Meet Children’s Author/Illustrator Elise Parsley!
Happy Thanksgiving, readers! I have a special treat for you, featuring Elise Parsley, who is the author and illustrator behind many of my kiddo’s favorite books!
If you’re not familiar with Elise, she’s the creator of the hilarious, colorful imaginative books featuring the mischievous Magnolia, such as “If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t!” and “If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don’t!” Her newest book, “If You Ever Want to Bring a Pirate to Meet Santa, Don’t!” was just published in October.
I was thrilled to connect with Elise on Twitter, and recently had the chance to interview her about her career. Check out the interview below, and then scroll to the end for some fun, free coloring pages Elise sent along to share!
How did you get your start as an illustrator?
This often comes as a surprise to folks who ask this question: I went to art school! Honestly,
my first official art classes were at Minnesota State University in Moorhead and my professors were gracious enough to start from scratch with me. We didn’t actually have an illustration program during the time I was there, but I still received an excellent education from which I could springboard into illustration after graduation.
How did the idea for Magnolia come about? For instance, when was the idea “brewing,” and how long did it take you to complete the draft?
The idea began with an illustration. I had a SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) conference coming up, and I needed fresh work for my portfolio. I put together a piece in which a disgruntled teacher is standing over a mischievous alligator and little girl at their desks. There’s a paper airplane sticking out of the teacher’s hair, and the alligator is blaming a little girl, who is clearly aghast, although they’re both hiding bits of origami behind their back. That piece got several good responses at the conference, and months later I decided to sit down and write the rest of the story. I knew there had to have been more shenanigans at school that day, and I needed to find out what they were! I’m sure the first draft took minutes, or a couple hours at the most, and it was an awful story. The final draft, 25 versions later, wasn’t complete for another four months.
Tell me about what it felt like when you learned that your first book was accepted by a publisher. How long of a process was that?
It was pretty unreal! I was with two of my critique partners when I got the call from my agent – what a thrill to celebrate with them in that moment! While the time between my agent submitting the story and receiving an offer was incredibly fast (only a couple of days!), there was, of course, the years of study and practice and critiquing that brought me to that thrilling point in my career. So yes, it was a super quick process, but also not. Haha!
You have such a unique style of drawing, and I read in my daughter’s books that you do all of the drawings on a computer. Can you tell me a little bit about your background, and how you developed your style? For instance, do you sketch your drawings on paper first?
All of my book work is done digitally, from sketch to final art. I draw on a tablet but the image appears on my computer screen, so I don’t look at my hand at all. It took some getting used to, and it was a bit like drawing with my non-dominant hand at first. I took a one-credit summer digital painting course toward the end of college and completely fell in love with the medium. Until then I’d been focused almost exclusively on watercolor and color pencil work. What I love about digital drawing is the ease with which I can scrap my work and start over. For some reason, that has always been a mental hurdle for me when working on actual paper. But with digital “paper” the images aren’t quite as precious. I find I’m looser and I experiment more. As far as my style, I designed Magnolia using only the simplest of shapes – circles, rectangles, triangles, mitten hands – because I knew I’d have to draw this character over and over again with various poses and expressions, and I didn’t want to complicate things. Then the more I got to know Magnolia, the more I appreciated her simple form. It really allows me to focus on the essence of her movement and expressions, two major elements for this little girl.
I love that you call yourself an “illustrauthor.” Which aspect typically comes to you first — the artwork, or the story idea?
Thank you! I’m working hard on getting “illustrauthor” into everyday speech. If “hangry” can get inducted into the dictionary, then I have high hopes for “illustrauthor.” As I mentioned before, Alligator started with an image. It made me laugh and it made me wonder, so I just had to write a story to accompany it. Magnolia’s piano and circus adventures each started with text. But Neck & Neck, a non-Magnolia story, again came as a result of a doodle I had made back in 2014 or so. If I write down an idea, or have a bit of text, I almost always try to scribble a little image to go with it. Magnolia’s newest adventure involves both a pirate and Santa Claus, and I knew before I could get started that I’d need to see what these guys looked like side by side. It’s almost a seeing-is-believing type thing. Once I have them drawn, I want others to laugh with me over these characters, so I’ve got to find out what their story is so I can share it.
As a mom of small children, do you find it difficult to find a work/life balance?
Yes. However, I’m extremely thankful to be able to work from a home studio each day. I get to eat meals with my children, put them down for naps, read books with them, and make books for them. I’m thankful, too, that my own mom is a fabulous stained glass artist, so I had the incredible fortune of seeing what an artist mom is capable of. I’m also thankful for babysitters and naptime and coffee.
What has surprised you the most about the publicity and success you’ve found with your books, especially being named on the NYT Bestseller list?!?
This may seem small, but I’m continually surprised whenever someone I don’t know reads and loves my books. There are so many great books out there, and to think that a kid or parent or educator picked up my silly book and read it (and they aren’t even a friend or relative or a resident of South Dakota!) puts a dopey grin on my face every time.
What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of your career?
Excuse me. I just heard some squawking on the baby monitor. Also, see question six.
What are your creative goals for the future? Are you planning more Magnolia books?
There aren’t any Magnolia books on my desk at the moment, but I do have a few story ideas in the works! Unfortunately, I’m not able to share about them yet.
Will there be anymore Leopold books?
Not that I know of. But I did really enjoy that silly giraffe.
I saw on your bio that you’ve been involved with children’s literacy programs. Why is children’s literacy such an important cause for you?
If children learn to read, then they can learn to bake muffins, or write a birthday card, or discover a new knock-knock joke, or classify dinosaurs or assemble a machine, or fly an airplane, or run a store front, or teach social studies, or design magazine interiors, or raise cattle and crops. Literacy leads to independence and growth at every age, and I’m honored to be part of this crucial aspect of life for so many educators, parents, and kids.
Thanks to Elise for the fun interview — I can’t wait to see what the future holds!
Click on the links below to download full-size coloring pages for your kiddos!
Follow Elise on Twitter & Instagram: @eliseparsley
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