June Artist of the Month – Jenna Herman

Our June ‘Artist of the Month’ is illustrator Jenna Herman.

About Jenna Herman.

Jenna Herman is an illustrator based in the South East of England. Having enjoyed a love for nature and visual storytelling since she was little, Jenna now has her dream career as an illustrator specialising in education, conservation and families.

Jenna loves to visit schools - both in-person and online - with a number of titles including We Are Family, written by Lucy Reynolds. We Are Family is bursting with warmth and colour and includes amazing facts about the myriad of ways in which young creatures grow up in the animal kingdom. Popular in schools and libraries, We Are Family has been widely praised for its sensitive portrayal of family diversity. Jenna can be booked both as a solo guest - or alongside author Lucy Reynolds - to deliver a fascinating and educational experience tailored for all school ages.

What a visit from Jenna entails

Jenna loves sharing her stories to classes and schools of all sizes and especially likes to plan bespoke presentations and workshops to ensure each event will fit nicely within a school's current topics.

Typically, a school presentation will include a fun warm-up activity (a game or quiz), followed by a book reading (this can be presented on screen or read from the book), and the session will end with an activity for everyone to enjoy together.

Depending on the class/school size and the age of the children, these activities can include a drawing tutorial; a storyboard activity; front-cover workshop... or bespoke events have included treasure hunts, craft, collage, flower-pressing, a nature colour-hunt and much much more!

You can read more about Jenna and her school visits here

Testimonials from previous visits.

"Jenna's book reading and workshop was much, much more than any of us at school expected! It was the best author/ illustrator visit I have seen in over 30 years of teaching (and I've seen lots of famous authors and illustrators). I was surprised to see such a detailed link with the science curriculum for key stage 1 and delighted that she touched upon the topic of wildlife conservation. Jenna is a wonderful illustrator and read her new story book with enthusiasm and expression. We have already re-booked her for next term, because another of her books links very nicely with our "Nature, Nature" topic".
Beckington First School

“Jenna has such a gentle yet bubbly way with the children and she brings the books to life in such wonderful ways. It is very unusual to find an author or illustrator who is also amazing with the children on a workshop so I cannot recommend her more for schools! Our children love Jenna and some are starting a collection of the beautifully illustrated books with gorgeous, meaningful messages.”
Wells Cathedral School

“Utterly fascinating, this is an amazing book suitable for all ages... A great way to build empathy and understanding for the different families in one class”
Erin Hamilton, teacher, and book blogger at My Shelves Are Full

“I cannot recommend this book highly enough for PSHE in school...there are so many talking points”
Sharon Porter, teacher & book reviewer at ReadingZone

“Thank you SO much for yesterday's Zoom session - all our children loved learning about the different animal families. At the end of the day, every Y3 teacher came to approach me to tell me how good you were and how much their students enjoyed it. They were all engaged throughout, and we especially loved that the session was so interactive. A lovely touch having the book written in Chinese too”.
Harrow International School, Hong Kong

Interview with Jenna Herman

When did you first find a love of drawing?

Probably when I first picked up a crayola crayon and destroyed my bedroom wallpaper! My first proper memory of loving to draw was when I was around 5 or 6 years old - I used to pose my Sylvanian Families & Trolls around the rockery in our garden and draw them. I also loved to take photos with a disposable camera. Sometimes I’d cut up the photos to make new scenes. I also used to diligently copy the Garfield Comic - I still feel nostalgic for Garfield whenever I eat lasagne!

What piece of work you have created has really stuck with you/made a lasting impression?

This is such a difficult question. I’m going to say the first book I illustrated (Parrots Don’t Live in the City! written by Lucy Reynolds). This is for a number of reasons… Firstly, it marks my first venture into illustrating Children's Books, which completely changed the course of my career. I’m proud of it because the whole book was drawn in pencil, then scanned in (leaf by leaf!) and digitally pieced together like a very complicated jigsaw. Lucy and I put so much into that book, and we still get positive feedback from it - children love finding mini-beasties and feathers amongst the pages. My drawing style has changed a lot since that book, and so it’s also nice to look back and appreciate my artistic development since then.

What is it like making a living from doing something you love?

It’s a dream come true for me! It’s taken a very long time to fully establish myself after quitting a salaried job back in 2014. Since then, I’ve learnt so much about being resilient and persistent, whilst consistently working to develop my technical skills and improve my portfolio. And I’ve had to learn to promote myself too. Now that I’m regularly working on such a variety of interesting projects - doing a job that I love and enjoying the flexibility of working from my home office - it’s absolutely amazing. And I’m still learning something new every day, which keeps me constantly challenged.

You are obviously a huge animal lover. Do you have a favourite in general, a favourite to draw?

Yes, anyone who knows me, knows that I have a love for birds and I love to draw them! As a little girl I used to squish my nose against the glass of the patio window and watch the birds come and go to the bird bath in the garden. I was amazed to learn how far they’d travelled from - and why on earth had they chosen our garden for a drink?! A bird can mean a lot to someone - in its name, its song or history - which means I get asked to draw them a lot. I’m very happy to do this since I love the process of creating a bird from its scrawny claw legs up to its characterful face and beak.

Why is it so important that young people are encouraged to develop a love and respect for nature?

Without nature there would be no us! But without humans, the earth would continue to turn and nature would continue to evolve and probably flourish. We are completely reliant upon our natural environment and need to respect it. It’s important that we keep educating children to appreciate the generosity of the earth, and understand how our relationship with it works, so that we can try to keep that relationship balanced.

