Featured Illustrator

We're delighted to feature painter, muralist, and illustrator Geoffry Smalley this month! He's worked as a visual artist for over 20 years and is currently focusing his considerable talent to creating books for kids!

How did you get started in illustration?

 Well, this is a path with many switchbacks, starting with wanting to be a commercial illustrator in high school in Chicago. After graduating I attended the American Academy of Art where I earned double Associates of Art degrees with focuses in illustration and painting. After several early starts doing covers and spots for a local sports magazine while working at an art supply store, I decided to go back to school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There I was exposed to a conceptual approach to art making that was so polar opposite from anything I knew and I followed the studio arts path there, subsequently earning my BFA, going on to earn an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago several years later. After years of making art for galleries and working in several different capacities in the arts, my wife and I had a baby, and life-shift brought with it hours on the floor reading to and watching our kid grow. This was essentially my introduction to children’s books as I had never really had much of a relationship with them as a kid, but we read ALL the time to our kid, and I really became enamored with  the way text and image walked hand in hand to tell stories. The idea of a book as a collaboration, as well as thinking about the afterlife of my art and the profound impact books can have, made me want to make that my world. And so, I decided I wanted to illustrate for kids books when I grow up. 

What is your background?

 My winding academic path included technical and critical thinking skills that gave me a holistic approach to crafting my art and work career. I have been an art supply store manager, delivery driver, professional art installer, gallery assistant, house painter, muralist, teacher, press assistant, and most recently paper, painting and photography conservator. All of these while making paintings, drawings, installations and murals for commercial and university galleries. This all took place over the course of the first 45 years of my life in Chicago, until my wife’s job change moved our little family out to beautiful Portland, Oregon in 2017. Here I became our then-3 year old’s primary caregiver and I began my pursuit of children’s publishing. 

What have you learned along the way? What tips can you share?

 There are two main things I talk about consistently with my critique group, peers, and anyone who will listen.

•The first, is to work with honesty. In the illustration field there is a lot of talk about finding one’s style or voice. This concept can feel muddy and abstract, and scrolling through instagram can make that pursuit feel daunting - and imposter syndrome can really take root. But we all have had our own unique paths that have delivered us to this moment, and when you make work out of an honest place, mining your experiences, likes, dislikes, and specific abilities, the strength in that approach telegraphs through the work no matter what the style, medium, or content is.

•The second point is that art is work. The idea of divine talent and lightning strike inspiration is a myth, and one that can hold people back. Inspiration comes from work, from showing up every day in your studio. That doesn't mean you have to spend hours in your studio every day, but even just sitting and thinking, reading from an art book or books from your target field for a half hour is part of the work that will produce cumulative results. 

What illustrators inspire you? Why?

 As I think about this question I find it funny, because most of the illustrators I am about to list are stylistically very different from how I think and work. Sydney Smith: his effortless-seeming light filled work is so confident in its mark making, and he achieves so much in a few gestures. Isabelle Arsenault: her additive/subtractive pencil work is masterful, and her use of minimal color so effective. I love how she walks the line of representation/stylization. Jon Klassen: he’s honed his work into a wonderfully minimal world, where subtext lurks, and dark humor reigns. Carson Ellis: her hand is evident in everything she does, and her mixing of influences is so blended into the color, flattening of space and pattern that her work is just quintessentially-her.

What do you do when you get stuck or lose motivation to 'get back' to what you're working on?

 First, it takes me a good while to even realize THAT I’m stuck. But after that realization, I really lean so heavily on my wonderful critique group. We formed 5 years ago, meeting each other on the portfolio development zoom meeting before the pandemic SCBWI winter conference. They are a constant source of perspective, gentle boundary pushing, and support. I also always turn to observational drawing. I really need a prompt or something to push against in my work and when I’m stuck it’s hard for me to pull myself out. But opening my sketchbook and making drawings of people, nature, my street, or an interesting corner in my house can really jumpstart that for me. 

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