Vanessa Morales

Vanessa Morales is a Mexican illustrator and character designer/concept artist with a deep love for nature and fantasy, as well as all things whimsical and authentic representation of cultures. Her illustration picture book debut, Monster Baker written by Laura Lavoie, is just out in fall 2023 from Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan. Vanessa enjoys painting in traditional techniques like gouache and watercolor and trying new tools on her sketchbooks.

Vanessa also enjoys illustrating middle grade book covers, including the Legendarios chapter book series by Karla Arenas Valenti, the Paola Santiago middle grade series by Tehlor Kay Mejia (Rick Riordan Presents/Disney Books), and the Omega Morales series by Laekan Zea Kemp (Little Brown). More news coming soon and Vanessa is always looking for new and creative book illustration projects. 

A graduate in graphic design with  Illustration specialization, Vanessa is now a freelance illustrator. In addition to working with publishers, she has worked with a variety of companies around the world including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Cartoon Network, Kodansha VR Lab Japan, Plaidhat Games, Huevocartoon, Exile Content Studio, AOA,Storytime Magazine,  Larousse, Clip Studio Paint, 3D Total. 

Download Vanessa Morales’s Illustrator Showcase

To see more of Vanessa’s colorful work, visit her website phonemova.com and follow her on Instagram @phonemova