beetlegrass

Which Bird Flies in the Face of Popular Convention?

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.

So You Wanna Be an Educational Illustrator ... (apples)

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. 

I Got a Hug from a Caldecott Winner!

... and an autograph, too! (I doctored his last name to ward against identity theft.)

Brian Selznick, the winner of the 2007 Caldecott Medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, spoke at RISD last night. He shared the trajectory of his lifelong & ongoing love of drawing and "making things" -- from his childhood (drawing on pants and himself; drawing monsters of which the teacher didn't approve), to his decision to go to RISD and his experiences while there (didn't want to be an illustrator of children's books, nor even an illustrator) and at Brown (developed a love of set design while working at that university's theater).

Really candid about his life after graduation and his path to freelancing when he realized that his three loves (drawing, telling stories, kids) might actually mean that he was, in fact, a children's book illustrator. :-)
Shared what triggers his imagination and storytelling, and his work process.
Can never hear enough about that from artists. That's the good stuff.

Greatly appreciated hearing his stories, inspirations, and seeing his artistic explorations through the years.
Thank you for that, Brian, and for being so willing to pass along what you've learned to the current (& former) students at your alma mater.

Brian and I had a couple of classes together while at RISD: Introduction to Freud (not an illustration class), and Theme & Variation (an illustration class) where Brian's images of starving children from a third world country, painted on a Happy Meal box, stands out as a memory.
Reminded him of that project last evening, and he told me that it had gotten thrown away from the school's art gallery, because a janitor thought it really was an unwanted fast food container! No!!!
Pretty realistic art piece, I'd say!

For more on Brian and his really cool award, here's a link to an article from projo.com.

Here's How I Know That What I Do is a Valuable Commodity

An editor's depictions of what was needed for an assignment, one where kids are acting out words:

This note (below) cracked me up -- now that's what I call job security!

Above: A few of the words sketched by moi. Non-photo blue pencil underneath.

Since I seem to have filled my life with people who can draw, sometimes I forget that not everyone can. Which is why illustrators are needed. We serve a purpose! Hooray!

Flashback Friday (1987): The Big Debate

I had intended to post about something different today, but came across the following while notebook-spelunking, and it seemed more appropriate.

This stuff was written at the end of my Senior year at RISD, which was a big career decision-making time.
(Coincedentally, TODAY kicks off the Alumni Reunion weekend at RISD, and the class of '87 is celebrating its 20th anniversary of our graduation.)

It's interesting, for me at least, to find these PRO and CON lists in light of this anniversary, in terms what choices I actually DID make, or that were made FOR me, and where those choices have led me.

So, here, in my typical fashion of mulling over all of the possible variables in a given situation, are the PROs & CONs in choosing Freelancing right out of college, then the PROs & CONs of going to work at Hallmark.

Some comments, looking down from the Mountaintop of Old Age & Wisdom (OK, just Old Age then):

Top of page: Kind of impressed with my then-insight of:

Does it really matter if I get a head start on those people who are graduating to staff jobs?
I'll still be competing w/ people who've been in the business for years. Any time you enter the free-lancing world you'll have to be dealing with that.

M + D = Mom + Dad
Points # 3, 6, 11: Ellen was an illustrator I interned with Junior year.
Point # 5: The "babies" were (are) my niece and nephew, who have both turned 21 within the past two weeks. So funny: I was 21 when they were born; now they're 21. Head trip.
Point # 10: Hmmm, a little lofty there in your thinking, Megan... You sell your soul for $ & security in freelancing, too...

Hallmark had been my goal probably up until Senior year, which is when we Illustration majors all had to take a Professional Practices course, and that's when we started learning about the business of freelancing. I began to realize: "Hey, I might be able to freelance... I think I have the personality and character traits for that..."

Comments on the above list:

Top of page: Amtrak's slogan used to be: "There's something about a train... that's magic." I changed it because I am just so clever!!!
Point # 12: Guess I needn't have worried about that, eh?
Point # 15: That says "Nest (egg), of sorts"
I think the most important point was the CONs' # 8:

I may have to finally grow up.

Hey, at least I was somewhat self-aware. I'll grant me that much.

A scratch copy of a letter sent to Hallmark.
(How I got the Little Toot nickname.)
The best part of this page, as far as I'm concerned, is the mysterious:
"mint flavor: no improvement".




