Jeff Lemire: Essex County Volume 1: Tales From The Farm (Essex County)
Raymond Pingitore: Thrill Killers: A True Story of Innocence and Murder Without Conscience
Rob Sheffield: Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
Laurie Notaro: We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive
A sketch from today, done while watching (OK, listening to) a biography on Thomas Jefferson and then talking on the phone. It's an alien who is standing in a dining room that looks eerily like mine. Gee, guess what was in my line of vision while drawing this?
Colored pencil, ballpoint pen, and my friend Photoshop. Here's a close-up.
This illustration is © Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
... you know the rest of the rhyme. There's a punishment waiting for those who say it out loud.
Here's Poppy the Pug in a silent contemplative moment. You know that mere seconds from now she'll have that butterfly on the ground (you know she will), giving it the thrashing of its life. Oh, yeah, and there WILL be barking. Lots of it.
But for now: Peace & Quiet. It's kinda like a Mary Cassatt painting in that regard. A still moment captured in time.
What I like about Spring...
What I don't like about Spring...
This illustration is © Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
In the ongoing (& on-growing) effort to educate re: being an educational illustrator, here are some more semi-recent mazes that I've done.
Above is a fairly straight forward maze. Not a lot of paths that you'll stay on for hours before you discover they're dead ends. The simplicity of any maze that you'll design will have a lot to do with the intended age group. Because this particular puzzle was for YE (younger elementary), it needed to be fairly simple. To counteract the simplicity, I used color variation in the paths to throw the kids a bit of a curve ball visually.
A close-up of the Ark of the Covenant.
I know what you're thinking.
"Where's Indiana Jones?"
The above maze is really easier than it may look at first glance. I wanted to make things look more confusing by using squiggly lines, and by making use of the red arrows as a border. Not only does it make the puzzle look tougher, but it makes it more interesting for me to do. I don't want to be bored while working on an illustration, because if I am? Chances are good that the kids will be too.
As an educational illustrator, a huge part of your job will be to inspire kids to do work that will grow their brains. It has always been my contention that if you can make WORK look like PLAY, that if you can make kids WANT to sit down to work on problems, well then: you've done your job well.
Getting revisions on these types of squiggly mazes after faxing in sketches is always fun.
Here's an example of how these conversations usually go.
Art Director: See that line about 3 squiggles over from the 1,2,3,4... 4th red arrow on the top of the page?
Me, looking and counting: Um, yeah?
Art Director: OK, that path needs to be closed off.
Me: Got it.
I'm not sure why we never do this correction stage of things via fax as well. Maybe it's because we like to hone our ability to communicate effectively in the verbal format. 
The above maze uses "tunnel and bridge" paths, and to that end: words & their meanings are linked.
To keep the children confused (always my aim, despite what my nicer personality may tell you), I keep the paths in these types of mazes the same color. If you made each path a different color, it would take away the need to trace the route to see where it leads.
The above is another type of word maze, this time using groups of letters that need to be placed in the proper order. Are the large areas of plain green grazing pastures? No. That's where the type on the page goes. That's just one more thing you'll need to take into account when designing your maze: intrusive text.
(See where my bias lies?)
These illustrations are copyrighted.
ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.
Another semi-recent illustration featuring one kind of maze that I'm often asked to do.
(I may show other kinds in the future; it will depend upon your behavior.)
In this maze: with the 2 disciples acting as the starting point, children are encouraged to circle every second letter, then write the circled letters in the corresponding spaces below to see the secret message revealed!
If you're toying with the idea of becoming an educational illustrator for kids, definitely give some thought to having a couple mazes of your own creation in your portfolio.
I keep a reference file of different mazes for ideas -- I get them from kids' magazines, puzzle books, backs of cereal boxes, etc. And when I make up a maze, I add it to the file.
This illustration is copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
While I continue to wait for the return of my repaired printer/scanner and camera, here's another illustration that's been residing in my computer. You can click to see a larger view.
Yesterday would have been an excellent day to have my camera BECAUSE:
A PEACOCK strutted through my yard!!!
As some of you may know, I don't live in Burma east to Java, so to see a bird native to warmer climes like faraway INDIA, walking in my Seekonk, Massachusetts yard, had me a "little surprised". To put it mildly.
I yelled out to my neighbor who was doing yardwork, "THERE'S a PEACOCK!!!" and he went and got his camera. The peacock stuck around for awhile, and then crossed the road as folks were driving home from work. Can't imagine what they thought when they saw him!
