Dalia Awad- Children's Book Illustrator, Egypt

Dalia Awad is a young Egyptian illustrator whose work brings a gentle and melodious new look to children’s book publishing, and her style is also perfect for editorial and advertising campaigns. Friendly, playful characters are rendered in a light-hearted painterly style with Dalia’s unique hand and creative passion evident in every image.

Like many artists, Dalia’s journey to become a professional illustrator began with her love of drawing. She honed her skills throughout school and got her break in the creative industries as a pattern designer with a ceramics company. All the while, she has practiced her drawing, painting and software techniques and she continues to explore with different tools, colour palettes and approaches – it helps her bring something fresh to every project. With the publication of Wake Up, It’s the Ramadan Drummer, she’s become one of the world’s up-and-coming children’s illustrators. Dalia’s influences include animated films and her Nubian culture.

Approach

Each project begins with lots of thumbnail sketching to build up strong compositions. Then Dalia moves into Clip Studio Paint to add line work, before bringing the right mood to the image with a carefully chosen palette and her digital painting skills.

Style

With plenty of charming characters, expressive faces and dynamic body language, Dalia’s images present a strong narrative but in a soft and welcoming way, grounded by natural media textures.