Marc McBride was educated in Northern Ireland at Bangor Grammar School. Graduating in 1990, he moved to Western Australia to study design at Curtin University. His final year project was the design and manufacture of the Dracula’s Castle at Adventure World in Perth. As a set designer for television commercials and short films, Marc was the winner of the 1995 WA Film and Video Festival for Best Art Direction.
In between his design work, he painted murals for various restaurants across Asia including Dome Cafés. He also began illustrating for magazines and stamps around the world. This association soon led him to book illustration where he has illustrated over 150 book covers and eight picture books.
Marc has had work exhibited with the New York Society of Illustrators and won the ‘Aurealis Award for Excellence’ for the Deltora Quest series and for World of Monsters. His book Secrets of Deltora is an illustrated travel guide through the world of Deltora.
His picture books include The Kraken, Old Ridley, The Deltora Book of Monsters, Journey from the Centre of the Earth, Tales of Deltora and World of Monsters.
Marc’s love of fantasy began when he was a young boy watching Star Wars for the first time. His heroes growing up were animators like Ray Harryhausen who worked on movies such as Jason and the Argonauts and when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Marc would reply “King Kong”!
His influences for his work range from tacky B-grade movies about giant ants from outer space through to the pop artists of the sixties such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and other illustrators such as H R Giger, who created the Alien and the set design for the movie Alien.
Visit Marcs’ website here https://www.marcmcbride.com/