Arthur Vergani

Illustrator: class of 2021

Arthur Vergani is an illustrator and designer originally from Brazil, now based in London. He graduated from the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, where he is now an Associate Lecturer, focusing mainly on the role of digital illustration and technology in making picture books.

He finds in picture books the best place to explore and play with the relationship between graphic design and illustration and how stories shape and are shaped by this relationship. When Arthur is not drawing you can find him perfecting the art of making popcorn!

Arthur was named Picture Hooks Illustrator of the Year for the class of 2021.

Arthur was mentored by Debi Gliori

“My mentorship consisted of a series of chats with the amazing author and illustrator Debi Gliori. Over several months we had the chance to go in depth about the ins and outs of making picture books, discussing topics such as storytelling and story pacing, portraying body language and facial expressions as well as how to build a career as a freelance illustrator. During the mentorship I had the privilege of sharing my past work with Debi, shaping existing stories to better fit a picture book format, as well as coming up with an entirely new story from scratch and turning it into a dummy book with guidance and support from my mentor. I can’t wait to share this new story and make new ones with everything I have learned during Picture Hooks!”