Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Susan Shorter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Susan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
My mom has had me in galleries since I was three years old. I have always loved drawing, and always knew I would be an artist. It was just in my bones. Now, whether or not, I would be able to make a living at it was up in the air, but even if I had to take side jobs, I always knew art was my path. In grade school, I poured over those “How to Cartoon” and “How to Draw” books trying to learn more every day. I studied the art in the books my parents read to me as a child, and would try to figure out how they did it. I even had a nook in my room where I painted Disney characters on the walls and was fascinated in how an artist could portray humor and emotion in a few strokes of a pencil. Cartooning is a real skill, and it takes a lot of work to make it look effortless.
In high school, I would use my mom’s clothing catalogs and National Geographic magazines as photo references (pre internet) for my drawings. I took weekend courses at the Herron School or Art, and could not wait to enroll there. It wasn’t until as a Herron student, I took Kathleen O’Connell’s course in Illustration and saw her collection of Spectrum books did I know what I truly wanted to do. Looking through those books just took my breathe away! Viewing the art of greats like Donato, Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Brian Froud, and so on was so inspiring! These people were real life magicians, and there wasn’t anything I wanted more than to be good enough to be published in a book right alongside of them.
I am very grateful to say that I now have been published twice in Infected By Art, alongside several of those artistic magicians I so admire. I believe my first drawing ever displayed when I was three years old was of a unicorn, and here I am still drawing unicorns!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started my professional career in Illustration back in 2007 when I became an in-house staff Illustrator for the publishing company, Author Solutions. During my fifteen years with them, I illustrated over 500 children’s books, created numerous novel covers, as well as medical illustration, map-making, and just about anything else a client might want from an Illustrator. The thing that made me a valuable asset there was my ability to work in any style from juvenile and cutesy, or whimsical and humorous cartoons, to fantasy or sci-fi and realism. My desire to learn many mediums through college paid off in that I was able to create in traditional media (watercolor, pencil, pastel, or acrylics) to digital painting and design. And I was proud to be one of the two remaining staff Illustrators in the U.S. up until last year when the company transitioned the art department fully overseas.
The education and experience I received while working for them all of those years was priceless for my career. Because of that knowledge, I have been able to confidently take on a life in freelance illustration full time, only now I have the ability to create and be known for the art that I want to make. And, it doesn’t hurt that two weeks after that door closed, another one opened when after creating some spooky art for the production of Seance through Soundbooth Theater. They approached me about becoming their Art Director, and I have worked with them ever since, overseeing projects and creating art and design. Working for Soundbooth is a fast paced environment, but also a respectful one that allows me the time to work on my personal art and show at conventions.
As far as my personal art is concerned, I am deeply inspired by nature, folklore, and music. I love drawing organic, flowy forms that invoke a dreamlike feel. Watercolor and graphite are my favorite tools to work with, I feel I can be more expressive with watercolor, and graphite is just intuitive to me. I grew up on an 80 acre wooded farm with creeks and waterfalls, so magic felt like it was around every corner. It was a great environment for nurturing a child’s creativity. It also didn’t hurt that my mom, Carole, was a musician and teacher, who was always playing the piano. My father was life insurance salesman, but also a professional storyteller that would travel to storytelling conventions, And my amazing stepfather is the prolific mystery novelist, John R. Riggs. There is no way I could come out of that upbringing without at least some creative edge to me.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When preparedness meets opportunity…. that’s really been the theme for my whole career. Each time something huge has happened to me professionally, it has always been an unexpected moment where I had to leap. When I got my first job in publishing, I was working as a waitress and FOH manager for a seafood restaurant, but I was still working on my craft, drawing every day and when out of the blue a friend contacts me that they had an open position, I was ready with samples. Preparedness Meets Opportunity. When The Dead Files on the Travel Channel called my husband out of the blue because they needed an artist in this area who can do quick sketches based on verbal descriptions for an episode they were filming locally, all those warm-up drawings and quick sketches over the years paid off. Preparedness Meets Opportunity. More recently, when I got a call the very DAY the artists at GenCon were setting up their booths, that someone had bowed out and a table was mine if I wanted it, I was able to jump and seize that opportunity bc I had been working on improving my convention setup and had art prints. and new original art ready.
We can’t always control what doors are going to open for us, but we can control what we have to present artistically and professionally.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish they taught the business end of being a freelance artist in art school. Yes, we need to know how to master our medium, but we also need to know about LLC’s, can you write off your home studio, and what do I charge for a portrait? There isn’t a direct path to making it in this industry, but if new artists had access to the nuts and bolts of making it a career, I think they could approach it more confidently. There was a podcast a few years ago that I really got into that delved into the real life of professional artists, from taxes and booth set ups to what to charge for an art print. That was a priceless tool as I dipped my toe into the freelance world. Since it no longer exists, and since I am lucky enough to know so many interesting people in the industry, I have started a podcast that lets people see what it is like to live this life. It’s called,”The Shorter Artist Hour” and it’s on Youtube. Hopefully we can help “pull back the curtain” a bit for up and coming illustrators.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.susanshorter.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/susan_shorter_art
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SusanShorterArt
- Youtube: @susanshorterart
- Other: My children’s book IG is @susanshorterillustration
Image Credits
Grant Shorter, Susan Shorter