Ella Beech

Children’s Book Author, Illustrator & Artist

Hello! I’m Ella Beech, a children's book illustrator based in Cambridge, UK.

I’ve illustrated books for publishers including The Folio Society, Thames & Hudson, and Wide Eyed Editions. My debut picture book, The Night Before Christmas (The Folio Society), was shortlisted for the V&A Illustration Awards in the Illustration for Children category.

Alongside book illustration, I sell original artworks, prints, and zines, created using watercolour, ink, and gouache. These works are perfect for nurseries, story-filled homes, and thoughtful gifts.

I also write the Gather • Filter • Make Substack newsletter, where I share behind-the-scenes glimpses into my creative life.

Let’s work together!
For work inquiries or to say hello, send me an email. I’d love to chat!

say hello!

Author and illustrator Ella Beech outside a bookshop with her book “Rewild the World at Bedtime” and hand-painted window display

Recent books

View my recent books and projects for clients including The Folio Society, Thames & Hudson, and Wide Eyed Editions, showcasing my work as a children's book illustrator and artist.

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Vincent Van Gogh painting blossom in an apple orchard, with paints and brushes nearby and a cat watching. From “Dear Vincent,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of a man rowing a boat to rescue a cargo of kakapos, helping to save them from extinction, from “Rewild the World at Bedtime,” by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael, and John arriving in Neverland, with mermaids and a pirate ship in the background. From “All the World’s a Stage: Peter Pan,” by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of a cross-section house on Christmas Eve, with cosy rooms, a Christmas tree, stockings by the fire, and children in bed. From “The Night Before Christmas,” illustrated by Ella Beech for The Folio Society

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Theo Van Gogh hanging Vincent’s paintings in his study, with the warm glow of a lamp and his cat watching. From “Dear Vincent,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of a woman walking her dog past toy and cake shop windows, with fresh snow, soft shadows, and a starry sky. From “The Night Before Christmas,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Peter Pan, Wendy, and the Lost Boys battling Captain Hook and his pirates. From “All the World’s a Stage: Peter Pan,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Vincent Van Gogh walking alone through puddles by the Seine in a grey, muted scene, with a warm glow shining from a window behind nearby painters. From “Dear Vincent,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of bison in the Great Plains, Montana, from “Rewild the World at Bedtime” by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Santa on the sofa with milk and a mince pie, as a family peeks through the Christmas tree and a cat and dog watch. From “The Night Before Christmas,” illustrated by Ella Beech for The Folio Society

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael and John flying over London, from “All the World’s a Stage: Peter Pan,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of lynx and cubs, wild horses, boar and roe deer, from “Rewild the World at Bedtime” by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of a fox looking up at the snowy sky, with houses behind and Santa’s sleigh flying overhead. From “The Night Before Christmas,” illustrated by Ella Beech for The Folio Society

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael, John and the Lost Boys in their secret den. From “All the World’s a Stage: Peter Pan,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Vincent Van Gogh hurrying through the railway station as a train prepares to depart, with steam rising and a guard blowing his whistle. From “Dear Vincent,” illustrated by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of water buffalo and pelicans in the Danube Delta, from “Rewild the World at Bedtime,” by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of tourists watching humpback whales breaching off the coast of Australia. From “Rewild the World at Bedtime,” by Ella Beech

Hand-painted watercolour and acrylic illustration of Peter Pan creeping through the bedroom while Tinker Bell searches for his shadow, with Wendy, Michael, and John asleep. From “All the World’s a Stage: Peter Pan,” illustrated by Ella Beech

deatil of a gouache painting of a wild overgrown back garden by Ella Beech

Curious to know more?

Read about my illustration journey

Shop Prints, Originals & Zines

Browse illustrated prints, original artworks, and zines—perfect for children’s rooms, gifting, and for those as obsessed with children's books and art as I am!

Gather • Filter • Make

Join my Substack newsletter, Gather • Filter • Make, to take a look behind the scenes in my studio, join me obsessing over children's book illustrations, musings on my artistic process, and live monthly meet-ups!

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After making a mid-life shift into illustration, I became fascinated by the creative process—not just how we make, but why, when, and what helps or hinders us. eflecting on my process has helped me better understand myself as an artist and improve my work.

I’ve found it powerful to pause and reflect on what we create—and I hope that by doing so here, I can help you feel inspired, understood, or just a little less alone in your own creative journey.

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I offer paid subscriptions for readers who’d like more creative content and the chance to be part of a relaxed, playful, and supportive online community.

As a paid subscriber, you’ll get:

Behind-the-scenes videos and written reflections on my creative process
Insights from my experience working in-house in children’s publishing and teaching on the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art
Picture book and art material recommendations, with open discussions about tools, techniques, and inspiration
Access to monthly live sessions: Art Club and Picture Book Club (with replays available if you can’t join live)

Whether you’re an illustrator, student, or someone curious about the creative life, I’d love to welcome you!

