Terry Runyan Character creator

Terry Runyan is an American artist who works full-time for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. She also does artwork for fun featuring quirky cats, dogs and animals of all kinds. I messaged Terry to find out a little more about her creative illustrations. Graduating from San Jose State University with a degree in Design and Illustration, Terry was snapped up by Hallmark recruiters within 6 months of finishing her degree and has worked there ever since.

” I love to draw with a pencil, scan my work and bring it into Photoshop where I colour and mess with it.  I don’t use pencils much in my day job so I get a different look for my personal work.  I also enjoy messing around with the Procreate and Brushes App on my iPhone and iPad.” 

Terry says ” A few years ago I started messing around with drawing again after spending the last 15 years of my career working digitally. Suddenly I found myself posting to flickr and it grew from there.  I keep my personal work separate from what I do at Hallmark.  The work is usually a bit edgier.  The cute stuff sneaks through though.  Guess you can only be who you are right?  I save the sad, mad, suspicious, serious, mysterious, bizarre, or just plain strange characters for what I do at home.” 

” I’ve always been a huge animal lover!  I remember when I was a kid, all I did was draw horses, then dogs and eventually cats found their way into my work.  I’ve always had a cat or several around the house. I must say they are my best friends.  They are lying in their beds, next to me, on my computer table as I write this. There’s no lonely work time here at home ! “

It looks like Terry’s cats get to model for her quite often these days ! Great characters to make me smile. Terry has a range of posters and prints that she sells here through Society 6. Thanks Terry for a great introduction to your work.