For the last
15 years most of my work has been for children’s publications. I’ve illustrated
over 50 picture books, as well as numerous e-books, and early readers. I’ve
been focus lately on writing as well. The first book that I wrote and
illustrated Click! came out this
year. I also write and illustrate the monthly comic series Nestor’s Dock for
Ask Magazine, which is a kid’s science and nature magazine. It’s a 2-page comic
about Nestor and his 3 friends, that relates to the monthly topic of the magazine.
I started my career as an art director for 6 years in the children’s book dept.
at Publications International in Chicago.
I grew up in
Goshen and Loveland OH, and I attended Moeller and The Art Academy of
Cincinnati.
Location: Anderson, Ohio
Website: jeffillustration.com
What’s coming up: I have a gallery
show of my work at the Eva G. Farris Gallery at Thomas More College. Nov 5-24.
Opening reception Nov 5th 4-7 pm. Gallery Talk Nov 16th 1:15 pm.
I also
recently did an interview for a show called booknotes on pbs. Here is a link to
watch it.
How did you get your start as a
professional artist?
I’ve been
doing random freelance art jobs since I was in high school. I drew caricatures
at King’s Island and at private parties. I’ve painted murals at schools,
churches and in homes. I worked for
several puppet companies performing, sculpting and sewing marionettes. I’ve
done theatre and concert backdrops, engineered pop-up books and sculpted paper mache
package design. My wife and I moved to Chicago after college and I answered an
ad in the paper for an art assistant job at a publishing house. I worked there
for 6 years, working my way up to art director.
I mostly did design work at that job but I was occasionally able to
contribute an illustration. Gradually I built up a portfolio, and after several
years of freelancing evenings and weekends, I made the leap and quit my job to
freelance full time.
Describe your work.
I’ve worked
with many different authors and I do my best keep every book that I work on
different. I try to build a unique world and characters based on the stories,
and I always try to add some back-story and humor to the illustrations. I
really enjoy researching the specific type of house, furniture, clothes for the
characters, and I especially like when I
get to illustrate a story about a specific culture or time in history that I’m
unfamiliar with.
Tell about your workspace.
My family and I live in a 3-bedroom split level house. My
twin daughters Isabel and Olivia, who are 6, share a room and I use the extra bedroom
as a studio. I imagine that as they get older I may need to find a new space. I
have 2 large tables in an L shape with a flat file underneath. I tape each
painting that I’m working on to individual boards and paint in front of my
computer. I like to have references material on my screen as I work. I’m
usually working on a bunch of projects at the same time, so the room tends to
get pretty cluttered. Many stacks of sketches and notes. I try to keep all the
paintings on the boards and laid out where I can see them, so the book stays
consistent.
What are your favorite materials digital
and traditional?
Most of the
work I’ve done has been acrylic paintings on paper. I like Golden Open Acrylics
because they stay wet a lot longer. I have always painted next to a computer,
and I often piece together and rework my sketches digitally. Over the past 10
years, more and more publishers are requesting that I do my own scanning rather
then sending the art to them for scanning. If I’m scanning my art, I typically
do a certain amount of retouching and reworking to my paintings in Photoshop.
In the last
few years I have started experimenting with a digital art style for the e-books
and readers that I work on. Those projects tend to have much quicker deadlines, and a few of my
editors have let me experiment with different styles. It’s still kind of a
hybrid. I’ve been taking sections of color and texture from my paintings and
piece them together in Photoshop to make the final art. I haven’t taken the
leap into a completely digital picture, but I think I’m getting close.
What’s your typical workday/work
session like?
I have been
very grateful for my agent’s (MB Artists) hard work. She has kept me
consistently very busy. I usually work from 9-5 or 6 in my studio and then
after my kids are in bed I set up a card table in the living room and work from
8-12 while my wife and I watch tv. Every once in a while I have to pull an all
nighter. I try to work as few weekends as I can. It’s always a challenge
balancing time with my family and all the looming deadlines. One of my favorite
things about working from home is that I’ve been able to spend so much time
with my kids. When they were toddlers, we had a plastic fence that was meant to
be used as a gated off play area. I set up a desk in it so I could watch them
without them being able to reach my paints. They called it the Daddy cage. Now
that they’re older, they often come into my studio after school and draw with
me.
What do you do to keep yourself
motivated as you work?
