Wherever the work of Melissa Castrillon may take us, we are never far from her delightfully rotund subjects. Melissa has a light hand that is slightly unsteady, which gives the feel that there is constant motion in her illustrations.

She’s able to translate many of her sketches into finished illustrations, which can be a hard middle ground to find – you want it to look finished, but still want to maintain the spontaneity and freshness that comes from sketching and creating on the fly. I think for Melissa, she’s able to communicate a sense of control (in her compositions, handling of graphite) yet with her mark-making still retain the qualities that make sketchbooks so wonderful.

Check out more of Melissa: Tumblr and website.