(The long version.)

Laura Diehl was born in 1983 in Norman, Oklahoma. The first decade of her life was a time of magic: hedge forts, rolley-polley wars, and fairies. As a young child she loved to draw and papered the dining room walls with her crayon drawings many times over. She discovered digital art in 1998, when she got her first art tablet and PC. By her junior year in high school, she spent the majority of her free time creating digital paintings and studying art on her own, dreaming of a career in illustration.

In May 2006, she graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting (Magna Cum Laude) and was unleashed upon the world. She has since worked with numerous clients around the globe as a freelance illustrator, creating everything from book covers to concept art.

Throughout all of her work runs her distinctive style: magical color, glowing light sources, and a touch (or perhaps a fat dollop) of the fantastical. She creates her artwork with a Wacom Intuos (12x18) digital art tablet and a combination of Photoshop, Painter, and ArtRage. Allowing for a hand painted look married with the unlimited potential of digital paint and canvas.

Laura now lives in Northern Virginia with her delightfully geeky husband Chris. When she's not illustrating, she likes to devour the public library, watch Miyazaki films, bake ultimate-double chocolate cookies, and play old-school RPGs. She is also in the process of planning, writing, and illustrating her own children’s fantasy picture books.

Laura's is always looking for new and interesting projects. See her Résumé for a list of previous clients and Hire Me page for further information on commissioning artwork.

Get in touch via her Contact page or e-mail.

She is a member of SCBWI, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and CG Society.