This month I'm pleased as sweet tea punch to be chatting it up with the rock star author-illustrator, Gina Perry! She is the author-illustrator of small (little bee books, 2017), TOO MUCH! NOT ENOUGH! and NOW? NOT YET! (Tundra, 2018/2019) and the illustrator of the Aven Green chapter book series (by Dusti Bowling, Union Square Kids). Gina lives in seacoast New Hampshire with her husband, two children, and Hank the pug. You can enjoy more of Gina's fabulous artwork here!
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| Ooo! Love all the cute kiddo/pup combos! |
Q: Your fun & friendly children’s book artwork ranges from picture books to chapter books to graphic novels! Dish with us a bit about your creative process—from inspiration to sketches to final artworks.
A: I don’t think I realized how vital visiting museums was to my inspiration and creativity until I fell out of regular practice when my children were babies. Now, I make sure to visit museums of all sizes and types several times of year. Equally important might be time in nature—whether it’s a hike, weeding in the garden, or time at the beach. A relatively new form of inspiration has come from my collage work. I took a zoom class during the pandemic based on the paper cuttings of Matisse and I just fell in love. In many ways it’s the opposite of my process for illustration—messy, unplanned, nonlinear. It’s wonderful to create art in a different room, for a different purpose and then return to my digital illustration feeling refreshed.
If I’m working on a book by another author, I read the manuscript start to finish a few times. At first, I just enjoy the story and start to visualize the characters. Then I read again, taking notes on physical descriptions of people, clothing, places, etc. Details that need to line up visually with my illustrations. I usually start sketching on paper— working out a character’s shape, form, quirks and personality. For most books, I’ll share my character sketches with the editor or art director. These get passed around and come back with edits.
Next, I jump to my Cintiq and work there to tighten sketches. I’m halfway through the fourth Aven Green chapter book illustrations, and I’ve learned that I like to work chronologically start to finish with VERY rough, fast sketches. I want to make sure the compositions are varied throughout the book and working quickly lets me see the bigger picture. It also feels rewarding to ‘get through’ all the sketches before going into a longer round of work.
If the project is full color, I work up one or two final pieces of art spending a long time to find just the right palette and style for the story. It’s a playful process and so important to sort out before you slide into working on final art.
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| Cast & Crew: Aven Green |
Q: This past May was the one-year anniversary of the hashtag #KidLitArtPostcard that you created! Tell us a bit about what inspired you to create the hashtag as well as what you think is the most effective way for children’s book illustrators to promote themselves.
A: I’m so proud of #KidLitArtPostcard! Social media has made it easier to share your work, but somehow harder to be seen. Making a clear hashtag and schedule felt like a way to focus illustrator promotion efforts. It’s been a success—not just in creating new opportunities for artists, but for building community and stronger portfolios.
I will share advice here that I need to follow as well: share work often. We get caught up thinking that we can only share new work. But social media (and life) spins too fast to catch all the eyeballs your work deserves. If you follow Andy J. Pizza and his podcast Creative Peptalk, he refers to resharing ‘greatest hits’ —the way he enthusiastically defines it makes it easier to accept as good practice.
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| So totally adorbs!!! |
Q: Give us the scoop on your MOST favorite children’s book projects: one from your past and one from your present.
A: A few years ago, I created interior illustrations for the middle grade book, OPERATION FROG EFFECT (Sarah Scheerger, Random House). It’s a story told in journal format, and one character, Blake, draws comic pages for his entries. I enjoyed developing a big base of characters and working in a loose, flat, black and white style to mimic 12-year old Blake’s art. The author wrote a fun, diverse range of scenes to illustrate—frogs, Halloween, a school egg drop, superheroes, crumpled paper, ringing alarm bells, etc. No room to be bored with all those fun things to draw! Adding to that, Sarah is one of the most supportive authors an illustrator could hope to work with. OPERATION FROG EFFECT has been widely read and acclaimed—I love seeing the continued growth with readers over the years.
