Illustrations by Greer Harewood
Hi! I’m Greer (the human).
My characters and landscapes all start analog style - hand painted and drawn generally using some combination of watercolor paints and pencils, graphite, pen and ink. Some also get digital intervention to remove an errant line or to fiddle with color before scanned images are sent off for print.
I love fairytales and illustrated stories. As a child of the 80s, I rarely saw people who looked like me in the storybooks I loved. Watching my young nephews joyously banter about Miles Morales or cross their arms in a “Wakanda Forever” salute is enough to understand some of what we are denied when we don’t see ourselves portrayed in popular culture.
My characters tend to be imaginary creatures and places. When in doubt, I draw trees. When I draw humans, I tend to draw characters of varying hues of brown skin. My characters also tend to be women.
How we are portrayed (or not portrayed) in media and the arts matters. Increasing representation of people of color in art and more generally, creating space and exposure for our varied narratives and experiences is deeply important to me as a woman of color and as an illustrator.