I'm Samira Rijnen, a nature-led visual storyteller and children's illustrator focused on environmental hope. I'm a recent Concept Art graduate from the Academy of Digital Arts (2025), crafting kind, magical worlds and cute creatures for books and cozy games. My process is research -> sketches -> polished assets, and I thrive on remote collaboration with teams that care about impact.…

Samira Rijnen

I'm Samira Rijnen, a nature-led visual storyteller and children's illustrator focused on environmental hope. I'm a recent Concept Art graduate from the Academy of Digital Arts (2025), crafting kind, magical worlds and cute creatures for books and cozy games. My process is research -> sketches -> polished assets, and I thrive on remote collaboration with teams that care about impact.…

Available to hire

I’m Samira Rijnen, a nature-led visual storyteller and children’s illustrator focused on environmental hope. I’m a recent Concept Art graduate from the Academy of Digital Arts (2025), crafting kind, magical worlds and cute creatures for books and cozy games.

My process is research -> sketches -> polished assets, and I thrive on remote collaboration with teams that care about impact.

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Work Experience

Writer & Illustrator at Boris the Binny
January 1, 2025 - September 30, 2025
Wrote and illustrated a fully finished 32-page picture book on plastic pollution. Tools: Photoshop, InDesign. Tested with children; feedback included self-initiated clean-ups on the playground. Submitted to publishers; building companion activity PDFs and social presence.
Content Update Designer / Illustrator at Love Land (GBV Support App)
January 1, 2024 - September 30, 2025
Designed the main character 'Amandla,' plus structures, foliage, and UI-adjacent assets. Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop; learned production workflows for scalable vector assets. Content shipped in live app; portfolio breakdown: therookies.co/projects/71149

Education

Bachelor in Concept Art at Academy of Digital Arts
January 11, 2021 - November 24, 2024
Here I learned the core of digital drawing, as well as animation and vector illustration.

Qualifications

Bachelor in Concept Art
January 11, 2021 - November 24, 2024

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Education, Professional Services
    uniE621 Children's book design
    A page for the children's book- Boris the Binny, a Tale of Nature's Magic bookillustration book childrensbook illustrator conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign illustration…
    uniE621 Children's book design
    A page for the children's book- Boris the Binny, a Tale of Nature's Magic bookillustration book childrensbook illustrator conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign illustration…
    uniE621 Children's book design
    A page for the children's book- Boris the Binny, a Tale of Nature's Magic bookillustration book childrensbook illustrator conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign illustration…
    uniE621 Lottie the Otter
    Character Design I did for Lottie the Otter. She's based on Jane Goodal. conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign illustration illustrator…
    uniE621 Front Cover for A Tale of Nature's Magic
    Front Cover design for the children's book- Boris the Binny, a Tale of Nature's Magic bookillustration book childrensbook illustrator conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign illustration…
    uniE621 Children's book design
    A page for the children's book- Boris the Binny, a Tale of Nature's Magic bookillustration book childrensbook illustrator conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign illustration…
    uniE621 Boris The Binny
    Character design I made for Boris the Binny. illustrator conceptart creaturedesign characterdesign…
    uniE621 Boris the Binny - a Tale of Nature's Magic
    This is a personal children's book I made, using Adobe Photoshop. I designed all the characters myself, as well as the storyline, and of course all of the artwork for each page. Its a 32 page book, for children aged 4-8. childrensbook illustrator conceptart children designer…
    paper A Tale of Nature's Magic

    A 32 page children’s book, both written and illustrated by me. This took 6 weeks to complete, no AI used.
    I used Adobe Photoshop for the illustrative process, and Adobe InDesign for the text and completion.

    Please see my complete portfolio of this here: https://www.twine.net/signin