Sylvia Morris
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sylviamorris.com.au
Sylvia Morris
@sylviamorris.com.au
52 followers 100 following 41 posts
[email protected]
www.sylviamorris.com.au

likes: maths, languages, sports, and detective stories.
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sylviamorris.com.au
New books in 2025 ✨ From a hero dog to baby sharks to the southern night sky: telling science stories is the best!

Plus, news: I'm moving home to Adelaide next month and I absolutely cannot wait.

#kidlit #australianillustrator #nonfictionillustrator
Book cover for Bear to the Rescue. By Romane Cristescu and Nic Gill. Illustrated by Sylvia Morris. A dog wearing a coat and boots smiles out at us from a burned landscape. Two koalas look down from a tree. Book cover for The Great Shark Egg Case Hunt. By Kasey Whitelaw, illustrated by Sylvia Morris. The text is on blue waves. Four children, with varying skin and hair colours, pop out of the waves, each doing a different beach activity. Also popping out of the waves are some weird shaped objects: shark/skate/chimaera egg cases. Book cover for When the Stars Come Out. By Tanya Hill and Sylvia Morris. A young girl looks out her window at the twilit, starry sky. A torch to the side shines on her quilt, changing the pattern from moon and stars to suns. The curtains swish around her. She is wearing shorts and a t-shirt and has pale skin, freckles and curly brown hair.
October 6, 2025 at 4:22 PM
sylviamorris.com.au
Quote with your night art!

#kidlit #digitalart #illustration
(from When the Stars Come Out)
Digital illustration, soft blue and purple hues: A family stops in the gap between two townhouses to point and look up at a white spot, moving across the sky. In the centre, one member of the family, a young girl, looks down instead, into the light of a torch she's shining directly into her own face.
October 6, 2025 at 4:10 PM
sylviamorris.com.au
qrp with something watery! 🌊

