Illustrator Ester de Boer

Ester de Boer lives in Gippsland in a crumbling gingerbread cottage, where she grows veggies, writes stories, plays music, and is stalked by several cats. She loves creating illustrations that are lively, magical and filled with tiny details, so that the reader can discover something new every time they brush through the pages.
While Ester has had a lot of training as an artist, she has learned illustration on the go, with encouraging results: one of her first books, Imagine (written by Emma Mactaggart), won gold for Best Children’s Illustrated eBook at the 2015 IPPY Awards in New York, USA and her illustration, Lyrebird, was selected for exhibition in the Asian Festival for Children’s Content in Singapore. Lily Fabourama Glamourama, her second book with Emma Mactaggart, also won silver at the IPPY Awards.
Before she drew a single line for The Shop on the Corner, Ester made the entire village as well as an open model of the Christmas Shop, and lit them with tiny candles in the dark, just so that she could create the most Christmassy Christmas Book ever! You can see photos of it (alongside her other illustrations) on http://www.esterdeboerillustration.com