Houghton Mifflin
• Penguin Putnam
• Disney
• Amazon
• National Geographic
• Universal
• 20th Century Fox Film Corp.
• Blue Sky Studios
• Scholastic Books
• Random House
• Holiday House
• Clarion Books
• Roaring Press