ABOUT MANCHESTER: ‘Fishing For Rainbows’ Feature (01/06/2023)

Manchester Art School grad publishes first children’s book for award winning author

A young illustrator who has been practising her craft since the age of three is celebrating the launch of her first children’s book.

Georgina Reynolds, 22, who graduated from Manchester School of Art in 2022, is the illustrator of Fishing For Rainbows, a tale about a young girl’s fight for equality.

Georgina, who describes herself as ‘a massive bookworm’, won the commission to illustrate the picture book while she was still a student at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Pitching her ideas against 12 other students from her Illustration and Animation degree course, Georgina’s work impressed the judges, who included the book’s award-winning author Oliver Sykes, senior lecturer Ian Whadcock and Kaye Tew, director of Manchester Children’s Book Festival.

Her colourful illustrations, which appear on every page of the book, are created using a mix of gouache paint, coloured pencils and watercolour marker pens. Georgina spent around six months creating 40 images that appear in the book – plus a further 20 that didn’t make it.

For Georgina, who says she grew up in a Norwich household that always had ‘poster paints, crayons and glitter out all over the table’, the publication of the book is a dream come true and she hopes it will be the first of many.

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