Erik J. Olsen is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin but now calls the beautiful San Francisco bay area home with his wife, six talkative birds, and their dog Cym (Cute Young Monster), who sleeps under his drawing table. He graduated with a B.F.A from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design with a focus on Illustration and minors in Sculpture, Industrial Design, and Film.

Erik loves working in illustration because he finally found a job that lets him daydream while working and draw while stuffing varieties of junk food in his mouth. You can always count on his illustrations to use quality imagination ink imported from the far, far, far off land of his left brain.

While in the studio you can find Cym sleeping away when she is supposed to be busy working on Erik’s contracts. (You just can’t find any good help anymore.)

You can usually find Erik next to his wife at the local Barnes and Noble scribbling and sketching away in his sketchbook. When he is not working on his many side projects, he enjoys tinkering with his motorcycle, roaming the beaches of northern California and going on adventures with his wife and dog.

He creates his Illustrations digitally and with traditional media. He works in the areas of licensing, children books, gifts, kid’s markets, sequential art, toy, and interactive but is always opens to other arenas for his work. Occasionally good people will hire him too scribble all over there kids rooms with his mural skills. (What a life this guys has.)

Some of his Erik’s influences are: Syd Hoff, The Great Suess, J.P Miller, Constructivism, the public, his peers, and vintage motorcycles.

Check out what Erik is up to at his blog The Cookie Jar.