It took me a long time to break into publishing. Even though I wanted to do children’s books, I left the school I went to, which is Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. I had majored in illustration. I left with a portfolio — I was able to get work with this portfolio in all kinds of places.
I was working in advertising, educational publishing, toys and games, magazines. I just could not break into publishing for about twelve years after I graduated. It took a long, long time. I’d take my portfolio and people would say, “It’s kind of commercial, you should go to advertising agencies.” Then I’d go to an advertising agency and they’d say, “This is a children’s book portfolio. You should go to a children’s publisher.” I was in this weird in-between place. I kept sending my work out, getting rejected. That went on for about twelve years.
Finally, my first book was published, and I thought, “Okay. My foot’s in the door. From here on out, it’s
” And then it took five years between that first book and the second book, and that was the hardest period of time. I thought, “Why is this taking so long?” In retrospect, I wasn’t telling stories with my pictures. I was doing something else with illustration, and in other areas of illustration that’s appropriate. If you’re doing advertising, you might have to communicate a message that somebody else has with your pictures.
In educational publishing, it’s teaching something with your illustrations. In toys and games, it might be a decorative thing that you’re trying to do. With children’s books, it’s storytelling. I didn’t have that component really developed. I teach now at Art Center, and I’m trying to shorten that experience so that my students don’t take fifteen years, but maybe fourteen weeks to kind of get that message across.