Jill Calder

Jill Calder Live Music Festival Illustration

Jill Calder Tom's motorcycle Illustration

Jill Calder Irish Landscape Illustration

Jill Calder Cellar Restaurant Illustration

Jill Calder Hedgehog Swimming Illustration

Jill Calder Dramatic Typography Illustration

Jill Calder - This is the life text Illustration

Jill Calder Daily Activities Illustration

Bio

Based in Scotland, Jill Calder is an award winning illustrator with a passion for drawing, bright colour, ink, books and deadlines. Jill blends traditional and digital image-making methods to create lively and atmospheric illustrations full of people, animals and places for clients in design and publishing around the world. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and later at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1992, later going on to work as a lecturer for 14 years at Edinburgh College of Art.

Ten years ago, Jill was encouraged to branch out into the world of children’s books. Published in 2014, Jill’s debut picture book, Robert the Bruce, King of Scots (written by James Robertson, Birlinn) was shortlisted for the World Illustration Awards. Her second book, The Picture Atlas: An Incredible Journey (written by Simon Holland, Bloomsbury, 2017) was shortlisted for Children’s Travel Book of the Year in the Edward Stanford Awards. Jill continues to develop her relationship with children’s publishers and has picture books coming out later in 2023, 2024 and 2025!

Jill’s love of commercial projects continues and she enjoys delivering a range of illustration and bespoke lettering for global clients including Siemens, Colgate University, Visa, English Heritage, Target, Billabong, Kellogs, Benromach Distillery and the World Health Organisation.

Through her art, Jill has been invited to collaborate with various schools, universities and organisations throughout the UK, USA and Asia. During her recent participation in the British Council’s ‘Drawings Words’ exhibition of British picture book illustrators, Jill was invited to visit Pakistan and Sri Lanka to open the exhibition and conduct workshops and storytelling sessions in the British Council libraries there. Today, her work as a mentor and teacher continues as she collaborates with Picture Hooks, mentoring students from Iran and Brazil amongst other places.

In 2022, Jill’s first retrospective exhibition, ‘A Blink of Ink…the Creative World of Jill Calder’ was held at Callendar House in Scotland, giving a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of her biggest projects over the years. Her work has also been displayed at the V&A Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, the Royal Brompton Hospital and the Royal Scottish Academy.