Courtney Pippin-Mathur joined Highlights Foundation Social Media Manager Cat Galeano on Instagram Live to talk about the mini-course: From Pencil or Paint to Pixel: A Two-Night Mini.

Watch the conversation below. (Please note: closed captions are being added to the video below. When they are finished, you can see them by hovering over the bottom of the video and choosing the “CC” icon.)

Full Transcript:

Cat:
A big hello to our Highlights Foundation family. We’re so happy to have you here with us especially today, for our double feature. For those that may not know me, I’m Cat Galeano, my pronouns are she/her. I’m the social media manager at the Highlights Foundation, joining you from Westchester, New York on the traditional lands of the Seewanoy people. Apart from all the fun things I get to do at the Highlights Foundation, I am also a writer and a reader, so I’m very excited to welcome our friend and faculty Courtney Pippin-Mathur, who will be teaching the two-night mini From Pencil or Paint to Pixel: A Two-Night Mini for Beginning Illustrators on May 28th and the 30th.

But before we dive in, I just wanted to remind our viewers that joining in on any Highlights Foundation sessions, to do so with no hate, no harm and no harassment of any kind. And now let’s get started. So my first question is kind of like a game, so we’re going to play a little game. Pretend you’re on the Highlights Foundation campus and you see a bird outside your window. First, tell us what bird you see and next, tell us what’s the first thing you pick up to illustrate it.

Courtney:
So, oh, the bird would be a cardinal. I love cardinals, those splashes of red and the first thing I would pick up…it’s kind of funny because at the Highlights Foundation, I love to be up in the barn, up in that upper level, you know, looking out the big window.

Cat:
Yes.

Courtney:
So I would either be on my iPad using Procreate, or painting in my sketchbook, because I try to do like equal of both. So I’m gonna cheat and say it could be either one.

Cat:
And I, that’s funny that you say that one spot, because that’s a real popular spot. So I’m so glad–it’s a personal favorite too, so that’s awesome. So our second question kind of leads into right off of the, the first one, which says now is that your preferred method or medium? The Procreate/sketchbook? Or if you’re at the, if you’re in…sorry, if you’re at the “idea stage” in a project and just getting started, what does your process look like?

Courtney:
So for my sketchbook, when I use my sketchbook, it’s kind of painting and it’s very exploratory. Just kind of playing around, no pressure, but if I’m on the beginning stage of a project, then I’m going to start in Procreate on my iPad and just start sketching things out in a beginning layer.

Cat:
I love that. I love that you said that when you’re in the sketchbook, it’s like the exploratory play phase. I feel uh, that speaks to me so much because I have mentioned this before… I am not an illustrator in any capacity, but I do love to use coloring books and like paint and just like kind of do it for fun. So I feel like even if you’re a non-illustrator, I feel like that very much resonates. So thank you for sharing that.

Courtney:
I, I agree. I always try, when I do, I’ve done workshops about the journals and it’s open to writers too. Because it’s such a great way to just explore your creativity, as you just said, so yes, definitely.

Cat:
Definitely. And what did your own path to illustration and being an author illustrator look like? We know this course specifically is for beginners. So I’m sure many of our people are wondering what that start-up period looked like for you and how different is it now?

Courtney:
So it started…I knew I wanted to be an author/illustrator one day when I was in college, I was at the University of Texas at Austin and I was a Fine Art major and I love to paint and explore photography and drawing. But I wasn’t quite serious enough to BE a fine art major. You know, you have to go deep inside and do things that are very…at least I felt that way at the time. I wasn’t quite jiving with it,, but then my professor came in and he was like he held up and he said: this is what you should do if you want to write and illustrate. And it was a picture book called Monster Mama, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Who, you know, is, has amazing creative illustrations. And so that, I was like: Boom! That’s it for me. That’s what I want to do.

And then of course, I had a baby like nine months later, so that kind of derailed that a little bit, but I just kept working on it. And so finally I had been conversing–back in the old days, I had a blog. And an editor had seen my blog post and so she had been, we had been talking back and forth and she asked me if I had any stories. And so I sent her one I had written and she said no. She turned it down. But then, five years later, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from her saying “hey, if that story is still available, available, we would love to publish it.”

