David Allan

David Allan is an illustrator and artist whose first picture book, Two Trickster Tales from Russia (retold by Sophie Masson) was published by Christmas Press in 2013.

Since then, he has illustrated three other acclaimed picture books for Christmas Press: Two Tales of Twins from Ancient Greece and Rome (retold by Ursula Dubosarsky, 2014); Two Tengu Tales from Japan (retold by Duncan Ball, 2015) and Two Enchanted Tales from Old China (retold by Gabrielle Wang, 2017). He has also illustrated short story anthologies, including The Stuff of Tales, published by Arts North West in 2018, and several Christmas Press anthologies, as well as storybooks for reading programs.

His work is in private and public collections, and he has participated in solo and group exhibitions.

I am inspired first and foremost by the natural world and have a great love of all things flora and fauna.

Exploring and recreating specimens visually, I believe, opens up a new level of understanding and appreciation for form and function in the natural environment and creates a strong foundation from which new ideas can develop.

In this way, I enjoy producing work which blurs the boundaries between apparently disparate objects and concepts, examines familiar objects from unexpected angles, and allows for the creation of new worlds, objects and anatomically plausible, if fantastical, creatures.

I work in a range of areas including natural history illustration, children’s illustration and commissions, and in a variety of mediums including digital, however, my preferred medium is graphite. Increasingly, I am exploring the many possibilities of combining digital and traditional mediums.