Featured Illustrator

Lettie Jane is a gifted and imaginative artist, clearly visible through her artwork and sketchbook snapshots. Her work is graphic, painterly, stylized and inventive - she plays with process to discover what's new! Check out her tips below, 'cause she has thoughtfully shared some great information!

(cont.) Eight years ago, I started teaching art at a private High School / Middle School. Seven years ago, I started teaching art to adults at what is now a studio I run with two other people, Ulna Art Studio. It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve been entirely freelance. I make my income from designing and installing murals, teaching, selling original art, and a tarot deck I illustrated in 2018. 

What is your background? 

I grew up in Kentucky, I come from divorced, middle-class parents. I always felt too weird for the bible belt, and have lived in Rhode Island, San Francisco, and Colorado before settling in Portland 17 years ago. I’m white, queer, dyslexic, witchy, and an Aquarius. 

What have you learned along the way? 

Drawing isn’t just a technical skill, but a way to work through my feelings in the world. I love thinking about the ways art informs my life and my life informs my art practice. From letting go of perfectionism, to accepting my body, to working through my feelings, all my life lessons come through art. 

What tips can you share? 

These are some of my personal mantras: 

● Done is better than perfect. 

● Use the right brush for the right job (don’t try to fine line with a big brush, don’t try to color things in with a tiny one). 

● A confident, incorrect line is preferable to a sketchy correct one. 

● It isn’t a contest. 

● Easy is good. 

● Limit your color palette when possible. 

● Add a neutral color to let the eye rest. 

● Notice how your eye moves around the page. 

● Step back; looking is as important as drawing. 

● The answer to this painting is in the next one. 

What is your preferred medium and method of working? 

I love experimenting with different materials. I believe that using a wide range of materials makes it more obvious what kind of imagery and mark-making you are drawn to. Your “style” becomes more apparent. I love wet media like watercolor and ink. I frequently use brush pens to create a varied line weight and have control in black and white line work. I use acrylic paint in my murals and my paintings. I combine gouache with ink. I occasionally print-make, having participated in some large-scale woodblock events, and occasionally screenprint. I frequently use charcoal or chalk pastel for figure drawing. I use Procreate and the iPad to create mock-ups for my mural designs. I use Prismacolor colored pencils and Blackwing graphite pencils in my sketchbooks. 

How did your style and technique develop? 

I believe style and technique come from practice, cultivating confidence, and honing in on what you gravitate towards in art. I try to recognize the kind of lines and mark-making I gravitate towards and feel confident in making those choices. I regularly run a class called “Intuitive Drawing,” where we identify the way students/artists approach art making, and I try to cultivate more confidence in their choices. 

I love it when my drawings look “fresh” and like they just fell out of my hands. I try to accomplish this by creating lots of work, throwing out what I don’t like, and moving on. I do a lot of drawing in “low-stakes” circumstances (like my sketchbook) or warm-up drawings. I try to react to what’s on the page, instead of having a really set idea of how the drawing “should be.” This is a process. 

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

I love this question! I recently created an Oracle Deck (it comes out June 10th; that link leads to a preorder page) about the creative process. That deck uses images and text to identify all the ups and downs of the process: starting from nothing, being in the flow, having serious doubts, failing, etc. Some things that have worked for me in the past: setting aside a drawing and working on a pleasure drawing to loosen up, thumbnailing in my sketchbook, looking back through old sketchbooks, at old ideas or drawings I might want to incorporate into the new one. Making 2-3 versions of the same drawing and working on them simultaneously, making one a “garbage” or throw-away drawing, sometimes that can make space for a new idea or direction. I like to hang the drawings I’m working on on the wall. Sometimes talking to other artists or friends is helpful. Looking at my old artwork, or artwork I like, can be helpful. 

What would be your dream project? 

I am working on a project I said was my dream project recently! I’m designing and painting the children’s cottage (a small playhouse) at Leach Gardens. I called this my dream project because I love Leach Gardens. I love designing murals depicting gardens that feel a little imaginary, and I am so excited to spend my days out there in the garden painting. 

I have worked on illustrating several children’s books, none of which have been picked up by a publisher. I would love to have a children’s book published. I have been through the process of working with Andrews McMeel to publish my tarot deck and my oracle deck. I appreciate the process of fine-tuning all the elements so the art comes to the shelves as its best self. 

What illustrators inspire you? Why? 

I love looking at art, and am so inspired by so many artists. I love children’s books because they felt like an artist's lifeline to me when my kiddo was small. They were like these tiny windows into art galleries I got to look at every night. 

I am obsessed with Beatrice Alemagna, I love the intricate patterns and expressive worlds she creates. I love the emotional complexity of her children’s books and the looseness of her drawings. I go back to her work all the time. 

I love Carson Ellis’s style and confidence, I love her color palette. 

Jon Klassen knows how to do so much with so little! His characters just move their eyes, and we know what they are talking about. 

Matthew Forsythe’s layers, character design, and color palette are incredible. He uses turquoise lines around pink shapes! Who knew that would work? I did not. 

I love the textures Isabelle Arsenault uses, her pencil work is next level. 

Maurice Sendak is a consummate draftsman, I love looking at some of his more densely illustrated work, like Dear Mili. 

I love Jesus Cisnero for his looseness and rich textures. I think Brecht Evens’s color and density are incredible. When I was a kid, I loved the details in Jan Brett’s work, the way she uses borders to create foreshadowing, and the views inside the trees and burrows in the Brambly Hedge books by Jill Barklem. 

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