We first met Lara Jean at Grand Rapids Comic Con, at Artists Alley, at a table full of faeries and beetles and small creatures who clearly had opinions. We have been following her ever since.
Historic photo!
When we interviewed her in 2019, she told us what she really wanted was to write and illustrate a children’s book. One book. Someday.
There are now five.
Two of them are entirely hers: Be Kind to Me, which arrived in 2020 and came back this January in a second edition that finally looks the way she saw it in her head back in 2019, and Wake Up, Herbert. Three more she illustrated for other people, including Penny and the Pocket Dragon for a friend of more than a decade. There are also three middle grade books about a faun, a chapter book about a chicken keeper named Rong, and a raccoon who has been told to wait his turn.
She has moved from Michigan to Tennessee in the meantime, which we are choosing not to take personally (lol).
What follows is one of the most candid interviews we have ever published. Lara Jean talks about what it actually took to go from wanting to make a book to having made five of them, in a stretch of years when every road to publishing a children’s book got harder rather than easier. She is also disarmingly honest about the parts she finds difficult, which is not a thing most artists will say out loud in an interview, and we are impressed by her willingness to share.
Here she is, on books, gouache, saying no to the wrong client, and the raccoon.
Your Etsy has originals as well as prints. What’s in the shop right now that you’re most pleased with, and what should someone know about buying an original rather than a print?
My online shop presence is not great. I am one of those difficult creators who is great at the creating process and very lacking in the marketing/selling process. I do pretty good at being an in-person vendor at events, but I severely neglect my Etsy shop. So first off I apologize to anyone interested in my work that isn’t local enough to come find me at a show.
That said, I’m a very small business, so you can ALWAYS email me or message to inquire about an original or a piece you want as a print that’s not in my shop! I will see you and respond!
One of my favorite prints in my Etsy shop is titled Always Good to See You Again. Can you find the bird’s nest?
If you ever want an original, please reach out! I have a whole book of available originals that come with me to shows, but I have not taken the time to showcase them online. They are all unframed and wonky sizes, so be ready for a unique original that will probably need custom framing. They’re more likely to be listed on my website than my Etsy at this time.
You’re definitely making me realize how clumsy and difficult the process of buying online from me is. Clearly I have work to do.
When we talked in 2019, your long-term goal was to write and illustrate a children’s book. There are now five. How did that happen?
Perseverance! Lots of trial and error, a significant number of failures and false starts and redirects, and lots of working through frustration. It was a really wild time to be getting into making kid’s books, back in 2019, because not only was the pandemic about to make publishing traditionally even harder than before, but then self publishing was very new territory that nobody really knew how to help me with. On top of that we’ve exposed the evils of the most commonly recommended self publishing route, Amazon KDP, and now AI. Suffice to say that I have not been given the option to play this game on easy mode.
The thing is... I just love making illustrations and writing. I have many more stories in me that want to get out. So even if I only do it for me and my friends, I’m going to be making books! And I have had the great joy of working with a friend to illustrate one of her stories, Penny and the Pocket Dragon, which was a delight. And through doing shows I met a client that I’ve illustrated two more books for! And that brings us up to 5 books, actually. I just really wanted to do it, so I made it happen!
Be Kind to Me came out in 2020, and you told us then that self-publishing was quite the roller coaster. A second edition arrived this January. What made you go back to it, and what changed?
Be Kind to Me was my very first book that I’d made (unless you count the computer paper and staple books I made in elementary school) and I purposefully kept the design of it simple. I didn’t know how to format illustrations that would fill the page, and I was focused more on the battle of publishing itself than the artistic side of perfecting the content. I was also a younger artist, newer to my own artistic style.
I knew at the time it wasn’t matching my vision, but it was more about the breakthrough experience of just getting a book out there. Coming back to it I was able to make the illustrations look how I’d envisioned them, but didn’t have the skill to produce yet in 2019. I feel good about letting it be now and moving on to other things!
Three of the five you illustrated for other authors. How is illustrating someone else’s story different from telling your own?
I’m very picky who I’ll agree to work with, but I’ve also been lucky. Rebekah has been a friend for over 10 years now, and I knew that the whole process of illustrating for her would just be me saying “your writing is so good” and her saying “your illustrations are so good” and that’s a pretty great way to work.
The other two books I’ve illustrated were for the same client, Michael, and I knew from how he presented the projects that he was also going to be easy for me to work with. Some clients don’t actually know what they want, or want art but don’t realize that they need to pick an artist whose style matches their vision. Michael had his own sketches that I simply recreated. You can even see that process at the end of both the books I did for him. We share his sketch, mine, and the finished illustration.
I’ve had other people reach out about hiring me to do illustrations and I just didn’t get a good vibe. I can tell they either won’t want to pay me fairly or don’t understand the importance of picking the right artist, not just any artist, if that makes sense.
