Hi, I’m Ellie, a cartoonist, illustrator, and designer.
I love to play with intense feelings of wonder, catharsis, or pain, especially in the context of coming of age stories. Whether I’m designing, drawing, or both, I always start by asking myself: what would this feeling look like?
Recent projects include:
• Illustrating the picture book Catch of the Day by Dina M. Hardt, from Morgan James Publishing. On sale 9/08/26, and available for preorder now!
• Designing and contributing a comic to Celebrating Trans Joy: Building Community, an anthology of comics about the stories of trans Virginians, published in early 2025 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. The anthology project as a whole was a 2025 bronze winner for the Anthem Awards for social impact work in community engagement!
• Creating Blue & Red, a memoir comic about emotional abuse (which won a 2023 MICE Mini-grant award for excellence in minicomics from Massachusetts Indie Comics Expo)
• Illustrating the Adventure College Student Handbook (a Kickstarter project that made over EIGHT TIMES its original fundraising goal!) and its companion project Dungeons & Datemates
• Drawing and co-writing I Feel Fine (an instagram webcomic about a highschooler growing up with chronic illness, inspired by my co-writer’s own experience with EDS)
• Creating pieces for Rotary Arts (a multimedia collective of queer artists)
I also frequently vend at art markets around my home in Boston, MA.
When I’m not making comics or illustrations, I do graphic design and art direction for children’s books as an Associate Designer at Charlesbridge Publishing. I have a BFA in Communication Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University and am orginially from around Dallas, Texas. I love reading indie comics, connecting with other LGBTQ people, and traveling, especially by train.
Follow my art instagram or my Bluesky to keep up with my latest projects!
Interested in working with me? You can email me at erhartes@alumni.vcu.edu
If you wish to submit your portfolio for consideration by Charlesbridge Publishing, please follow the guidelines for illustrators on the Charlesbridge Submissions page.