Hi friends!

We are Ryan and Lucy Berkley, a husband and wife art and business team from Portland, Oregon. We love art, animals, vintage children's books, family adventures, traveling, and making vegan tacos.

Ryan is a self-taught illustrator best known for his detailed drawings of sophisticated animals in addition to his pop culture and comic-book influenced art. He splits his time between client work, gallery shows, and creating new art for our line of prints and goods. Fun fact: when he draws, he tends to hold his breath and squint. He is a bit obsessive about technical detail and Lucy is always trying to get him to loosen up a little.

Lucy manages the business aspects of our operation as well as doing all photography and writing the stories that accompany our animal characters. She is also a master list-maker and brainstormer. She is a bit obsessive about planning and Ryan is always trying to get her to loosen up a little.

We started selling our signature animal prints on Etsy in 2007 and we've been developing our animal collection while expanding our client base ever since. [Check out our "Quit Your Day Job" article with Etsy for the inside scoop on our transition to full-time business owners: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2013/quit-your-day-job-berkley-illustration] Our clients have included Nike, Etsy, Land of Nod, Wired Magazine, Patagonia, Urban Outfitters, Discovery Channel, Rizzoli Publishing, Marriott, and Audubon. Ryan is also the staff artist for Portland's original handmade craft show and shop, Crafty Wonderland.

Our work hours are divided with full-time parenting of our two young children, Ramona and Linus. We feel incredibly lucky that we get to be with them all day but, in full disclosure, sometimes that means we take longer to get back to emails than we'd like.

We love to travel for art events and craft shows as much as we can. For a list of upcoming events, please check out our website at berkleyillustration.com. Hopefully we'll see you somewhere soon!

*We did a little interview with Etsy a couple years back if you want to read more about us:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/berkley-illustration-takes-it-back-to-the-drawing-board-8609/

* And we were featured on Etsy back when we first started up the shop if you're still in the reading mood:
{ http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/spotlight/article/etsy-success-stories-berkleyillustration/1102/ }