I do sometimes get annoyed that I’m making something that’s not MY story, but only because I have so many I want to make and there seems to be so little time!
In 2019, you said digital drawing has the benefit of the undo button and gouache the miracle of the happy accident. Has that balance shifted since?
I still find that both have their strengths. I’m also still weirdly purist and will do an illustration either only with gouache or only digitally, never taking a gouache piece and touching it up digitally. That just feels wrong.
I am mostly making books using Procreate, because there is so much tweaking that needs to happen to work around the trim, the gutter, the text, etc. And in the last few years I’ve found digital brushes that have wonderful texture and look really natural. I tend to work with very few layers so my digital work process is very close to my traditional media process.
And gouache is great for allowing me to disconnect a bit more, really lose myself in the painting, and challenge myself. I love it for making one off illustrations of weird little faerie critters. I do hope that some day I have the confidence in my gouache abilities to illustrate a children’s book with gouache... but I’m not there yet.
For somebody ordering a commission as a gift, what do you wish they knew before they ordered? And what’s your last order date for Christmas delivery?
All the information about pricing and process for commissions is on my website! I think a lot of the time people don’t even look at it before reaching out, so it’s nice for me when they do. Please be sure that you want MY STYLE. I don’t do photorealistic portraits, they’re not my thing. I have a gallery of past commissions where you can see some of the things I’ve made for previous projects!
If you’re wanting something delivered before Christmas, December 1st is the cutoff for safety. I can work fast, but we have to give time for shipping!
There are story samples on your site for Little Faun and Nora Had a Blanket. What’s coming?
Nora Had a Blanket is my current project. She’s been waiting for me a long time and I think I’m ready at last! I really want to dash off with a raccoon character of mine, but I am insisting that the raccoon wait just a little longer.
Little Faun (probably not the final title) is a 3 book middle grade series about Faun that I’ve finished writing, but it needs editing. The first and second need a professional copy editor, which isn’t in the cards for me yet, and the third is still in structural edits stage. They’ll all get an illustration per chapter, so 45 in total for all 3 books. I am also currently writing a (middle grade?) chapter book called Chicken Quest about Rong the chicken keeper that I am deeply in love with.
It’s very hard for me to pull the trigger on self publishing a chapter book because I want the grammar to be perfect. I feel a lot of pressure to present clean, good writing to new readers. Reading teaches us how to write and speak, in its own way. There is a risk with self publishing that all the safety nets that prevent truly bad writing, both in structure and in story, from getting out there are taken away. Anyone can publish anything. I could write a book about how to cure warts with pencil shaving dust in a week and publish it tomorrow and nobody could stop me. When we are facing a trend where so many people are not reading, every bad experience a person has with a book puts them at risk of never picking up a book again. I’d hate to be publishing an unreadable book that puts someone off it for good!
So without a publishing team, it’s very hard to turn 60k words into a perfect state. It’s a lot easier with a 100 word kid’s book to make it all by myself.
I fear it might be a longer road to getting my stories about Faun and Rong out into the world, but anything worth doing is worth doing right, right? And honestly, even if they never get “out there” I am having so much fun making them I just can’t be stopped.
Where to find Lara Jean’s work
Start at larajeandoodles.com, which links to everything else, including her books, her shop, and her galleries of past work.
Commissions: read the pricing and process page before you reach out, and remember that December 1 is her cutoff for Christmas delivery.
Want an original, or a print that isn’t listed? Email or message her directly. She has a whole book of originals that travel with her to shows and have never made it online, and she answers her messages.
Her newsletter is the best way to follow her. She is working hard to build readers there rather than on social media, and we think that is exactly right. I LOVE GETTING HER EMAILS! They bring such joy and warmth to my days.
You can also occasionally find her in person at shows, including the Michigan Renaissance Festival, which is where we have happily run into her.
Lara Jean is an artist and writer from Michigan, currently living in Tennessee. She’s been doodling since she was very small, a lover of all things fantasy, fairy tale, and storytelling. Her interests include hanging out with trees, collecting rocks, investigating insects, connecting with grown-up children like herself, and of course doodling. She has written and published two children’s books and there are many more crowding up to be next in line.
More from Wandering Educators on artists and makers
- Artist Spotlight: Lara Jean, our first interview with her, from 2019
- The Most Important Book You Can Read With Your Kids, on Be Kind to Me
- Artist Spotlight: Mark Taylor
- Huzzah! Why You Need to Visit the Michigan Renaissance Festival
Jessie Voigts is the founder and publisher of Wandering Educators. She has a PhD in International Education, has lived and worked in Japan and London, and traveled around the world. She is constantly looking for ways to increase intercultural understanding, and is passionate about study abroad and international education.