Just a few weeks ago I worked on my first assignment for High Five magazine. Highlights has long been a favorite client, but it was a treat to work on a multi-page assignment with a slightly younger (and simpler) direction. I’ll never complain about drawing cute animals in aprons (that’s enough of a hint). Look for it this November!
Q: You are a kidlit rock star when it comes to school visits! What advice would you give fellow illustrators about: 1) virtual vs. in-person events, 2) how to connect locally vs. nationally and 3) developing a presentation?
A: Before the pandemic I was fairly experienced with virtual events. Most of those were short, free readings followed by a few questions. It was a great way to connect to schools across the country and get comfortable with the unexpected nature of live events. I would encourage every author-illustrator to sign up for World Read Aloud Day (February 1, 2023!) through Kate Messner’s blog.
I’m still learning about how to connect for in-person events and generally stick to a driveable radius. Having a relationship with your local independent bookstore is a great way to start. If you’ve done an in-store event they will likely refer you when libraries and school reach out to them looking for local author-illustrators.
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| Miss Gina rocking a school visit! |
With both virtual and in-person events, do not underestimate the magic of drawing in front of an audience. I know it can be intimidating at first, but if you can shake off your perfectionism, you will quickly understand how powerful it can be to share your talent and to include the kids in the art. Make your presentation as interactive and inclusive as possible. Developing a presentation takes a fair amount of thought and time. Share the challenges you’ve faced along with the successes. Try and break your presentation into short sections of time to keep things moving. Always leave time for Q&A and drawing. And absolutely don’t try and do too many presentations in one day. Your voice will likely give out and it can be hard to keep your place mentally when you’ve repeated yourself too much. Four is my upper limit, yours might be different.
Q: The key to long-term success in children’s book publishing is endurance + resilience. In what ways, do you practice resilience as a creative professional? How do you handle both success and rejection over time?
A: Oh gosh. This really is an important question. I’ve been at this for a long-time and I would never have guessed at half of the hardest challenges along the way. First, I think going through four years of art school where people tear your work apart in person teaches you to take some heat. Working in animation and product design taught me more of that, plus teamwork, and doing the same work over and over again. Even still, working in children’s books is hard! You need to celebrate every little success and know that sometimes taking a break from the work is the healthiest choice. A break is not quitting, it’s just recharging yourself so you can bring joy to the work. More than anything, supportive and kind artist friends will get you through the hard times and rejections.
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| Friendship = Happiness |
Q: Describe your most perfect day.
A: Oh, it definitely starts by not unloading the dishwasher or waking the sleepy tween and teen up multiple times. I would have a quiet morning to pass in a finished assignment, sketch, write, think, and refine a picture book dummy in progress before heading out with the whole family for a long walk in the woods in the afternoon. No one will have an issue with bugs or uncomfortable shoes! Obviously, I’m not cooking dinner on this most perfect of days. A visit to the food trucks for tacos and spring rolls is just about right for all of us. Back at home we can then all sneak away to play video games or read quietly (minus a snoring pug on my lap) for a bit. Then a family movie with popcorn and a little bit of loud chaos mixed in for good measure.
A: Oh, it definitely starts by not unloading the dishwasher or waking the sleepy tween and teen up multiple times. I would have a quiet morning to pass in a finished assignment, sketch, write, think, and refine a picture book dummy in progress before heading out with the whole family for a long walk in the woods in the afternoon. No one will have an issue with bugs or uncomfortable shoes! Obviously, I’m not cooking dinner on this most perfect of days. A visit to the food trucks for tacos and spring rolls is just about right for all of us. Back at home we can then all sneak away to play video games or read quietly (minus a snoring pug on my lap) for a bit. Then a family movie with popcorn and a little bit of loud chaos mixed in for good measure.
But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that this day doesn’t really exist. My brain will edit out the kid bickering, overflowing laundry, and that we really ended up just eating what we call ‘miscellaneous’. I will fall asleep listening to the barred owls in the woods behind my house (even if it’s only in my imagination).
Thank you so much, Gina, for catching up with us here at Bird Meets Worm! XO
Thank you so much, Gina, for catching up with us here at Bird Meets Worm! XO