The above is a verse I came up with for a Mother's Day Card for an abusive mom.
Don't worry: I didn't send this to Hallmark, I just had to get it out of my system.
(That's Mr. T in a teacup... "You're just my cup of tea" was one of the pre-existing Hallmark lines that I had to make as a fake card.)

After wrestling with the whole Freelancing v. Hallmark thing, I came down in favor of Freelancing, but applied to Hallmark anyway, to cover all my bets.
And, in the end: they didn't hire me anyway, so the decision became that much easier.
But oh how I would have preferred to reject them, rather than the other way 'round!
With boyfriends and with jobs, ain't that always the way?

Flashback Friday (1998, 1999, & 2000): Habitat Volunteerism

One of the blessings of being an illustrator/designer, for me, is being able to use my artistic talent to support the causes I believe in.

One of those causes, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bridgeport (now Habitat for Humanity of Coastal Fairfield County), filled up a great deal of my time from 1998 to 2003.



I started off in this organization by serving as the representative from my church for a coalition of 11 area Methodist churches. Our coalition's mission was to fund (both financially and with volunteers) a house in Bridgeport, CT. With God's help, we accomplished just that, and went on to fund and build another home just two years later.

Two T-shirt designs were fund raising efforts. I enjoyed the challenge of incorporating the HfHGB logo and the Methodist symbol into the logo for our group, as well as using apples as a motif for the second house we built which is on ORCHARD Street!



After serving in this coalition capacity, I was asked and agreed to serve on the Board of Directors for HfHGB for three years. During this time, I was also on the fund raising committees for the annual Valentine's black-tie event, The Hearts & Hammers Ball.
In 2003, I chaired this event.
Quite a switcheroo chairing a committee of 12 other people since I am used to being a 1-woman proposition in my freelance life, but Design is Design, whether it's illustrating or steering an event or commandeering a group of people. I benefited from learning some invaluable organizational, motivational, and communication skills because of this experience.
And, hey, we netted $21k more that year than the prior year, so all right!
More $ = more families with decent housing.

Seeing all parts of this organization was an education, to say the least. But I have to say that the part that I loved most was the thing that got me involved in the first place: working with the families & the volunteers; enjoying the camaraderie while on the job site; the building; the hard work; the pay-off of a finished home for a deserving family; the stories that could make you just bawl with compassion and gratitude.

Here are some memories of the two builds I had the pleasure to work on, as well as another piece of pro bono illustration.



Above: Here is the first house we worked on, on the corner of Pembroke & Jane. There was something very satisfying about seeing my teeny Faith-Builders logo blown up to sign size there on the job site.
If you're curious about the state of the Tyvec on the house, we learned a very important lesson on this first build, and that is: Don't leave the Tyvec uncovered for too long, or you're inviting vandalism.
Oh, yeah, that's me under the red arrow.
I'm not really that little. I'm just really far away. Perspective jokes never get old, do they? (No.)

Above: This is my former pastor on the day we cleaned the lot in preparation for the foundation being poured. I say 'former' because he has since retired, and I no longer live in CT, so there you go. I worked as his 'assistant' with the Confimation Class at church, which may or may not be another story for another time. 

Above: This was during the "Blitz Build" week, one solid week of building (in early September '98), with the goal of going from foundation to a covered edifice by week's end. (In other words: roof on, plywood on all exterior walls.)
That's me in the aqua shirt.
1: The dark blue stains DO NOT indicate freshness. Au contraire, Pierre.
2: Yes, that's a fanny pack. I know, pitiful, isn't it? But the shorts don't hold all the stuff ya need.
3: This guy wore the best outfits ever. Polka-dot shirts. Suspenders that looked like measuring tapes. If he had been younger (and Single), I would have married him just for his wardrobe choices alone. I'm shallow, what can I say?
4: I don't remember this woman's name, but dang she's got some great gams, doesn't she?

Above: A little bit later in the building process (it's Autumn in this picture). Tyvec is on, some windows are in, and the siding has been started. I was always on the siding team it seemed, as I was there pretty much every Saturday, and continuity of workers was key. Plus, I wasn't afraid of heights or of scaffolding. (Although, after one day of working on shingling the roof, I can pretty much say: Never again. The roof is not for me.)
Anyway, that's me carrying the handy-dandy siding spacer, and I am following my pals Lew and Steve. I miss these guys. Solid men who love Jesus, who put that love into action, and to top it off: who are smart & REALLY FUNNY!!! I dig on funny.

