This story is part of Reading Champion, a series carefully linked to book bands to encourage independent reading skills, developed with Dr Sue Bodman and Glen Franklin of UCL Institute of Education (IOE)
James Croft graduated from Wolverhampton University with a first in Illustration. Over the last 25 years, he has worked as a freelance illustrator.He began his career creating illustrations for magazines and advertising campaigns. He has also worked on children's books and mural designs. At first, he used acrylic paints, posca pens and chalk pastels, but over the last few years, he has created artwork digitally and often combines hand-painted art with digital images.James has had more than 40 books published and has worked with dozens of clients, such as Aardman, Marks and Spencers, BBC, Macmillan and Penguin.In 2016, he painted an elephant for 'Herd of Sheffield'. This was Sheffield's biggest public art event to date and consisted of 58 enormous fibreglass elephants placed on a trail across the city.Since then, he has created many more public art projects. This includes dozens of hospital murals. He aims to bring art out of the gallery and make it more accessible.
