We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelly Light. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelly below.

Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Without going into too much detail, I went through a catastrophic divorce and a series of tragic losses that hit at the peak of my professional success and productivity. I was on national book tour one day and plunged in family court.. for the next five years. Everything that I had built professionally for twenty years in animation, cartoon licensing and children’s publishing came to a screeching halt. How does one create when there are emotional, financial and legal wildfires burning all around you? I am a Mom. All things come after my kid and my kid really needed me. After a few years of all encompassing difficulties, I couldn’t even crash-cart my imagination to start as hard as I tried… my creativity was being exhausted just to keep living. Drawing became a mirage of an oasis as I wandered a desert of joy. My publishing connections drifted, my speaking engagements dried up. That is a dramatic description.. and it still doesn’t quite describe how bad it was. SO? What to do after a few years of imposed artist’s block? Seek role models. I sought out a woman artist who built her own life, on her own terms. I sent in a “Hail Mary” application to do an artist’s residency in the Lake District of England and deep-dive into the life and work of Beatrix Potter (1886-1943). She was a God of Illustration in more ways than one. Perhaps too many tellers of the history of Illustration have patronized her as the blue coat wearing bunny painter for children. She was a master watercolorist extraordinaire and a science and nature illustrator compiling massive amounts of studies of fungi. She made it her mission to learn through drawing and painting the anatomy of animals that she later anthropomorphized. She could not have made us care about little Peter if she had not done her studies of rabbits and added the characteristics of people’s gestures and lives to illustrated animals.
I arrived in The Lake District to a beautiful little cottage complete with friendly sheep visitors. It was in a magical corner of Near Sawrey, England, just a two minute walk down a lovely gravel path from Hill Top, the beautiful little farm Beatrix Potter used as her home office. It is now preserved and part of the National Trust. For seventeen days, I walked the same walks Beatrix took, sketchbook in hand. I found myself peering through reeds over lily pads, meeting ducks, sipping tea and moving watercolor around for the first time in years, all while learning about her amazing life story and seeing her portfolios of studies up close. She was a strong women way ahead of her time who crafted a life from her characters and a legacy of treasured books and preserved land, for generations to come. All of these achievements came from the power of her imagination and the courage to make and believe in her art. She had loved, lost love, focused on herself and eventually found love again without ever losing herself to a man.
I returned from that trip, stronger. I used her as a guide forward. When I got knocked down again, I remembered the obstacles she faced and in the time that she faced them. I could get through my own obstacles as long as I had the courage to make art and believe in it as well. I had made little paintings of my experiences in England and in them I saw growth and a new found freedom to be more personal with my work.
Since then, I have done a few more artist’s residencies. It is a wonderful way to travel. You have time and space to create in a new, often beautiful and inspiring setting. Away from the complications of your own life. Often financially subsidized in some way, the residencies are there specifically for creatives. You meet other creative souls and the energy is supportive and convivial.
Sitting, eye-level on my drawing table is a little black and white photo of Beatrix Potter in the doorway of HillTop. I see her every single day. In her, I see myself and my own strength reflected. I pick up my pencil and I keep going.

Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I write and illustrate books for kids. I have had a children’s book series called Louise Loves Art with Balzer and Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins. Being an author/illustrator has been the most rewarding art occupation I have ever had. There is the ability to craft an entire believable world inside of a 32 page picture book that a child will revisit for years as they grow up. I know my strength is in creating characters that feel real to kids, having received countless letters asking “What type of cereal she eats while wearing what kind of pajamas?”- I’ve been sent so many photos of kids dressed up as my character, Louise or asleep cuddling the doll of her. When I realize my character is a kid’s friend, that means I have done my job well and I feel real satisfaction. I have been traditionally published by Harper Collins and Bloomsbury since 2012. Before that, I worked for licensed cartoon merchandise for large cartoon companies like Disney, Warner Bros, Hanna Barbera, Nickelodeon, Peanuts, Henson.. so many. Before that, I was the young, last gasp of 2-D, cinematic animation done on paper and film. Those experiences were amazing to build skills drawing characters consistently, on model and with plenty of life. When I decided to enter the children’s publishing industry, I believed I had a strong foundation as an artist. The writing and story telling skills are a constant moving target. I want to develop more as an author in longer formats such as graphic novels and chapter books.
The more current development in my career is as a teacher of character drawing skills. I teach character design with an emphasis on personality and mostly to artists in children’s publishing. I teach online classes but I am currently in the final year of the MFA program at the University of Hartford. I am hoping to teach in art schools and universities to foster the love of the complex drawing and imagination skills it takes to cartoon and create characters, well. My teaching style is from a real place of artistic empathy. We are all on a journey as artists, and are at different points along the road on that journey. I try to meet each student where they are. I listen and pay attention to how they see and interpret life and try to connect each person to artists they too, can use as role models.
I am working on new books and new characters that I am enjoying bringing to life on the page. I know when I’ve got a good character when I feel like I have met someone new. I know that I have designed the perfect visual representation of a specific personality. I can then get that character to act out every moment in a story. That is where I find the most joy in the making.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When my book series was first published in 2012, editors told me that they felt confident investing in my “brand’ because I had a great social media following. That online presence had existed since 2005-ish and consisted of a few thousand followers (then Twitter), a Facebook account filled with family photos, Instagram that was mostly of my enthusiasm for collecting vintage stuff and a modestly read Blogger account about the pursuit of children’s publishing. I existed for years, promoting myself in an echo-chamber of friends, family, fellow publishing hopefuls and very sneaky art directors, agents and editors who were lurking in the internet shadows. I never checked my stats. I just posted as I lived with out much thought to a plan or a scheme or even a theme. I know that being myself added some real connection for people who followed me because here I am, in 2023 still hearing how much people were inspired by my online sharing of my road to getting published. These days, algorithms and minute attention spans keep the social media landscape rumbling while that online ground keeps shifting under artist’s feet. I deleted Twitter because of the change over to a new overlord. I added Tik Tok but I cower at the constant onslaught of pressure to put “ME” front and center. Instagram now is following Tik Tok’s lead with reels and live broadcasting. It can feel so overwhelming to try to know what to do. Just as soon as I think I have it figured out.. it changes. Posting art is necessary to keep eyes on one’s work. Posting too much of your intellectual property and giving away story content is not going to sit well with the eventual individual industry professional you submit to. You should sprinkle it with interesting tid bits about yourself, as people want to know you in publishing as well as your work… but do not post anything too personal or not positive… but try to be authentic!!! It is kinda of enough to make one coo-coo, for cocoa puffs. What I have decided to do these days, is think 80/20%… 80% all about ART! My art, art I love, other artists I know or inspire me. 20%.. about the triumphs and travails of artistic existence. As far as a “promotion” or “theme”.. the priority is to be offline, creating content for publishing that is undeniable. Then, setting up regular tangential posts about that content. Doing that is laying a foundation for the submittal and (fingers crossed) publication. An example: I have written a picture book about growing up in my parent’s diner on the Jersey Shore. I have started visiting old school diners and posting photos and about their history. I enjoy posting like this because I obviously love old diners. I hope to add having breakfast with fellow artists and talking to them at old diners. Keeping my social media skewed to what I enjoy, the art I enjoy and not all about ME, might help me stick to posting regularly and putting in that extra effort to turn posts into videos and showing my face more. It all has to feel ok. Or? It feels intrusive and pressured. I love seeing other artists’s work online and strive to just be me, just like all of those years ago when blogs roamed the earth. I did just sign up for a Substack… which is just a blog in a new package. All things are cyclical, I think. People crave connection that lasts longer than 90 seconds at some point. Blogs are good for that.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am currently surrounded by books in my studio. There are a few that I reach for over and over and that I teach from. Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes Volume 1 and Volume 2, The Walt Stanchfield Lectures. Even if you are not a character based artists, these are must reads for all artists. Stanchfield was the life drawing instructor at the Disney Studios for over 25 years. His books are the closest I have come to a philosophy of existence I can vibe with, without reservation. There is knowledge about drawing from life, drawing with life and.. Living a life while drawing. I also can be found doing dramatic readings form the Chuck Jones’ books Chuck Amuck and Chuck Reducks. No one knew how to communicate about character better. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation By Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston is the Bible to animators. I have my book shelves sectioned, comics and cartoons on one side of the space, animation and art instruction in between and children’s books piled as far as the eye can see. The books that I keep close to my drawing desk (with in arm’s reach) are the ones that remind me to aspire to that level of creation. I have many Dennis the Menace books by Hank Ketcham. In one panel, he could create a masterpiece in black and white. His line, his drawing, his design and composition always push me to be better. I have P.D. Eastman books, Walt Kelly books and tons of old comic books form when I was a kid as well. I often think… “I have too many books! Stop buying art books, Kelly!”… then I find a new one or a vintage one… I just love to pour over them and feel inspired.

I am a film buff as well but I tend to be super picky. I’ll spare the readers my endless explanation of the best animated films of all time and just say “The Iron Giant”… and watch “Over the Garden Wall” every Fall. I did years of what I call “Black and White Therapy”,(Thank you,Turner Classic Movies)- Watch anything Barbara Stanwyck is in. Why be an incessant viewer of film? Study the composition. Cinematography, shots… can be inspiring for page layouts. Casablanca, paused at any moment is a lesson in composition. I sometimes sit and draw from old movies because shapes and personality were clearer. The pace of modern films can give me whiplash sometimes.

If someone wants to pursue a career in Children’s Publishing I have two recommendations. Visit the website : www.Highlightsfoundation.org. Check out their online classes and in person, on-campus workshops. I’ll be giving one in August 2024 on advanced Character Drawing. Also, SCBWI.org, join the Society for Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators. You will learn it all, but take your time. It takes time.

Choose mentors and teachers carefully. Find ones that care about your journey. Same goes for agent hunting. Did I say take your time? Take time, learn. Grow. Revise, re-draw… then submit! My online classes are through: theillustrationdept.com – Listen to the podcast too! It’s amazing.

Contact Info:

• Website: Kellylight.com
• Instagram: @kelight
• Facebook: Kelly J. Light
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-light-a818948
• Other: Illustrationdept.com interview : https://illustrationdept.com/podcast/kellylight

Image Credits
The Louise books are published by Balzer and Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins. All other images are ©KellyLight