An example:
One day Steve and I were working on siding. We were the crew that was nailing it to the house, and were being 'fed' the boards from the cutting crew down below.
Me: Yeuch, this board is dirty!
Steve, squawking like a parrot: Dirty Board! Dirty Board! I'm a Dirty Board!

Above: Now it's December '98 in this picture (brrr!), and that's me and my friend Craig, continuing with the siding near the peak of the house.
The arrow is pointing to the pieces of tar paper I have in my pocket. Tar paper has to be put under the siding boards wherever there is a seam, in case water gets in at those points.
I didn't even know Craig before this particular workday, but by the end of that day: yup, friends.
See what happens when you're trying not to plummet to your death from scaffolding three stories up? You form friendships, that's what happens.
And, if I recall correctly, there was quite a bit of laughter concerning the air hose (from the nail gun) that day... neveryoumind.

Above: Here's a fund-raiser promo piece I did in 1999 for HfHGB, click on it to see it larger.
The golfer... isn't swinging a GOLF CLUB... he's swinging a... HAMMER! (Pause for laughter, knee-slapping, and eye-wiping.)

Above: Here's the second house our coalition worked on, the one on Orchard Street. The excitement of building the first house had worn off, so we suffered from a lack of volunteers on this second build. BUT, there was a core group of 6 or 7 of us who pretty much built this entire thing, from smoothing out the gravel in the foundation pit (After a torrential rain! Hard work!), to doing the fine carpentry work inside. I will always call those people my friends, because we did a MAMMOTH thing together, and HAD FUN doing it. Shout out to all my peeps. Heehee.

Above left and right: September 2000 -- Dedication of 'our' house (dedications take place before the house is complete, so people traipsing through don't wreck the carpet, etc.), and a Blessing for the house next door, which has had its foundation poured.
To get two Habitat houses right next door to each other is a good thing. It's creating community and a network for the families who now own these homes, and has an even greater (in both senses of the word) impact on the neighborhood.
Left: Roman is wearing one of the apple T-shirts (click on photo to see larger).
Right: A couple more apple T-shirts in this photo. See if you can find me in the crowd. Where's Waldo, the next generation.

Here is a photo of the dedication ceremony for the home, with none other than Millard Fuller in attendance (red arrow on left)!
Fuller is the founder and was the President of Habitat for Humanity International during this time.
(Some people mistakenly think that Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is the founder of Habitat, but he is "merely" its most famous volunteer.)

Here's a close-up of Mr. Fuller at the dedication. Notice the pattern of his tie...

It was quite a thrill for me (red arrow on right two photos up) to go with my friend Margo to pick up Mr.Fuller at his hotel and bring him to the event, and to get a chance to talk to this great man personally. Voice like honey and a real Southern gentleman.

I can think of only two people I've met in my life that I can describe as "Lincolnesque".
Millard Fuller is one...

...and my friend George is the other!
(OK, OK, I added the stovepipe hat, but the beard is all his.)

I earned the nickname "Buddy" from George because of the bond we formed from working on houses together. He'd call me that at church, or when we'd phone to see if the other one needed a ride to the site.
"Hi, Buddy!", he'd call out. I really liked that.

I am very appreciative to all the "buddies" I made through this organization during this time in my life, because in between these two builds, I went through a health crisis. Having the prayers of more than 11 congregations gave me strength, and I am grateful for that support in a way that's difficult to explain. You'll just have to trust me on this.

Putting this post together has made me very happy to look at all these faces again, and to recall the laughter, and the conversations, and the shared passion for the ministry of housing.
Thanks, guys.

Flashback Friday (1973 or 4) : All About Meg(an)

Below are my third grade (age 8) scribblings about my name and how I got it.



A few clarifications (What, no spell-check back then?):

• pragret = pregnant
• Golith = Goliath
• disscon = decision

I for one am happy to have been a girl; don't think for a second that my Dad was joking about the 'Goliath' thing! Our entire family will go a really long way for a joke, EVEN if it means being saddled with a dumb name.

