Richard Cowdrey is a well known freelance illustrator, and the illustrator of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. He has worked with many bestselling publishers, including Harper Collins, Scholastic Inc., Simon & Schuster, Zondervan, Random House, Harcourt, McMillan McGraw Hill, Bantam Books, Grosset & Dunlap, Penguin Publishing, Workman Publishing, and Harvest House.
He was briefly alluded to at the end of A Guide Book to the Great Tree, where Otulissa thanked an owl named "Rikard", "...the talented young artist of the tree who has lent the skills of his talon for the illustrations in this volume."