Richard Cowdrey is a New York Times bestselling Illustrator, Fine Artist, Author, Speaker, and Educator (and in his heart, a Farmer).
When Richard Cowdrey asked his Mom the question he gets at every school presentation, “When did I start drawing?”, she gave the same answer he had been giving for years: “I cannot remember a time when you weren’t drawing”.
WEST SIDE STORY: Born in Cincinnati Ohio, and raised on the West side (an important Cincinnati distinction), Richard was the kid in school who constantly drew; his vivid imagination always a distraction. In today's schools he would be put into the “gifted program” but back in the 60’s & 70’s he was considered contrary, undisciplined, and rebellious. Exasperated, most of his teachers either had Richard’s desk attached to their own, or more often shoved into the back corner of the classroom where he wouldn’t be as much of a distraction. As hard as some teachers tried to get him to pay attention, he just drew, drew, drew.
AN ARTIST'S JOURNEY: Remarkably, Richard made it through to high school where he was still the “artist in the class” but he had no direction for his life. Fortunately, in his senior year, his art teacher, Mr Koenig, saw through the discipline problems and recognized real artistic potential.
Mr. Koenig helped Richard put together a portfolio of his artwork and presented it to Admissions at Columbus College of Art & Design. Because of Mr. Koenig, Richard earned a scholarship to CCAD and his life finally had direction.
More importantly than finding his vocational calling, during his senior year at CCAD, Richard's life was profoundly and eternally changed by being introduced to Jesus Christ. A professor Richard greatly respected chose the exact right moment to share with Richard the love, grace, and mercy the creator of the universe had for each of us.
HAVE FAITH: At CCAD, Richard truly found his calling. Loving to hear (and to tell) good stories, he enjoyed creating characters and adventures of his own. Richard was born to be an illustrator. His favorite artist was Norman Rockwell, the incredible artist and storyteller of Saturday Evening Post fame.
Richard recognized that his life was incomplete and that there was a huge hole in his heart that could only be filled by the God who created him. Richard believed in his heart and confessed with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord! The most important decision of his life.
THE SALAD YEARS: After graduating from CCAD Richard was recruited to Hallmark Greeting Cards in Kansas City, MO was a wonderful opportunity but ultimately not the right fit. Richard soon moved back to Ohio, married his college sweetheart, Cindy, and moved to the top of a mountain in Vermont.
Piece-by-piece Richard built a career as a freelance illustrator; first working with small newspapers and ad agencies, then seizing opportunities with more established magazines such as Yankee Magazine, Cross Country Skier, Fly Fishing Magazine, and Ducks Unlimited. When he secured an agent in Boston, he finally had consistent work.
A FAMILY MAN: While adding more and more clients, Richard & Cindy added more children, having four total: Lauren, Megan, Allison, and Ryan. The family moved back to Ohio to be near relatives and Richard joined a very talented group of illustrators: the Illustrated Alaskan Moose (IAM). The highest profile project Richard worked on during this time was the artwork for Super Bowl XXXII, a unique opportunity and an honor.
BREAKING IN TO BOOKS: Richard continued to work with publishers of both magazines and books. He illustrated many book covers before he illustrated his first full length children’s picture book “Animal Lullabies” in 1997 for Harper-Collins. After a couple of small picture books he illustrated the classic story of “Frosty the Snowman” for Grosset & Dunlap. In 2006, Harper-Collins was looking for an artist to illustrate the children’s book version of the huge hit “Marley and Me” by John Grogan. Richard was awarded the job and went on to create his first in a series of New York Times Best Selling books , “Bad Dog, Marley”, followed by “A Very Marley Christmas”; both books reaching #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list! Richard was established as a children’s book illustrator! He went on to do three more full-length “Marley” books, followed by countless “I Can Read” Marley books. He followed the success of Marley with another very successful series: “The Guardian’s of Ga’Hoole”. At this point the great majority of Richard’s time was spent working with publishers on many wonderful books, including the “Legend” series with Zonderkidz, and a string of successful faith based collaborations with Anthony DeStefano.
TRAVEL: A wonderful new opportunity came with the popular success of the “Marley” series: travel! Richard and his wife began traveling to schools across the country sharing Richard's experience as a student and as a professional illustrator. The highlight of the presentations was the “draw-along” segment, where the teachers and students all drew-along with Richard, creating their own Marley or Fiona masterpieces. As a result of the school visits, Richard and Cindy have traveled to communities across the country, made lots of new friends and have had many great experiences and adventures. Richard’s career continues to take turns he would never have foreseen such as the opportunity to create murals for “Cosmic Daves Subs”, or doing custom paintings for individual's homes and golf courses. One of the best parts to the journey as a freelance illustrator is not knowing what interesting project will be coming next.
THE FIONA PHENOMENON: Nowadays, much of Richard’s time is consumed by the “Fiona” phenomenon, either at the table painting artwork for the next book, or on the road promoting the last book.
Richard gushes, “Fiona is such a wonderful character, and the people I work with at Zondervan, and at the Cincinnati Zoo are great to work with!”
COUNTRY: Richard and Cindy love their life in the country surrounded by Amish families, horses, goats, chickens, their dogs, Mosley and Maxwell and two cats, Gracie and Wilbur. When not illustrating, Richard is either splitting wood for the winter or doing something in the garden... and most importantly, spending ad much time as he can with his seven grandchildren.
