Who the Heck
is Louie Deck?
Writer/Illustrator Louis Decrevel (pronounced Louie Decra-vel, see right) lives in South Australia with his wife and a small horde of children, who provide endless inspiration for his stories. He has won eleven national and international awards for his words and pictures in the last five years. His clients include Macmillan (US), Quarto (UK), TeacherGoals (US), and the Australian Government. He has a Master’s degree in illustration, with a thesis called Word and Picture at Play. His home library is so full of children's books that he and his children find it difficult to enter—and impossible to leave.
Awards:
2024 – Highly commended – CYA Competition (Illustration)
2024 – Winner – PB Rising Stars Mentorship (Writing & illustration)
2023 – Third place – CYA Competition (Writing)
2022 – Highly commended – CYA Competition (Illustration)
2022 – Winner – Australian Society of Authors Award Mentorship (Illustration)
2021 – Winner – Faber Writing Academy Scholarship (Writing)
2021 – Winner – Pencraft SA Competition (Poetry)
2021 – Runner up – Book Links Mentorship (Writing)
2021 – Runner up – New England Illustration Prize (Illustration)
2021 – Highly commended – New England Illustration Prize (Illustration)
2020 – Longlist – CBCA Maurice Saxby Program (Writing & illustration)
Clients:
Quarto Publishing (UK), TeacherGoals Publishing (US), The Australian Government, Silicon Chip Magazine (AU/NZ), Cryptowat.ch (US), The City of Onkaparinga, Nova FM and Westfield, among others, including contributing to Ben Hatke's Eisner-winning Little Robot for Macmillan (US).
Education:
- Mentorships with Ben Hatke, Emma Quay and Kathryn Rammell.
- Master of Visual Art & Design [Illustration], UniSA. His Master’s thesis, Word and Picture at Play, is about how text and images interact in picture books.
- Bachelor of Arts [Multimedia], UniSA.
- Writing for Children, Faber Writing Academy, under Martine Murray.
- Writing Picture Books, Australian Writers' Centre, under Zanni Louise.
- Drawing for Comics, CDW Studios, under Tim McBurnie.
Publications:
Louis' incredible feat, article written by Michael Simmons for the Fleurieu Sun newspaper.
Gram & Gran Save the Summer, written by Stephen Chiger & Daniel Pereira and illustrated by Louis Decrevel, published by TeacherGoals (US).
Whoosh! 250 Ways to Get Motion into Your Drawings, featured artist, published by Sourcebooks (US) and Search (UK).
His experience of the Faber Scholarship can be read here.
Memberships:
SCBWI, CBCA, and ASA.
His work is featured in The Style File.
Please refer to this
Handy Rhyming Pronunciation Guide:
I think I smell something pooey,
Has anybody seen Louis?
It’s a 'stagnant Nile delta’ smell,
Definitely a Decrevel.
That magic spell went screwy!
Bumbling wizard Louis.
He sure knows how to wreck a spell,
Seventh-son-of-a-Decrevel.
Coo-ee!
LOOOUIS!
He needs (around his neck) a bell,
Absent-minded Decrevel!