Ideally it’s
the excitement of a new project, and the anticipation of seeing your latest
work in print. I’m trying my hardest to make each new project better than the last,
and I often stew over my books and see all of the things I wish I would have
done better.
I’ve been
collecting children’s books for many years and I think that is still my biggest
source of inspiration.
Other times
it’s fear of deadlines and keeping clients happy. Some of the projects I’m
happiest with came out of last minute panic.
What is your dream job?
I think in
many ways I am doing my dream job. I guess my biggest hope is that one of my
books will really take off in a big way. I had the opportunity to work on
several series of books including a series of 4 books about a mouse. That was
one of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on, because I got to develop and
expands the characters world with each book.
I would love to have a character that becomes successful enough that I could
build on it over many books, and of course become a cartoon series, movie, and
line of toys.
Do you keep a sketchbook?
I keep a notebook but it’s mostly to write
down ideas. I usually sketch on loose typing paper. Most of my sketches start
of with a bunch of loose scribbles that I end up throwing away. Whenever I try
to work in a sketchbook I tend to tighten up and try to make everything look to
perfect because the drawing is preserved in a book. I feel like I can be freer
and more creative on loose paper.
Process from sketch to final:
What do you listen to while you work?
I get
distracted by music so I usually like to listen to someone talking. Either pod
casts or audio books. I go through about 4 or 5 audio books a week.
What are you reading/listening to on
Audible?
I download
audio books from the public library. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot British
writers who do fantasy/sci-fi with a kind of absurdist humor mixed in. I just finished
all of the 40 some Disk World books by Terry Pratchett. I also like Jasper Fforde,
Robert Rankin, Jim Butcher and Neil Gaimen. I try to mix in some classics and non-fiction
history when I can. I like Erik Larson’s books. There are also several series
books that I probably wouldn’t have started but I liked the voice acting of the
narrator so much that I gave it a try. Anything with Jim Dale or Barbara
Rosenblat
Who are your artistic influences?
My first
influences were my mom and my older brother. My mom was the art teacher at my
grade school. She sculpted the larger that life size bronze crucifix in the
chapel at Mount St. Joseph. For many years she sculpted clay busts and
portraits. My older brother Jim went to the Art Academy 3 years before I did.
It was when we were in college that I first started paying attention to picture
book illustrators. Some of my early favorites were Lisbeth Zwerger, William
Joyce, Stephen Gammell, and Lane Smith. Over the years I’ve built up a pretty
big collection of picture books. I take a bunch of books out before I start a
new project to get inspired to try different approaches or color pallets. Some
of my current favorites are Chris Van Dussen, Tony DeTerlizzi, Peter Brown,
and Adam Rex.
I also get a
lot of inspiration from being around other artists. My classmates at the Art
Academy, the SCBWI illustrators critique group in Chicago, and the Cincinnati
illustrator lunches. I had the opportunity to teach a senior thesis class at
the Art Academy and I was blown away by the caliber of work.
What do you do that is not art related
that inspires you?
Doing things
with my daughters is very inspirational. I’d been making books for kids for 10
years before I actually had kids. There are constantly things that they say or
do that give me new ideas and I’m now able to see picture books from a child’s
perspective.
I also like
playing music. When we lived in Chicago I played drums in variety of bands from
rockabilly, brit pop, to honky tonk. I even played in the pit orchestra for a
musical. Any time I get to do a
collaborative project whether it’s making music, or working with the puppet
theater, I jump at the chance. One of the side benefits to making art for kids
is that I get ask to give presentations at lots of schools, library’s and book
conventions. It’s easy to loose perspective when you work alone in a studio all
day, but when I get out and see how excited kids are about art and books it
reminds me of the reasons I’m doing this in the first place.
I have a
gallery show at the end of the month and I’ve been collaborating with several
friends and local artists on pieces for the show. I have been working with a
glass artist and a welder to build a model of the bird lamp character from my
new book Click!. I have also been
working on an animated video piece with musician and composer Jonathan
Guilehurst.
What is your favorite color?
Orange. I
start every painting with an under-painting of yellow ocher and red oxide. It
gives all the edges an orange glow, and I love the way it plays off the other
colors.
How can we get best follow your art
online/on social media?
I try to
update my web site jeffillustration.com as often as I can. My agent also posts
new work on her site mbartists.com. I’m also very grateful to Christina Wald
for posting things for me when I have news to share.
