Interview with Project Play Illustrator Jesse Graber
When did you first start illustrating and how did you get started with Project Play?
I’ve been drawing my entire life, and in college I got a few small jobs illustrating for local businesses. After I graduated, there were jobs here and there, but I didn’t really have a good sense about how to be a working illustrator. In 2004, I became a student at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. During my final semester, a teacher—whose husband worked with Marlene and knew she was looking for an illustrator—recommended we get in touch. We did, and here we are!
What has your experience been like so far?
My experience has been fun and challenging and everything in between. Planning and carrying out a book is a surprising amount of work, and I’ve learned a lot over the last few years.
Did you always want to be an illustrator?
Yes. Even before I really knew what an illustrator was, I knew I wanted to draw when I grew up. When I was around five or six, my cousin showed me how to draw a random shape and then give it a nose, ears, eyes and a mouth and turn it into a face, and something clicked in me. As a child and teenager, I loved comic books and newspaper comic strips and spent a lot of time emulating them. It was good training, though I can’t fix a car or a leaky pipe. I think I’ve always been fascinated with the way lines on a paper can trick your eyes into believing something real is there, alive and dimensional.
What tools do you use when you work?
Currently I’m working in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq, which is a large computer screen you draw directly on with a stylus. It feels like I am working with traditional media, but it has the benefits of digital media. In fact, it feels so natural that for the first few years I used it, whenever I would use the stylus to erase something, I’d instinctively wipe away the eraser dust that I felt should be there. From thumbnails to the final piece, I do it all in Photoshop. I draw in an old fashioned sketchbook, because there is something wonderful about drawing in "reality."
How would you characterize your artistic style?
I’d say my style falls between cartoony and realistic. What simple lines and cartoons do so well are show expressions on faces that are exaggerated, but which let viewers instantly know what the character is feeling. It also allows you to do things that a camera simply can’t do. The most important element I try to incorporate into my style is fun. The Project Play books are fun books, and I try to depict that through my drawings.
Who is your favorite artist?
I honestly can’t pick just one, but I can limit it to two. The two most influential artists of late, and in the case of the first, ever since I can remember, are Charles Shultz and N.C. Wyeth, for very different reasons.
Schultz, who wrote and drew Peanuts, has been part of my life since the beginning. I still have the old Peanuts Treasury book that I read endlessly as a kid, and drew in the margins between the strips. Besides being ingrained into my person that way, his use of simple lines to communicate volumes made me keep studying his work. From the wrath of Lucy to the absolute saddest picture of a boy’s face (and yes, it’s Charlie Brown, in the strip from August 30, 1958), to absolute joy and everything in between, Schultz accomplishes it with a few pen strokes.
Wyeth, on the other hand, was a painter who worked fairly realistically in terms of style. His composition, his mastery of form, and the way he was able to evoke moods with his paintings always makes me think of how I am using those elements in my own work.
What inspires you as you begin a new project? How do you keep the creative juices flowing?
Well, a blank page and a deadline is a great inspiration. I think the start of a new drawing is my favorite part of a project. Because I need to communicate a specific idea or moment of time in each picture for a children’s book, I spend a lot of time figuring out the clearest and most entertaining way to do that, but then when I’ve got all that taken care of and start to put it down on page, all sorts of new ideas come up and are incorporated along the way. It’s always neat to see where a drawing ends up.
Describe your ideal work environment.
My ideal work environment is pretty close to my studio right now. It’s quiet, it’s close to a kitchen, and the commute (a flight of stairs) isn’t bad. I always used to listen to music as I worked, but a few years ago I started working in an environment without music and I was amazed by how much better I worked during certain steps in finishing a drawing.
What advice would you give an aspiring illustrator?
Draw, draw, draw, and draw some more. There’s no short cut. Draw from life, draw everyday. Take advice and critique seriously and with humility. Learn from everyone, but follow no one. Have faith in your skills and abilities, and when you encounter someone who can draw "better” then you, don’t panic. Understand that a successful illustration is much greater and different than a nice drawing. Illustration is about communicating an idea, and your creativity and life experiences will communicate that differently than anyone else. Spend more time drawing on paper than you do on the computer. Then go draw some more.
