Biologist by training, creative by nature!

I'm Anja Reithmann – illustrator, comic artist, painter and biologist. I live and work between Bavaria and Barcelona, and I tell stories in German, English and Spanish.

Before I picked up a brush for good, I studied zoology at LMU Munich, worked as a research assistant in ecology, taught biology and chemistry, and led nature walks for children. I still look at the world like a biologist: closely, curiously and with a soft spot for the creatures most people overlook.

From 2022 to 2025 I completed the full-time Drawing and Painting Program at the Barcelona Academy of Art, training in academic drawing and classical painting in the tradition of the great 19th-century ateliers. That training is the backbone of everything I make – whatever the format.

Comics. In RALPH, a grumpy weevil who only wants his routine, his tobacco and his gin survives one disaster after another. Darkly funny short episodes for grown-ups, drawn in ink and grey wash.

Children's books. Warm, nature-based picture books for ages 4 to 6, such as the adventures of Bobby, the blue-footed booby, and Pia, the little coral polyp. My illustrations appear in Geheimnisgeschichten, Vol. 9 (Liliom Verlag).

Fine art. Oil paintings, drawings and collage, between realism and quiet surrealism. My current series, Fragments, is painted on newspaper-covered wood panels. My work has been shown in Germany and Spain, including at the MEAM museum and the BAA Gallery in Barcelona.

Whether it's a weevil with a drinking habit or a coral polyp with big dreams, I'm drawn to small creatures with big stories – and to the moment where the everyday tips slightly into the absurd.

Open to commissions, collaborations and publishing projects.