Illustrator for books, posters and labels

Pen lines, sunny colour, drawn by hand.

Marlo Hastings draws picture books, gig posters, jam labels and magazine spots. Every piece starts in a sketchbook and gets two rounds of changes before the final file.

Ink drawing of a yellow sun, a blue bird and a stack of sketches on a pale yellow ground

two sketch rounds, always

Recent pieces

Books, posters and labels

Every project, sorted by type
Picture book cover of a lantern on a blue hill at dusk
Lantern HillPicture book cover
Yellow gig poster with concentric suns over a night market skyline
Night MarketPoster for a stall night
Three jam jar labels, one white, one yellow, one blue, with fruit doodles
Plum, Quince, FigJam label set
Blue ink umbrella with rain lines on a pale yellow panel
Rain on TuesdayMagazine spot

What I draw

Three kinds of commission, from one spot illustration to a whole picture book. Prices below are starting points, and the brief sets the final figure.

Picture books and covers

Spreads, character sheets and covers, drawn in fineliner and filled with flat sun-yellow and blue. Priced by page count.

Posters and gig art

One large image with room for the type. Print-ready at A3 and A2, with the lettering either drawn by hand or set in your font.

Labels and packaging

Jar labels, bottle wraps, stickers and sticker sheets. Sized to your die-cut and printed with proofs you approve before the run.

From scribble to print file

Four steps, no surprises

The full process, with what you see at each step
  1. Scribble

    You send the brief, references and a deadline. I reply with rough thumbnails in pencil.

  2. Ink

    Once the layout is agreed, the line art goes down in fineliner, scanned and sent for notes.

  3. Colour

    Flat sun-yellow and blue go in by hand, with a second round of changes on colour and detail.

  4. Deliver

    Final files as layered PNG, print PDF and web sizes, with a note on what each one is for.

What clients say

“The sketches came back in a week and the second round was the one that made the cover. We knew what we were getting by the time it was printed.”

Ruth Abernethy, publisher of a small picture book press

312 commissions drawn since 2014, most of them printed

Got a story that needs pictures?

Send a sentence about it and a deadline. I will reply within two working days with whether it fits and a rough price.

Ask about a commission