FEATURED ILLUSTRATOR: SOPHIE GILMORE

Quick fire questions​

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When is your most productive time to work? 

Jeff: In the morning after I have deployed the family and my brain is still uncluttered.
Shelley: Weekends when I can stay in my jammies all day and not think about my day job.
Drawing item you can’t live without? 

Jeff: My sketchbook. It is where I write down all of my ideas and create all of my thumbnail sketches and character studies.
Shelley: Sketchbook. It’s where everything begins.

What music puts you in your groove? 

Jeff: I need silence when I’m writing or creating concept sketches. But when I’m straight up rendering or painting I like to listen to indie rock, ska, rockabilly, and old school rap.
Shelley: I prefer silence, unless I’m really into a project, because I will stop to sing and dance and that’s not good for drawing.
Age of child you most love to draw?  

Jeff: Whatever age my daughter is. She’s the inspiration right under our roof.
Shelley: Jeff took my answer.
If you were an animal, what would you be? 

Jeff: A pelican! They inhabit both the sky and sea. Plus they get to plummet.
Shelley: A Dachshund, because I like to be snuggly warm, and enjoy making people laugh, and have OCD tendencies.
Favourite, yes only one, children’s book of all time? 

Jeff: Molly Bang’s The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher. It’s a bizarre book that haunted me as a child and that I still love for its quirky and innovative art today.
Shelley: Where the Wild Things Are. Just about any children’s book topic I’m discussing with students, I can say, look at how it’s done in WtWTA.
Illustrator, author from any time you most admire? 

Jeff: A fellow Texan, Jack Unruh. He was an editorial illustrator that has greatly influenced my work with his joy of drawing and storytelling.
Shelley: Author Mac Barnett. He’s very inventive with his stories and so dedicated to the image-text relationship.