Q. Why did the peacock cross the road?
A. Make up your own punchline.
I heard the peacock squawking in the woods this morning @ 6:30 am. Hope he's not too cold or lonely.
I made up a tongue twister.
Say this ten times fast:
Seekonk Peacock.
This illustration is copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Never liked how in educational illustration, these types of puzzle pages are called, "Which One Doesn't Belong?"
That's so ... so ... exclusive and ... mean!
So today, I'm taking that seeming oddity and reclaiming it as: Original. Unique. Nobody's Copycat. Not Fettered by the Bonds of Assimilation.
The real reason for posting this particular piece that I did recently (i.e.: within the last coupla months), is because both my printer/scanner AND my camera are in the shop for repairs, so am now coughing up stuff that's already in the computer. (You can click on the image to see it larger.)
"Which One?" puzzles are pretty much a staple of children's educational material. If you're thinking of getting into this line of work, you may want to consider having at least one of these illustrations in your portfolio.
Here's my tip for creating these puzzles:
Don't rely on a character's accessories to be the things that set him apart. A smart (aleck) kid will point out that the character is still the same under his hat/shirt/tie/etc.
Unless the client specifies otherwise, I like for the character's body parts to be the things that have something different about them.
That said, don't confuse the children by having all the accessories be
wildly different, You want them to hone in on nuance, and while
creative reasonings are always lovely, ONE correct answer is the goal.
Some educational editors might want you to keep these puzzles even more streamlined by having all the characters facing in the same direction, with wings etc. in exactly the same position. This is something that will be determined by the targeted age group, and you will need to find out how basic the editor wants you to be before beginning your illustration. (Ask for samples to be sent of what the client is looking for. This can help enormously in the Just-So-We're-Clear department.)
This illustration was aimed at a middle elementary age group, i.e.: for savvy kids who need more of a challenge (and for teachers who need for the search to take up a little more class time). And, as this illustration was about families, it wasn't necessary to have each bird be a carbon copy of the others.
Another tip: Don't make your character so unnecessarily complicated that replicating him will drive you mad.
This illustration is copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
It's the First Day of April, so here's an optimistic Pug (who lives in Providence), braving out the gray and rain because he knows there's Sunshine & Rainbows (& Unicorns) ahead!
It's starting to feel like Spring outside today, with temps likely to get into the 60s! (did I read that right?) here in Massachusetts.
But the way I know it's Spring is not by looking at the weather forecast online.
It's easier to tell by the birds.
The other day I saw a bunch of juncos hanging out with some robins. I said to the congregation, "OK, guys, which is it going to be: Winter or Spring?"
The robin's song is so definitively the soundtrack to Spring, but I am quite partial to the bird who sings what sounds like: "Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger!"
I never see him when he sings that, so I can't i.d. him, but nevertheless: it amuses.
* ETA: The "Cheeseburger" bird IS the robin! The Audubon Society captures the song as being "Cheer-up, Cheerily", but I know better (wink). They say, "Many regard the rich caroling of the male, uttered from a high perch, as the true herald of Spring." I had that part right! :-)
Have a Happy April!
Illustration is © Megan E. Jeffery, 2008. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
If you are considering a future as a children's educational illustrator, you may as well wrap your brain around this inevitability NOW:
You WILL be drawing apples.
If you're firmly entrenched in the Anti-Apple camp, perhaps another career would better suit.
Here are just a FEW of the apples that I've drawn during my 18.5 years as a freelance children's illustrator.
I say "just a few" because if I were to show you every single one, you'd be scrolling down for yards.
Click on them to see them in an enlarged view.
As they say at any chain restaurant, right after warnings of a very hot plate, "Enjoy!"
Illustrations are copyrighted.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This month's calendar page features Pip the Pug puppy, who is basking in the glow of his own wonderfulness, and oh yeah, the gold too. Some people say that March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb, but Pip is of the mindset that March's comings & goings revolve solely around Pugs.
The rainbow agrees. See its curly tail?
Illustration is © Megan E. Jeffery, 2008. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Was inspired by Jimmy Pickering -- link sent to me by a friend -- who draws one image in graphite before going to bed. Took up that challenge myself, and find it kind of a 'relief' to be limited to pencil.
Here's a selection of my nighttime drawings -- you can click on them for a bigger view.
Images are © Megan E. Jeffery, 2008.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