Wanted to post this notebook page in the "Name Vein", as this upcoming week will mark my third anniversary of living in this place, and one of the things that I've come to notice: I seem to have undergone a name change.

People call me 'Meg' here.

I don't mind the name 'Meg', and there are people in my life who've called me that for as long as I can remember. Coming from them, the nickname is a form of familiarity/endearment.
It's just: I don't think of myself as a 'Meg', despite what my 8-year-old-self would have you believe.
I introduce myself as 'Megan', but I guess that the majority of the new people who've met me have come to know my e-mail address and website name simultaneously.
It's alien to me when someone I've just met e-mails me with a: "Hi, Meg!"

I realize that I may have contributed to this name confusion.
My initials are M. E. J.
When I was a kid, I thought that a backwards 'G' could look like a 'J', and then I'd have both a portion of my name AND my initials all tied up in one neat, 3-letter package.
So, that is the way I signed my artwork then, and that is the way I sign my artwork now.
This "M - E- backwards - G" signature became the name of my business, MEG Illustrations, and then my website, MEGillustrations.com, and is, most likely, the root source of my * new * name.

This 'new name' thing feels like a modern retelling of The Road to Damascus story -- the one in which Saul/Paul had his blinding, name-changing conversion.

Except for me, it was on The Road to Providence, my name changed from Megan to Meg, AND, while not blinded -- experience nighttime halos around streetlights.

And now I've officially talked too much about myself.
"THE END" (by Megan)

OOP! I Did It Again (for the 1st time)

This past Friday, I made a special delivery to a store called OOP!

A couple of online articles about the stores & the owners:

• Westminster Street location   
• South County OOP!
  

I was introduced to one of the owners by my friend and fellow RISD alum, Rob Walker, and lo & behold, an order was placed for finger puppets!

Above: What was in the box... click on thumbnails to see larger view.
You can see bigger, better photos of some of these guys that I haven't loaded onto this blog, but have instead put in my photostream on Flickr.

• Cow with Bandanna here and here
• Dr. Feelhealthy
• Fireman Fred
• Li'l Banker
• Rover: side & front 

   

In addition to the great suggestion to make some puppets dealing with occupations, Jennifer (one of the owners of OOP!) also recommended that I make hang-tags, and include the little 'stories' that I create about the characters.

So I did just that, making use of my little Beetlegrass guy I use on this blog, and hand-writing the character bios on the insides of the cards (which are slightly smaller than standard business cards).

Was having a bit of a conundrum about what to write on these cards at first -- what to call these guys, the wording, etc.

At first I had written, "THE TOWN OF beetlegrass", and that was falling kinda flat.

Then, as I was scouring the house looking for a naked Barbie doll to photograph with the doctor finger puppet (knowing full well that there ARE no naked Barbies in this house, as one house move purged all of them -- the best I could come up with was a naked TROLL doll, and that wasn't gonna fill the bill), I came across the original town marker for the village that used to live on my dresser when I was in elementary school.
(I blogged about that long-ago Beetlegrass a while back.)

The sign reads: Welcome to Beetle Grass in my pencilly 2nd-grade writing/drawing, and it was like,
"Yup, that's it!"
Then it also occurred to me that on this blog, above my beetle logo, it says Welcome!, so it all kinda made sense.

I've mooshed the words 'beetle' and 'grass' together over the intervening years, but I love the big round circles Life throws at you sometimes.

So, here's a photo of the Old & the New -- Old sign, New town member (wearing a smashing red pea coat).

I'm really excited about having my work sold in a shop that is well-known for having fun, beautiful, colorful, eclectic, hand-crafted items by local & international artists, so: Thank you! to Jennifer & to David: Hope these guys sell well for you! :-)

Flashback Friday (1986)

It's time for another RISD Class of 1987 Flashback...
This one deals with the Wintersession of my Junior year-- I was 20 years old.

Wintersession is a 6-week period from January to February, where one was encouraged to take courses outside of one's own major, to broaden one's artistic horizons.

Freshman year I took a weaving class called The Blanket, where I designed & wove a ... blanket.
Sophomore year I did an independent study that I called "Women Poet Suicides". Happy topic.
Senior year I took a Wheel Pottery class.

