“I like live drawing, layering textures, cooking and dancing like an idiot,” she says. “I was struck straight away by the Memories project as a really nice way to raise money and awareness for a good cause, and a great project for illustrators to have the opportunity to respond directly to some inspiring writing.”

Have a look at Jenny’s website here, or check out her project to draw all her Facebook friends in alphabetical order here.

Jason’s another illustrator we found via our Open Submissions strategy and he has created an image to go with the Joe Kriss poem Otherside. His work was chosen and we’re super-pleased to have him on board. “I love to experiment with a range of media including print, 3D and animation. My work is influenced by the natural world and personal memories often mixed together in strange landscapes and cities,” says Jason.

He found out about the project via a friend who has also contributed, and saw it as an opportunity to challenge himself and to do some good at the same time. Please take a look at Jason’s portfolio site here.

Oscar was born in Spain, moved to America to study commercial art, before relocating to London where he’s worked in advertising as well as setting up as a freelance illustrator. If you check out his site here, you’ll see that he’s got great skills in character and caricature work – exaggeration, lots of fun, and visual puns aplenty. He’s equally happy working in Photoshop and watercolour and the texture and depth of natural media shows through in his style. We send our thanks to Oscar for joining the project, it’s great to have him on board.

Saroj created an image to go with the poem Otherside by Joe Kriss, which features in the book. She was keen to express how individuals feel a variety of different emotions when they go through the loss of a relative to cancer, as Joe tells in his poem.

Please check out the portfolio of this London-based illustrator here. We welcome Saroj to the project.

Ariane works in a variety of different ways and you’ll find some lovely mixed media work on her website, and you can check out her children’s book. Her work always starts off as doodles and sketches and finds form as she brings in more advanced techniques. For us, she illustrated the story written by Tom Stables about how his partner found out she had cancer which is a very touching piece and is accompanied by very touching illustrations. “I like to reach out and touch the viewer with my drawings and stories. My illustrations always have all of my heart and soul in them,” she told us.

Thanks for joining our project, Ariane.

A little more about her – when she’s not illustrating for her clients, she loves drawing, painting and making artwork out of paper. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Spain, South Korea, and Canada. Currently based in LA, she’s inspired by nature, in particular the woods and the animals that live in them.

Keep an eye out for the scissors image that Nancy has created for Memories – we’re using it as one of our press images and it looks great in print. In the meantime, you can also check out her work here.

“As my daughter is of a similar age to Gordon’s I felt a special attachment to the story and have responded with what I feel to be a compelling piece of artwork for the project around the theme of ‘Why?’,” he told us.

Paul’s work has appeared in various forms, and various media, from magazine and book publications, to corporate work, packaging, advertising campaigns and on glassware and ceramics. He’s known for his juxtapositions of bright colour, and texture, and he often explores visual puns, as you can see in this example of his work. We’re really grateful to Paul for getting involved and we send our best wishes to him and his family, hoping that the situation improves. Please take a look at his portfolio here.

Before and whilst working on her degree at University of Derby, Heather worked for many years as a freelance illustrator in the greeting card industry. Her clients include Simon Elvin, Pegusus, Second Generation and Hambledon cards. Heather has more recently focused on expanding her skills in digital applications, traditional printmaking, bookmaking techniques and professional development.

Heather is based at Banks’ Mill Studios in Derby and is a member of Green Door Printmaking Studio. Whilst here she has produced serigraphy, etching and lithography print work that has been exhibited locally and internationally, Heather’s distinctive style has also produced several successful logo designs and private commissions.

See more of her work at http://www.heatherhorsley.com/

Julian works as an illustrator under the moniker Whyisbox and also runs the digital magazine NewSugar which features cool new work by a range of young creatives. He’s helped us out in the past by including info on Memories in NewSugar, so our gratitude to him is doubled now that he’s making an image for our book.

While we’re shouting out our thanks to Julian, we’d also like to mention Publishers Club, an organisation he’s involved with up in Manchester. They do all sorts of creative stuff like their collaboration with Inkygoodness on 12 March. If you’re in the North, don’t miss it. And if you’re in the South, why not hit the Inkygoodness event in Bristol on Saturday 5 March. Might pop down there myself and check it out. The Inkygoodness folks were good enough to blog about Memories last week and a few of their artists are also Memories contributors.

The Memories team is pleased to announce that we have the wonderful and talented Shane S Mielke on board! Known for his excellent and web-defining work as creative director at 2Advanced, Shane in recent years has also developed a reputation as a great illustrator. Combining his varied design skills with passion and commitment, his work is vibrant, emotive and stunning.

Shane has worked alongside DAHRA in the past in it’s DATA project and has agreed to become a contributor to Memories. You can see more his work here and I’m sure you’ll all agree that working with Shane is a very exciting prospect!