Roland Harvey is one of Australia's best-loved illustrators admired for his humour and intriguing, detailed art work. In 1978, he established Roland Harvey Studios and designed a wonderful range of greeting cards, posters and stationery with a distinctively Australian flavour. Successful ventures in to children's books soon followed as did demand for him to visit schools and share his love of books and illustration with children everywhere. Roland was the recipient of the 2005 Dromkeen Medal in recognition of his achievements.
Roland can run general sessions focussing on watercolour painting, caricature, illustrating generally, publishing and life as an author.
He can also run more detailed sessions if genuinely interested focussing on drawing techniques (e.g. composition, perspective, cross-sections).
"I guess the broadest description I could give of my work is that it is about Australian culture. Observations, and maybe even contributions to it.
I started during 5th year Architecture, publishing Christmas cards to pay the bills, trying to get the essence of an Australian Christmas onto a piece of card about 120 x 80mm square. Is it about nostalgia? The bush? The beach? The city? Reunions, family gatherings? Probably all the above; anyway it worked.
I got into the publishing business and spun off into books for kids. My interest in history, science, a bit of philosophy and a lot of the funny stuff guided my publishing career and after 35 years, a hundred books, stamps, posters and the odd conservation-cause T-shirt I'm still at it. I think it is almost more important now than ever, with the influences of the internet, the new conservatism and global marketing of books all putting pressure on our culture and what kids get to read.
My work in illustrating Australia has made me more aware of the Australian culture and landscape, both in detail and in overview. I have had to look at our shape, our colour and our texture. I have come to understand what a treasure we have in its' richness, diversity and integrity. I truly believe we must preserve it and one of the aims of my books is to show it off to others. There are also a lot of references to science, maths, history, health and self-esteem.
As a kid I was very lucky growing up both in the city and in the country. As an old kid I have a great love for both.
I care a lot about environment and design issues, and paint with watercolour and draw for fun as well as work. I enjoy outdoor sports and camping music and food, and if I did nothing else I would like to awaken people to the beauty of life on our little planet".
Roland Harvey entertaining students at the 2013 Voices on the Coast Festival.
Testimonials
Roland Harvey is a wonderful author/illustrator and interpreter of many of our favourite Australian fictional and historical stories.
Roland engaged well with all our primary students who thoroughly enjoyed hearing about all his books. They enjoyed his masterclass on how to draw and his use of watercolour to illustrate stories. Excellent.
St Brendan's Primary School Somerville - March 2019Roland Harvey was FANTASTIC! My favourite Author Visit so far!!
Many thanks for organising this - the students and staff really enjoyed it.
Roland Harvey - St. Augustine
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| Speaker | Location | Tour dates | Book now |
|---|---|---|---|
Brisbane | 27 Apr - 27 Apr 2026 | ||
Sydney | 11 May - 12 May 2026 | ||
Sri Lanka | 01 Jun - 14 Jun 2026 | ||
Sydney | 12 Jun - 12 Jun 2026 | ||
Bundaberg | Sunshine Coast | 12 Jun - 12 Jun 2026 |
What people are saying
Not only are Lisa’s books fabulously entertaining and full of heart, she is an awesome and very engaging presenter.Her sessions are fun, inspiring and encourage the kids to think and talk about a range of issues whilst having a seriously good giggle too. She is hands down one of our favourite author guests at our children’s book club and an absolute delight to run sessions with.
We were delighted to host Tannya for our school visit. Tannya is an amazing illustrator and students enjoyed her illustrations for Dingo, Kookaburra, Mallee Sky and Heartbeat. She gave the students many tips on how the illustrations were made and shared her techniques. They enjoyed the drawing lesson with her easy-to-follow instructions. Tannya was an engaging speaker for all ages. She even included the students in a wonderful drama activity as well. I would definitely recommend Tannya for a [...]
Multi-talented Fifi Colston wowed Paparangi School children and teachers on two separate full-day visits to our Year 1-6 school. Each action-packed visit involved sessions tailored to different ages that ranged in size from small groups to an entire hall full of students. Fifi captivated the youngest to the oldest, including our hard to engage neurodiverse students, with interactive storytelling, illustrating and costume making. Her sessions were richly supported with digital presentations and r [...]
The students really enjoyed meeting Lucia. She was very engaging and easy to understand. The students liked participating in the drawing of interesting cats and feeling the collages she had made. I loved what the illustrator discussed and the Year 6's really were engaged and found the content of her talk interesting.
I was inspired so much when you came in and how you turned family history into an absolutely amazing book! I really hope that one day I can do the same
Sue exceeded expectations. She was brilliant and received great feedback from our participants. Thank you for your service. It is great to work with such an organised team.
Richard was the utmost professional and helped the students immensely prepare their thinking and ideas for narrative writing. We would definitely recommend Richard to other Schools and will be looking to book him again into the future.
Students really enjoyed meeting Anil and making connections to her illustrations while learning more about her creative process. Her presentation was engaging and well paced, allowing students to gain a deeper understanding of how an illustrator brings a story to life. The interactive elements encouraged thoughtful participation, and her work with small groups gave students valuable opportunities to ask questions, share ideas and feel supported in their own creative thinking.
Philip Wilcox was highly motivating. The students responded well and created excellent poems. The showcase was well attended and exciting. Phil was very generous with his time.
We had a lovely Literature Event yesterday. Randa was fantastic, her sessions were thought-provoking, everything went smoothly and we have had great feedback from the staff and students. We are now thinking about next year and would love to have Randa back. We had a great time, thanks so much.