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Mark A. Hicks
award-winning artist and illustrator
FAQ's
I’m an internationally published freelance artist and illustrator. I have literally created thousands of works of art for books, magazines, greeting cards, storyboards, websites, and more over my 40-year full-time freelance career (I'm semi-retired now, mostly doing volunteer work for nonprofits). I'm a PAL (Published And Listed) Member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and I picked up a few national awards along the way too.
Some of my clients over the years include: Scholastic, Discovery (Channel) Education, National Park Service, Weekly Reader K-6, Gibbs Smith Publishers, Paulist Press, Happy House Books, Cricket Media (Spider, Cricket, ASK, Click, Cobblestone and Ladybug Magazines),
U.S. Kids magazines (Humpty
Dumpty, Jack and Jill, and others published by the
Saturday Evening Post Society), The National Zoo, Sesame Street Magazine, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, PetSmart, Whole Foods, and many more.
I’m
also a hereditary cancer awareness and prevention
advocate. After becoming my wife’s cancer
caregiver and then losing her to the evil disease
caused by a BRCA2 mutation in 2021, my life was
turned upside down. Tragically, her cancer was
preventable. Now, because of what happened to my
wife and because my child inherited the same BRCA2
mutation, I am speaking up and focusing on communication and cascade genetic testing among blood relatives when there’s a history of cancer. Nobody should die of a preventable cancer. Nobody!
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some random info...
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| I was born and raised in Arizona.
(Meet
my original
character
Gila Ben on my Arizona website for students and teachers.)
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I was on Romper Room School
twice. (More
info here.) |
I met,
shook hands with Walt Disney at a chance encounter
during Disneyland's
Tencennial when I was 7.
Walt and I are actually
distant genetic cousins (9th - once removed.)
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I
have interesting ancestors, confirmed by DNA and a paper
trail.
On my maternal side, my
9th-great-grandparents were William and Susanna White of the
Mayflower.
William died not long after arriving. Susanna was one of only four women to survive that first year.
Then, on my paternal side,
there's my Native American heritage. The paper trail isn't
quite as clear, and figuring out the tribe has been
complicated. However, my DNA shows it.
Needless to say, I have
some conflicting feelings about the Thanksgiving holiday.
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I'm
also a patented
inventor. Unfortunately, my late wife's hereditary
cancer and death slowed my efforts to find someone to
license it.
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Member
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
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| How do I
contact you? |
| How do I
license your art or character
designs for my product? |
| Have you
won any awards? |
| Where
can I buy your books? |
| I want
to be a freelance illustrator,
can you offer any
advice? |
| I've
written a children's book, can
you illustrate it for me? |
| Are you
the same Mark Hicks...
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| Do you
have a blog? |
| Do you
have a dream project? |
| Can
I buy original art from
books, etc.? |
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How do
I contact you?
Just click here.
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How do I
license your art or character
designs for my product?.
Click
here.
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Have
you won any awards?
A few. Click
here to view some of
them.
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Do you ever put
new samples up on your site?
Occasionally I'll post a new
published piece or two. Usually it's on
my art blog, CarefreeArtist.com. Unfortunately,
with AI scraping and unscrupulous Internet users
who seem to think that just
because artwork is online it
is in the public domain and
free for them to use as they like, I
now limit
the amount of work I have
online. However, it doesn't
mean I don't have lots of
illustration samples to show
to prospective art buyers.
Please
contact me.
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Where can I buy your books?
Click
here to go to a page
that lists many of my book
titles with links to books available
for purchase.
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I want to be a freelance
illustrator, can you offer
any advice?
Yes, I can offer you some
advice as well as words of
encouragement.
Click
here.
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I've
written a children's book, can
you illustrate it for me?
Sorry,
probably not. I'm (mostly) retired now. I
also prefer to work
through an established publishing house.
However, if it's a really great idea, I
might consider it. I know sometimes really great book
ideas are rejected* and that self-publishing is
an option.
Contact
me.
*FYI
trivia: Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit was self-published because it had been rejected several times.
The self-published book sold well. Before long, it was picked up by one of the publishers that had originally rejected it, Frederick Warne and Co.
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Are
you the same Mark Hicks...
...that
authored books about fishing?
No.
...the
actor/stuntman? No.
(Although I was on Romper Room School two
times when I was five. Yes,
that's right, I was of Romper
Room School twice. But not because I
failed class the first time. I was asked
back to substitute for another child. See
one of my Romper Room photos
here.)
...the
minister? OMG, heck
no.
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Do you have a blog?
Yes, go to CarefreeArtist.com
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Do you have a
dream project?
I actually have
many...
I would like to finish work on
some of my own book ideas, do more paintings and
sculptures, and do a lot more art just for art's sake.
I hope to have the means some
day to expand my project of providing free art supplies and materials to children and adults coping with challenging illnesses.
(The
project is called Art
Mends and here's what I've done so far.) I'd also
would love to own a large track of picturesque Arizona land where I could create an artist
retreat. A place with several individual studios and a main gallery.
I originally thought it a place where
established and emerging artists could come and stay to find inspiration and solitude. However,
after my late wife's cancer diagnosis, I
thought maybe it could be where cancer
patients and cancer caregivers could come
for an artistic respite. After all art
mends.
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Can I buy original art from your books, etc.?
Not yet. I need to catalog all my artwork first. I have created literally thousands of works of art over the years for so many different publications that it will take time to figure out what I want to sell.
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