Since I had really enjoyed an Educational Illustration class the first semester of Junior year, my teacher, Judy Sue Goodwin-Sturges, suggested that I do an internship with a RISD Alum who worked for such mags as Parents and Sesame Street. Since she lived in NYC, I stayed at my parents' in Connecticut and commuted in.

Here are some journal pages from that experience... Who doesn't like reading somebody else's diary???
Of course it's more fun if you're doing it sneakily...

Click on thumbnails to see them larger in a pop-up window.

 

The players in the above:

Scott: my brother
Me
Ellen
Walt Simonson
Rich

   

Above are a couple of pieces I did under Ellen's tutelage. The first one is heavily-influenced by her work. The second piece is called a "Duplicating Master". Not because you're re-creating a famous oil painting, but because it is the original from which a teacher makes copies for his/her students.
It is painful for me to put these pieces up now, but hey, I did these 21 years ago.

Below: More experiences from the internship, when I was actually doing some 'work' for Ellen.
I was so unsure of myself back then. Still unsure of myself now, but at least I know how to bluff better.

 

 

What I learned from this internship:

• That I definitely wanted to become an educational illustrator
• This experience showed me that I could become one
• Going into NYC on my own was a huge boon to my independence/confidence
• This gained independence later helped when I had to do portfolio drop-offs and go on interviews in the city when I was starting off as a freelancer
• Having a sense of how to get around and where things are in NYC still serves me

Flashback Friday (1985)

Time for another RISD Class of 1987 Retrospective (20 year reunion this October) !

The first semester of my Junior year (I was 19/20 years old), I took a Cartoon class. Didn't know who the teacher would be before signing up, so was thrilled beyond belief when I found that it would be none other than Tim Haggerty, who had created my favorite single-panel cartoon! 

The cartoon was published in The National Lampoon, and featured a chicken as a lifeguard. The "pool" was a bubbling hot deep fryer of grease. Several plucked and beheaded chickens were making their way into the pool area, and the "Lifeguard" yells,
"Hey, you guys! Get back in there and flour up!"

Genius.

During the semester, I developed a comic strip called "Puppy Girl & Craigy Boy", loosely based on my parents' Shih Tzu (Shan Ku) MopSee (Wok) -- so named because of her resemblance to both a mop and a Star Wars' Ewok-- and on my brother Craig.

Here are those strips:








One kid in class commented that Craigy Boy was the Antichrist. Hmmm...
(I tried to strike a balance by always having the 'title' be of Craigy and Puppy getting along, and for a few of these titles, I used photos of the 'real' Craig as inspiration.)

One week, Tim brought in a guest cartoonist, Sam Gross. I was plotzing-- I mean, this was the guy responsible for The New Yorker cartoon of the little frog sans legs--lost to fine dining!!! Tim really liked my strip, and played it up big with Sam, but I was just so sensitive to the possibility that everyone in the class was Sick & Tired of hearing about it, that I didn't 'sell' it with Sam. Oh well. There wasn't much else that Craigy Boy could do to torture Puppy Girl anyway, and this strip was a one-trick pony: a single joke that got repeated over & over.
For a strip to sustain itself, you need more than that.

We also did lots of single-panel cartoons in class.
Many, many years later, the magazine First for Women called me and asked if I did gag cartoons. I said I USED to, in college, but had I ever been PAID for one? No. So I sent in some sample gags, most of them 'new', and a few updated college ones. Guess which one they decided to publish? Yep.
But they totally mangled the punchline, so I am not reprinting the cartoon as it appeared in that mag.
Here it is in its original 1985 form:

OK, here it isn't. I can't find it! Interrupting Pirate says, "Garrrr!"

I'll describe it to you.
Scene: A mom and her young daughter in the kitchen.
The mom has a cookie jar and is holding two cookies out to the girl.
The mom says, "Only 2 cookies, Susan. Later, when you're in college, you'll consume an entire box in one sitting, but for now: Only 2."

(This was based on the fact that our mother would only allow 2 cookies after a meal. Other kids could not comprehend our family's two-cookie rule. And, yes, in college, I consumed an entire box in one sitting.
Now I know why there is a two-cookie rule. It's called: getting sick.  I think First for Women changed the punchline to: "Only two cookies, Susan. When you're older, you'll eat more." And that's funny... how?)

Anyway, enough of that. Here's a nice note from Tim:



The "brainstem" comment is because of this gag that I had done: