AUTHOR BIO
Chris Kennett has been drawing ever since he could hold a pencil (or so his mum says). But professionally, he’s has been creating quirky characters for just over 20 years
Working his way from animation through to children's books, Chris has managed to work on some truly "out of this world" projects including the beloved Star Wars series of Little Golden Books.
His most recent projects include the hugely popular first reader series School of Monsters with Sally Rippin, the Nerd Herd series with Nathan Luff and Cross Bones with Jack Henseleit.
ABOUT ME
Born in Canterbury, England way back in the mid-70s I grew up in a very busy house. As the youngest of five kids, I would take every opportunity for some quiet time. For me, that came in the form of drawing.
I drew a LOT!
As a result, I'm quite skilled at shutting out the noise and getting on with the job. This comes in particularly handy when working from home and raising kids!
In 1998 I moved to Australia to live with my Aussie girlfriend (now wife) and we've since settled in the beautiful town of Bendigo, Victoria with our two kids and two cats.
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Digital Art
I began using technology back in 2000 when I officially decided to make art a career. I started out with an animation program called "Flash" and taught myself the very basics of animation. I also used the program to draw in, as the process of drawing on paper and scanning pages became pretty laborious.
At first I drew with a mouse, gradually upgrading my equipment as the years went by and the jobs increased. I now draw and paint exclusively in Adobe Photoshop and use Wacom Cintiq tablets to draw with.
See below for a short demo on the drawing process
Image ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky
WORK HISTORY
From 2000 - 2009 I was employed by Sugarqube.com (later acquired by American Greetings) as a writer and animator of online greeting (e-card) content. This helped pave a way towards more animation opportunities in both online and broadcast animation.
With the release of Alpha Monsters in 2011, I started focusing more on the illustrating and design side of things and slowly began moving away from animation.
However in 2013 the two worlds combined, when I was given the amazing opportunity work as Design Supervisor and Character Designer on the TV animation The Day My Butt Went Psycho.
Then in 2015, the world of Star Wars came knocking and I couldn’t believe my luck! Me? Drawing STAR WARS characters? For Books? To say it has been my dream project is an understatement. As a child of the 80s STAR WARS holds a very special place in my heart!
I have since gone on to work on the very popular School of Monsters series with Sally Rippin (16 Books and counting), The Nerd Herd and Family Disasters with Nathan Luff and the brand new Cross Bones adventures with Jack Henseleit.
For a full CV of published works please click here