Couldn't turn down a perfect opportunity to share a collage from The Great Shark Egg Case Hunt - out in October 🦈🪸
A photo of a watercolour collage: Bright orange coral against a turquoise background. A patterned shark tail swishes away from an egg case tangled up in the coral. Book cover text: The Great Shark Egg Case Hunt. Kasey Whitelaw. Illustrated by Sylvia Morris. Four kids, all engaged in different ocean activities, feature on the cover. There are also several different egg cases.
September 11, 2025 at 8:16 PM
sylviamorris.com.au
Here, I was imagining my absolute dream project (a fully illustrated SFF poetry collection for middle grade) and adapted this Spitzweg painting to test out some techniques. #kidlitart #australianillustrator #carlspitzweg
A peaceful forest scene. A huge, big-eyed dragonfly with intricate wings is flying in the foreground, with another following behind. In a little patch of sunlight, a girl is standing watching them. She's carrying bags and a big stick, like an explorer. Some paragraphs of text are blurred out, and there's a vertical line down the centre of the image. Carl Sptizweg's: Der Schmetterlingjäger (The Butterfly Hunter). Two large butterflies in the foreground of a jungle scene. A man with a (far too small) butterfly net, watches on in shock. He, too, is carrying lots of bags. The overall composition is similar, but this is in portrait, where the previous was landscape.
August 4, 2025 at 6:31 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
They were all layered up digitally, so here's the behind the scenes:
Sketchbook: many similar little paintings of crowns and swords in greyscale. Sketchbook: many similar little paintings of quills and parallelograms/dishes.
August 1, 2025 at 6:25 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
This was all inspired by a one-off piece I had made just beforehand:
A woman in medieval headscarf, with sword, rides out of frame into the light. A heavily decorated crown falls away from her into the darkness. (Fun fact: The crown is based on Blanche of Lancaster's.) It's all greyscale, with layered watercolour and fading silhouettes. Text in yellow: The Queen.
August 1, 2025 at 6:22 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
Text: The End
August 1, 2025 at 5:45 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
We are looking up the shaft of a sword at an awkward, hesitant(?) man wearing a crown and holding a flag. In the background a shovel points upwards, and an arrow down. Text in white: The King. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: I wanted to fight monsters. I wanted to slay dragons.
August 1, 2025 at 5:44 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
A cauldron is bubbling. The cloaked person at the cauldron holds two vials in their hand. Text in blue: The Witch. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: No one should hold life and death in one hand. But what else is a sword?
August 1, 2025 at 5:41 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
A princess sits in a shaft of light, sewing a pair of pants. In the foreground are a pair of boots. Text in blue: The Princess. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: It's time to see, it's time to go, what happens that I'm not allowed to know.
August 1, 2025 at 5:39 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
A woman weeps by a pile of rocks. A spade is in her hand. In the distant background a castle looms out of the mist. Text in maroon: The Peasant. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: The Gods curse us all, for the greed of the King.
August 1, 2025 at 5:36 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
A man at a desk stares down at his papers. His arms are by his side. He is wearing a livery collar. Behind him is a wall of writing, fading into fire against a night sky. Text in maroon: The Advisor. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: There's death in the stars and blood on my hands, If I can't make him heed my words today.
August 1, 2025 at 5:33 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
A young boy is high up in a tree, huddling against a branch. Below him, on the ground in harsh light, a man is kneeling before a tree stump. The king, with a sword, and a crowd of men, stand behind him. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: The Child. The text is yellow (it was for the last illo too, sorry!) Text: They don't see me, up here in the tree. But I saw them: the King and his men.
August 1, 2025 at 5:28 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
A man comically and dramatically trips over a tree root. Three arrows fall around him, a bow flies up above him. He is in a forest. In the background, between the trees, a unicorn rears up. Text: The Squire. All greyscale, watercolour, made of silhouettes and fading outlines. Text: Every time, "Please Lord" I pray, "Let them not discover it's an act today."
August 1, 2025 at 5:22 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
This is a little series I made for Folktale Week in 2022. I still love it, so now it can live here. #folktaleweek #shortstories
A greyscale splotchy watercolour background. Neatly, formally handwritten i white over the top: The Troubled Kingdom, a portrait.
August 1, 2025 at 5:17 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
QRP with your skull art!
A dark grey, textured background is flecked with spats of white. A watercolour skeleton walks cautiously out of the nothingness.
August 1, 2025 at 5:13 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
Ķemeri National Park: along a boardwalk that stretches out forever, past infinitely deep lakes under a changeable sky. #kidlitillustration #kemerunacionalaisparks #australianillustrator
A watercolour and coloured pencil illustration: A friendly, stylised grey heron flies over a green and orangey landscape, scattered with trees and small lakes. It is flying from right to left, from stormy skies to blue skies. A boardwalk threads through the scene, and a girl on the boardwalk looks up at the heron. We are looking down on the scene, and the perspective warps the horizon into a curve, suggesting the landscape is stretching out forever. Hand painted text: Ķemeru nacionālais parks.
July 23, 2025 at 11:15 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
It's time to think about Book Week outfits! If anyone dresses as Lily from When the Stars Come Out, I would LOVE to see your photos. #cbcabookweek2025 #auskidlit
A cropped out photo of myself, dressed up as Lily from When the Stars Come Out, on a twilight sky watercolour background. Annotations: Blue hair clip, orange/yellow top, denim shorts (jeans/leggings for cold weather), torch.
July 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
Happy Friday from a happy baby! Not the direction I intended for this picture at all, but what is a Friday for, if not for a little play? #kidlit
A watercolour painting of a baby being swept up in their mother's arms and laughing.
July 18, 2025 at 11:15 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
✨🥳 Continued yay for the shortlisting. You can buy it direct from Museums Victoria, or from your local bookstore 🥳✨
store.museumsvictoria.com.au/collections/...
Text: 5-8 years, Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2025. The book cover for When the Stars Come Out. And the main character, with a small smile, looking up at the book cover.
July 7, 2025 at 8:02 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
Happy #KidLitArtPostcard day! I'm an Australian illustrator who'd love to work on some fun junior fiction books :) See my PBs and more work here: sylviamorris.com.au
A hand-drawn, pencil and watercolour illustration of girls playing Australian Rules football. Two vignettes of the one character, kicking and chasing the ball. One of another character marking the ball. There is also a vignette of an ibis searching through a school bag. Text: SYLVIA MORRIS, sylvia.a.morris@gmail.com, www.sylviamorris.com.au
July 3, 2025 at 9:30 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
While I have not done as much landscape painting/drawing in Europe as I expected, I do now have a huge backlog of photos to work from whenever I want! This is Ķemeri National Park in Latvia.
A watercolour and coloured pencil illustrated landscape from a high viewpoint. A pale boardwalk curves through a flat green landscape, scattered with trees and lakes. The sky is cloudy.
July 2, 2025 at 7:39 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
YAY! When The Stars Come Out has been shortlisted in the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards! Congrats to Tanya Hill and the #MuseumsVictoria team! And to all the other shortlistees - it's esp fun to be on any list with Lucia Masciullo and Jess Racklyeft <3 #SPABookOfTheYear
Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2025, 5-8 years. There are ten books listed, including When the Stars Come Out, by Tanya Hill and Sylvia Morris.
July 1, 2025 at 9:01 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
It's all wildflowers and waterfalls and green, green hills 💚✨
A photo of a tall waterfall on a cliff in the sun, framed by the shade of lush trees. A photo of sunny snowcapped mountains, with a foreground of a green meadow, which is spotted with little chalets and pines. A close-up photo of a variety of colourful wildflowers against the green of their meadow. Another photo of sunny snow-capped mountains with a foreground of a green meadow, with chalets and pines. But this time looking along the valley, creating more of a path into the image.
July 1, 2025 at 5:19 AM
sylviamorris.com.au
After failing to visit the Swiss Alps for the first time in 2020 (because of the obvious reason) and then for the second time in 2023 (because my passport was stolen as I passed through Frankfurt train station), I finally managed to make it! And it was as beautiful as I dreamed, plus more.
A photo with wildflowers in foreground, against dark pines, and behind those, in the distance, are snow-capped mountains.
July 1, 2025 at 5:06 AM