Origins

The original 1966 Batman TV series got me interested in drawing when I was six years old. I was completely mesmerized by the animated title sequence. I remember noticing that when Batman and Robin ran toward me, their legs alternated between full length and cut off at the knee. I discovered that I was able to make my drawings of Batman do roughly the same thing, and it was then that I began to understand the magic and illusion of illustration. I could see that my drawings weren't as good as the ones on TV, though, so I practiced drawing them over and over to get them just right. Before long, I had expanded my repertoire to include other things that interested me, like dinosaurs and astronauts. I'd stay indoors all day drawing if my mother didn't make me go outside to play with the other kids in the San Diego sun.

Positive feedback from the adults in my life was a huge motivator. In first grade, Miss Sickler noticed my budding skills and invited me to to draw dinosaurs on the chalkboard and share what I knew about them with the rest of the class. Praise and recognition are great incentives.

By the time I hit middle school, I had begun collecting and studying comic books. My drawings of Conan the Barbarian and The Incredible Hulk were getting more sophisticated, and I even sold a few to my classmates. When I was a freshman in high school, I was invited to join the mostly senior-led school newspaper as the staff cartoonist.

Work

In the 1980s I worked at Tower Records as a display artist, where I won a number of awards. I caught the attention of Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, who hired me to create the lettering for the cover of their first album “Ten”. By 1991, I’d become a retail display artist at Macy's department store in downtown Seattle.

After nine years designing window displays, in 2000 I was hired as as designer and motion graphics artist at a digital agency called Smashing Ideas. After a couple of interim promotions, I became SI’s Senior Art Director in 2007. While I was there I had the opportunity to work on many different kinds of interactive projects for PBS Kids, Nick Jr., The Disney Channel and Mattel, among others.

In 2004, my picture book illustration debut Ella The Elegant Elephant was released under my previous name, Steven D'Amico. Published by Scholastic, it received several honors including the 2005 Washington State Book Award. Three more Ella books followed, as well as a Disney Jr. TV series based on the books. I went on to illustrate 10 more books from 2008-2019, and became a full time art director at the Seattle-based nonprofit Committee for Children in 2017.

-SH 2023