BY BECKY ROBERTSON
ILLUSTRATION
WHEN ANNICK PRESS editor Katie Hearn was looking online for an illustrator for Cross Ups – the publisher’s middle-grade series about gamers – she was drawn to Connie Choi’s art. “There was one piece in particular that showed some kids around a TV, intent on a video game in front of them, and I thought, ‘Bingo,’” says Hearn. “Connie’s a gamer and a game developer; she lives in this world and brings great energy to the stories.” Choi, a recent graduate of Toronto’s Sheridan College and a video-game artist for Sticky Brain Studios, illustrated the first two Cross Ups titles and is currently working on the third. This illustration from the second book, Anybody’s Game (Sept.), explores how Cali, the young girl gamer in the book, experiences and reacts to sexism within that world – and even within her own circle of male friends. Choi talks about her process.