Cat:
Oh, wow.

Courtney:
Yeah. So mine is definitely not a smooth linear path, which I think is totally normal and wonderful. It’s been very woo! Up and down.

Cat:
I love that, you know, thanks so much for sharing that. Because I feel like perhaps, you know, it could have been so super soul- crushing at the moment when they said no, you know, it’s not for us. But perhaps it just wasn’t, the market wasn’t right for that or it just wasn’t the time, but the fact that that story stuck with her and that you know, five years later, came back and was like hey, still thinking about that story. Is it still available? So that sort of gives hope to anyone to just query, to just get it out there because it might not be…A, it might not be right for that specific agent or, or publishing house, but it might just not be the time for it. So just send it out there.

Courtney:
Exactly. Publishing is such a game of time and just finding the right editor at the right time. And like you said, who needs this particular story? So definitely that’s why I’m like, don’t give up. Gotta keep going. You gotta keep trying.

Cat:
Gotta keep trying, so just, I’m going to go a little rogue here and ask you just a personal question. But when you’re writing and/or illustrating what’s that process like for you when you’re either writing specifically for something and or illustrating specifically for something or doing both for a project? Does does your sort of process kind of vary for all those three different parts?

Courtney:
Yeah, it’s…so it’s kind of funny. So I’ll give you an example. This is a little bit of a sneak peek of…I had an editor request a story based on an illustration which I’ve never had that before. So I’m like whoo! So for that one, I’m very focused on the text, right, and my, my agent has been going back and forth for months, my friends. For months, it’s been about six months, just so we can get it perfect before we send it to this editor. Because this is like a dream editor of mine. So for that one, I’m at my computer or my iPad typing all the time, right? Just really focusing on the writer side of my brain.

But when I’m trying to come up with ideas on my own, I’m usually sketching or playing around in my notebook like I mentioned. Because I find there I’m less intimidated. You know when I’m writing I’m very much…I find out I have to sit down and just kind of open myself to inspiration. And sometimes, you know, thought will hit right then, but it’s usually like random, like when I’m driving somewhere days later. But I have to open the creativity well, you know? What I tell my students is like you have to sit down and open your brain door, you know? Like visualize opening your door to inspiration and ideas and eventually you know you’ll get hit with one.

Cat:
Oh, I love that. I love that use that example of like opening the door because I have a different process where it’s like I light a candle and that’s sort of my opening the door. So I, I love the different visuals that we can use when…because you have to honor that process. You can, I mean, I know I can’t–maybe you can’t either–but I can’t just like bust out words–like I have to, like, set the scene for myself to allow that like “spark” to come through.

Courtney:
Have like your–and I have a corner of a room–and so I tell people you know, you just have to have your little space. It can be anything. That have like I would go take my kids to the park, but I would sit on the bench and that would be my space. You know you set the intention and then the ideas will follow. I love the candle idea. I do that sometimes too, especially on dreary days. It’s just such a nice…

Cat:
Well, I mean, that’s all my questions for you. Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap up?

Courtney:
I don’t think so, although I would love to see anybody come join the mini in May. It would be great and it’s definitely for beginners and just an intro to kidlit and the different things, tools that a lot of different contemporary illustrators use as well as past favorites. And then I will show–on the second day we’ll go into Procreate, which is my, what I illustrated my last two books with and I’ll give you some tips for the, you know, Procreate and how to get started since it’s kind of overwhelming. And then I believe my art director Aram, who is wonderful and lovely, will be joining us on the second day too to give us tips. So that’s always great.

Cat:
There you go, people. You heard it here first. Lots of information, and we’re gonna have an art director–who’s Courtney’s art director, I believe–visit on night two, so if you’d like to learn more from Courtney and our special guest Arm Kim, please make sure to sign up for From Pencil or Paint to Pixel: A Two-Night Mini for Beginning Illustrators. You can register on our website at highlightsfoundation.org. And lastly you can purchase Courtney’s books and Aram’s books on our virtual bookshop powered by bookshop.org. Thank you so much Courtney for chatting with us today and can’t wait to see you online in May.

Courtney:
Thanks, Cat. It was lovely. Bye!

Cat:
Thanks, Courtney.