WREN OKAFORSTART A COMMISSION

Illustrator · Minneapolis, MN

I draw the quiet bits of big stories.

Picture books, book covers and editorial pieces, built from flat shapes and a lot of pencil first.

START A COMMISSIONSEE THE WORK
The Lantern Fox, spreads 8 and 9: an orange fox walks through a snowy pine forest toward a glowing lantern
The Lantern Fox, spreads 8 and 9

How a picture gets made

Every piece starts as a pencil line I almost throw away.

  1. 01Pencil

    Loose thumbnails until the composition reads from across a room.

  2. 02Ink

    One confident outline. If it wobbles, I redraw it.

  3. 03Color

    Flat shapes, three or four colors, nothing extra.

The Lantern Fox, spread 9 in pencil: loose graphite lines of the fox and lanternThe Lantern Fox, spread 9 in ink: one clean outline over the pencilThe Lantern Fox, spread 9 in color: flat orange fox in a snowy forest

The Lantern Fox, spread 9: pencil, ink, color

PULL
UP
A
CHAIR

Recent books and pages

The Lantern Fox, spread 14: the fox asleep under a tree in the afternoon sun
The Lantern FoxPicture book, 32 pages
Night Shift cover story: one lit window in a dark apartment block
Night ShiftEditorial, Northbound Quarterly
Small Weather novel cover: a girl in a yellow raincoat holds a coral umbrella at her shoulder and catches rain in her other hand
Small WeatherNovel cover, front and spine
Field Notes poster series of four: bird, leaf, fungi and fish
Field NotesPoster series of 4
Notes from my drawing table
( SHUFFLE )
( TIDY UP )
March, 2024
I read the manuscript twice and look for its one quiet moment. The whole cover gets built around that.
Book cover
The Salt Road
June, 2024
My sketches go out early. Every round after that is the same drawing, only braver.
Picture book
The Lantern Fox
September, 2024
An editorial spot gets one second on the page, so I give it one shape and one idea.
Editorial spot
Features
January, 2025
Clear shapes and one warm color, so the cover reads from across the bookshop.
Novel cover
Small Weather
April, 2025
I stand at the wall before I draw a line: the light, the corners, the people walking past.
Mural
Cedar Avenue
August, 2025
Three rounds, on time, and I keep pushing until the last round is the one I would hang at home.
Cover story
Night Shift
( SHOW LESS )

Commissions

What working with me looks like

Cedar Avenue mural: a coral fox sits on a green hill under an ochre sun while a painter on a tall ladder rolls the last stroke on its tail
Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis. 38 feet, painted on site in nine days.
Editorial spotOne idea, one image, five working daysFROM $400Book coverThree sketches, front, spine and backFROM $2,500Picture book32 pages, roughed with you spread by spreadBY QUOTEMuralIndoor and outdoor walls up to 40 feet, painted on siteBY QUOTE

Got a story that still needs its pictures?

Tell me what you are making. I answer every brief within three days.

Rather write? studio@wrenokafor.com