Mareliza Kirschbaum

Educational illustrator with experience working in the e-learning industry as well as advertising industry. I am skilled in drawing digitally and traditionally. A very adaptable illustrator with experience in Educational Illustration, Scientific Illustration, Conceptual Illustration and Children’s book Illustration. 

The styles of illustration that I can adapt to range from highly detailed and realistic for an adult audience to simplistic and quirky for a younger audience. 

Skilled in Adobe Photoshop and Articulate Storyline, with experience in Adobe Illustrator as well.

Arts professional with a Fine Art degree as well as an Illustration (Honours) degree from Stellenbosch University. During my Illustration studies, Botanical illustration was one of my main subjects.  I also completed two picture books for children as well as two illustrated books for an adult audience.

I am serious about my work, and I feel very strongly about being transparent and approachable during projects.

Professional experience:

Digital Illustrator at Mwabu, an Educational Technology company (Aug 2017- current)

• Digital Illustrations to accompany South African Primary School Curriculum product: English, Maths and Science subjects for Grade 4-7
• Age-appropriate imagery drawn for this specific product include graphs, characters to accompany the learning material, science experiments. 
• Our imagery enhances the text and helps with the reader’s engagement in the course material. 
• The illustrations are created according to the Mwabu primary school illustration style. 
• All illustrations are created with the reference images supplied by our writers or drawn after I have done my own research. 
• I can make very quick revision changes during the editing process of modules. 

• Digital Illustrations to accompany various Bespoke products:
• I work closely with my international colleagues (writers and editors) on our various products. 
• As an Illustrator and content creator I play an integral part in helping with the building of our courses to be relevant to the African context that it will be delivered in. 
• We are currently working on digital training for frontline healthcare professionals, financial literacy for vulnerable woman in Katete (Zambia) as well as Conservation learning material for Primary school teachers and pupils in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• All illustrations are created with the input from subject matter specialists and revised internally by our team and externally by our clients.
• The artwork used in each Bespoke project is developed by our team of illustrators, specifically for each client.  
• Remote team: All communication and file sharing by our team are successfully done via Slack, Trello, Dropbox, Skype, Microsoft Teams and Sharepoint.

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Freelance Illustrator (2014 - 2017)

• Children book concept illustrations: collaboration between a client and a few illustrators
• Botanical Illustrations for client Fab Design
• Scientific illustrations for Botanist study

2012 - 2013:             BA (Honours) degree in Illustration (Distinction) at the University of Stellenbosch

2008:                         BA degree in Fine Art at the University of Stellenbosch.

2004:                         First year of a BA degree in Jewellery design at the University of Stellenbosch

2003:                         Matriculated at Stellenbosch High School: A average.