About Anna Barrett

Anna Barrett is a full-time freelance illustrator and a part-time catnapper. She began her career as a designer for a Korean language newspaper at the energetic age of 20. Over the following five years she worked for three newspaper and print companies. Determined to further develop her abilities, she registered at Auckland University of Technology. Anna earned a Bachelor's degree in design, specialising in illustration and animation. Following graduation Anna quickly became the creative director for a children's dinosaur video game; a position that taught her the value of collaboration. Over the last year Anna's accomplishments include an animated a hip-hop music video, and illustration/ colours/ lettering for a fantasy comic book.

From childhood Anna was mesmerised by the films of Charlie Chaplin. Consequently humour became a fundamental principle in her life. Anna finds comedy everywhere, even in the mundane, and relates that disposition through her work. She believes that illustrations are more than a pretty accompaniment to a story, and injects her own humorous narratives in her images.

Anna's illustrative techniques have evolved into a distinctive blend of traditional and digital mediums. She is particularly fond of watercolour paints for their organic stroke quality, or as she likes to call it, “the wobbly line effect.”

Her greatest influences include: Normal Rockwell, Shaun Tan, Shel Silverstein, Jean-Jacque Sempé, and Peter de Sève, as well as many other names with diacritical marks.