18 January 2023

Announcing Hannah Riordan’s first illustrated non-fiction book!

Posted in: Children's books, Illustration, Publishing

We are pleased to announce that Hannah Riordan‘s first illustrated non-fiction book, The Mind-Blowing World of Extraordinary Competitions, is set to be published in April 2023 by Neon Squid.

Written buy author Anna Goldfield, it is jam packed full of information surrounding interesting competitions from all around the world with some very whacky illustrations by Hannah that were clearly great fun to make!

This was the largest project Hannah had worked on so far since joining the roster from our Startworks 2020 programme, so she kicked the project off with loose sketches for characters from various competitions that could grace the cover. This required some very specific reference photos;

One of the biggest challanges I faced when illustrated this book was trying to visualise the poses characters would be in for very specific competitions. I had to take a lot of very random reference photos of either myself on a timer or willing friends and family!

Hannah Riordan, Illustrator

Working closely with the author and art director Joanne Clarke, Hannah illustrated the book digitally using ProCreate before pulling everything together and adding finishing touches in Photoshop.

The thing I enjoyed most about this project was the super diverse range of subject matters on every page. It gave me the opportunity to illustrate so many new things and expand my visual language. 

Hannah Riordan, Illustrator