Kerry Dilks

Kerry Dilks has enjoyed doing art since childhood. She was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and has always lived in a large, ex-mining town, sitting at an equal distance between Derby and Nottingham in the East Midlands.

She is passionate about children's picture book illustration. "From the moment I could hold a crayon, I wanted to communicate through pictures. I still want to do this, and I am pretty certain I will never stop wanting to do it. I am very inspired by the world around me. Themes within my work centre around family, friendship, imagination, connection, joy, and creativity... all sprinkled with some magic."

- Kerry Dilks illustration.

Dilks is working to improve her craft through my own stories; 'The Greatest Cake' (2019), 'The Peg People' (2020), 'Bonnie's Ball' (2021) and 'Wooglefog' (2022). Through these books, they learn how to tell a story for children, balancing text, illustration, and design. Each project has been self-funded, and she has seen an improvement in storytelling techniques each time. 

Alongside the books, she offers commissions and has an online shop for greeting cards, calendars, and other stationery goods. She loves to work with watercolours, pencils, crayons, and pen and uses tiny digital works to enhance the final images. I like her techniques because they're how I want to work, with more accessible materials like watercolour, pencil, and digital.

"It has taken me a long time to work out where I fit in as an independent author and illustrator. I graduated from Derby Uni in January 2009, but it took me another 6 years to pluck up the courage to try and make money from things I had made. Then it was another 4 years after that before I really started to take things seriously. Why? I had a career goal to strive for a life in children's book illustration, which was why I went to Uni in the first place, BUT I had yet to learn how to go about it once Uni was over. The world of illustration felt big, and all the doors were closed to somebody who didn't feel confident in their visual voice."

- Kerry Dilks illustration, How it started versus how it's going (Things I have learned so far)



(Wild Life Study)

(Hello Sausage)


Dilks' sketchbook page on her website shows different illustrations of people, animals (as shown above), and general scenery like a street of houses and some simple furniture. Looking at her attention to detail, it is easy to tell that her love for art since she was a child has inspired her to create such pieces of art and move forward with them to the point that she can profit from them, from making books to calendars and cards. She even visits schools with younger kids to perhaps inspire them to create something similar.

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