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Pencil dilemmas! What would you do? #childrensbookillustration #picturebookillustration #illustrationartist #illustrationart #illustrationartist #stationary #deskorganization #illustrationdesk

REPOST! @theaoi ‘Copyright and Artificial Intelligence’ - it’s deadline day - don’t delay acting!

for the Governments consultation proposing a drastic change to copyright law. This would allow all creators’ work to be legally scraped by AI developers to use to train their AI and then potentially generate artwork that is in competition with you as an illustrator. Clearly not fair, and along with all organisations representing creators, we want to Make It Fair.⁠
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AOI are part of Creative Rights in AI Coalition and we’re highlighting the joint Make It Fair campaign. If you’ve not yet written to you MP, you can help add pressure by doing so. This easy template finds your MP for you and offers existing text - link in bio.⁠
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Please re-post to spread the word. ⁠
⁠
See the AOI site AI Updates page under Resources/Business Practice⁠
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#MakeItFair #MadeByHumans #PayTheCreator

Continuing my sketching in St Ives…
This was on the second day I think. It had been full, and sunny the day before, with bright blue skies and sparkling seas, and on the Sunday, this day, it was grey. But I kind of like drawing on a day like this. It always feels exhilarating, you really feel the experience of drawing.
Having spent a lot of time on Welsh beaches in my life, I was surprised by the subtle differences with the Cornish ones. This one had deep grooves in the sand created by the waves. When we were in Tenby recently I was talking to my nephews about all the different types of sand you get on one beach, the kind where rivers have been cut through as the water trickles down to the sea, the sand when you get a thin crust after the rain, and this sand created by the waves. But this was a giant version - deep grooves. So I enjoyed trying to capture that in the mark making. As I walked down to take my perch on a rock, I found a bit of burned wood on the beach, so I began the piece by drawing with it first, to carve out the design. Scroll through to see some filming of me drawing with it, and some earlier stages of the drawing. Kind of wish I had stopped a bit earlier. But, as ever, i remind myself it’s not about creating a perfect drawing, but the experience of creating it, which feeds into the next one, and the next one…
I’ll try and remember to post more of my sketching in the next few days. After posting that I was going to post my sketches over the next week, I promptly forgot (and got carried away with a deadline!).
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#showyoursketchbook #illustrationsketchbook #illustrationartist #illustrationart #makearteveryday #walktosee #childrensbookillustration #picturebookillustration #kidlitart #illustratorsoninstagram #illustratorsofinstagram #stives #stivescornwall #beachsketch #beachsketching

Breaking all of instagrams rules by posting two posts immediately after/next to each other! This is to accompany my last post about my mini mini retreat in St Ives, Cornwall. A photo-dump of some of the things I saw, did, experienced! Such a fulfilling, and life enhancing trip!!
Including photos of the event with @stivesbookseller @stiveslibrary which was so brilliantly organised and arranged, they had bought sunflowers and made a table display of our book, and the local press even came and took pics! I couldn’t resist posting this lovely phot of @felicitymara carrying the sunflowers to the event!!
I took a special pilgrimage to Alfred Wallis’ grave. I absolutely love his paintings, and am so lucky to live near @kettlesyard which has a large collection of his paintings. Did you know he only started painting in his 70s?! And painted largely from memory! Years and years of memories in and around ships!
Also included, grey skies, sunny skies, food (I did say it’s always 50% of the pleasure!!), seaweed, @tatestives including our book on the shelves of their shop (so exciting!!), a drawing I’ll post soon, which I started using a bit of burned out driftwood, more food! I’ll post more photos of the paintings and drawings I made over the next few days!
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#stives #stivescornwall #alfredwallis #alfredwallisartist #artistretreat #artistretreats #illustrationsketchbook #illustrationartist #illustrationretreat #makearteveryday #picturebookillustrator #childrensbookillustrator #kidlitart #illustratorsoninstagram #illustratorsofinstagram

I had an adventure a couple of weeks ago! The lovely author of Dear Vincent, (my latest illustrated book) Michael Bird @image_and_word lives in St Ives with his wonderful wife @felicitymara (who is also an incredibly talented painter, and who has the studio of my dreams, inside an old ship yard, huge open space, beautiful light, looks out over the beautiful beaches!)
Anyway, I digress…! Because Michael lives in St Ives, it was suggested we do some events there. St Ives is a 7 hour journey for me, so when it was suggested at first it sounded exhausting, and then I thought, why not turn it into an adventure, use it as a chance to see St Ives, which I had last been to as a child (so it’s only a distant memory) and to have another mini mini retreat! This is a new thing I am trying to make part of my life! One of the things I would love to do, in time, is have regular, longer retreats, where I spend a week (or longer) painting and drawing. At the moment, schedule and budget don’t really allow for that, so I am taking the chance to take mini mini ones when I can. I went with Nick, my husband, to Portugal in the early spring, while he was there for a symposium. It rained the whole time, but I also ate amazing food, drew as much as I wanted. It was bliss! So after the event, which was brilliantly organised with @stiveslibrary for the wonderful shop @stivesbookseller (it was such a fun event) I spent the next not quite two days squeezing in as much drawing and painting (and eating - Cornish Pasties could not be ignored!) as I could. I’m finally getting round to posting them here! So, in no particular order… This was painted on the second day, while I ate a vegetarian breakfast with a giant portobello mushroom, just below the @tatestives overlooking Porthmeor Beach. I had read before about the colours and light in St Ives, which is why it has become an artists haven, but I was blown away by the azure sea! Even on a cloudy morning like this, the turquoise of the sea shone through! More paintings over the next few days! And special thanks to Michael and Felicity who were such generous hosts - amazing food, invited me to join them at the cinema and even took me for a swim!!

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