Samantha Dolecki is a digital illustrator based in the Greater Paris Metropolitan Region, born in North Carolina and raised in England and across the United States within a US military family. She focuses on children’s picture books and literature, creating images shaped by children’s animation and film. With a foundation in 2D animation and visual development, she builds fantasy-rooted work with real emotional meaning, using tactile digital textures that make each image feel like a freeze frame you could almost touch.

Samantha earned a BFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in 2023 and completed the ITSme Learning Mentorship for Children’s Illustration in fall 2024. She has worked professionally as a children’s book illustrator since the beginning of 2026. Her strongest project so far is Beautiful Bible Stories for Children with the editors at Chartwell Books, her first published book. Samantha's process starts with research and moodboarding, then moves through character sketches, loose thumbnails, refined sketches, greyscale rendering, and colour. Working in Photoshop, she uses digital painting and real-world textures to echo watercolours and oil pastels, with close attention to detail, perspective, and character posing.

Samantha grew up on Disney’s golden age films, and their storytelling and 2D animation gave her a steady sense of wonder and comfort. Today, she's inspired by film, animation, other creatives across different disciplines, and the organic magic of nature. Outside the studio, she loves art galleries, natural history museums, aquariums, hiking, thrift and antique shops, ghost stories, and perfecting her coffee at home. Samantha's partner has also expanded her sense of possibility in life. In her work, Samantha hopes people can feel the care in every detail and recognise something familiar that stirs an emotional response.