How long have you and Lucy Reynolds worked together? What can a school expect if they book you both to visit?

Lucy and I first worked together when we started developing our first book in 2014. Lucy came to me with her idea about Parrots Don’t Live in the City! and I loved it. We both share the same passion for conservation and we found that when we collaborate, we compliment each other in our skills. When we work together at an event in a school or festival, you’ll find that we both have a silly sense-of-humour which is essential in holding attention - especially with the younger children! We’ll play games and quizzes, we’ll get children moving, having fun and interacting with us! We tailor our lesson plans for each year group and class size, meaning we can then focus on workshops that will be meaningful and relevant.

Do you feel children’s books today have better representation of different types of families?

Every family is unique! And so it’s good to see that nowadays there are more books featuring step-families, same-sex parents, solo-parenting, bereavement and other family structures. With We Are Family, we wanted to create a book to address family diversity in a subtle way - and so we worked with Inclusion Consultant, Beth Cox (Co-founder of Inclusive Minds) to learn about inclusion, diversity, equality and accessibility in children’s books. We learnt a lot, and working with Beth ensured that our message about families was delivered as sensitively and thoughtfully as possible. The good news is that more and more authors, illustrators and publishers are building the practice of inclusion consultancy into their projects, which feels like a positive step.

You recently illustrated one of our poets, Emilie Lauren Jones, debut book A-Z of Awesome Animals and we were blown away by it. So proud to publish and both the poems and illustrations were gorgeous. What is it like for you to bring a book to life for someone you haven’t worked with before?

Thank you! It was an honour to be invited to illustrate for Emilie, and I’m so pleased you loved the illustrations. Emilie’s poetry is wonderful, and with her focus on animals it felt like a great fit! Being an illustrator you need to be constantly open to new opportunities and collaborations. I really enjoy the problem-solving stage at the beginning of each new project, when I adjust to a new story and structure, and sometimes adapt my drawing style to suit a brief.

What do you hope to achieve when you visit a school?

I have a strong belief that exploring art and creativity is crucial to enriching a child’s experience at school, and so all my visits are designed to help children explore new topics in a fun and creative way. I consider it a success if the children had fun, learnt something new and if the teachers felt they were engaged throughout. It’s extra rewarding when children are inspired to initiate their own projects afterwards, such as writing and illustrating their own story.

What has been your most memorable moment from a school/library or festival visit?

There are brilliant moments at every visit! But one of the most memorable was being invited to officially launch the opening of a beautiful wooden reading hut in a school playground. What an honour! I felt like the mayor - we cut a big red ribbon and everything! This was at a lovely school in Hampton, London… Lucy and I had already visited before, and they invited us both back for the special occasion. The hut itself was beautiful - fundraised and built by the PTFA. It’s always a joy to visit schools that recognise the importance of celebrating books and the enjoyment of reading together.

Do you believe that everyone has the potential to be creative?

Yes I do - creativity is within all of us, it makes us human! It’s just that some of us express our creativity way more outwardly than others. I know people who claim they’re ‘not creative at all’, but I see creativity in their mathematical problem-solving or when they refine and expand on ideas in conversation… or with their jazzy dress-sense! We can all learn to express our creative selves a bit more. One good idea is to keep trying out new creative/artistic interests, and to explore these interests without worrying about how good you are. Ditch the idea of ‘perfectionism’, have fun and don’t let the fear of mistakes hold you back!

For success in art, how much is natural talent and how much is practice?

You definitely don’t need to feel like you are ‘good at drawing’ to be an artist or illustrator. It helps to be an imaginative thinker, to be inquisitive, and open to experimenting and expressing yourself. The physical techniques to creating art can be learnt and practised again and again. Within children's picture books it’s specifically important to learn the technical skills required to help you become an efficient artist (eg. getting good at Procreate), alongside the fundamentals of creating a story: creating a visual story arc, successful page turners etc… again, practice makes progress!

Do you have any more projects in the pipeline?

Like most illustrators I’m managing an array of projects at any one time. I have a number of projects in the pipeline including one where I will see some of my illustrations animated online. I’m also working on two books which involve me working with community groups, charities and schools in creating the illustrations. This is all following on from a wonderful project I did with a school last year - when I worked with 60 year two children to help them write, illustrate & launch their own book!

I’m also trying to fit in a self-initiated project which involves a new skill for me - linocutting! Whenever I can, I’m carefully cutting 12 designs into lino… I’m only on page two, so watch this space at @jennadoodles if you want to see the outcome.

Do you believe it is just as valuable for a young person to read a graphic novel as it is a poem, novel or short story?

Absolutely! In fact my son - who was initially very reluctant to learn to read - suddenly started to love books when he discovered the Bumble & Snug series (Mark Bradley). This led to us discovering more comics, graphic novels and chapter books. For him, the bold illustrations got him excited about books and about reading. A story can feel so fast-paced and exciting when you’re following a comic-strip style structure - I love to watch him get completely absorbed in the pages.

What advice would you give to someone who wants a career in art?

When I was 17 years old I felt self-conscious that pursuing art would lead to an ‘unimportant’ career. This belief held me back for many more years whilst I felt the pressure of keeping a ‘proper job’. I wish I’d understood back then, that a career in the arts is very important - art enriches our lives, and creativity is an integral part of being human. What is life without art?! There are numerous avenues you can take to finding your own specialism in the arts, so start with an Art Foundation Year, enjoy it, and see where it takes you…

What is the children’s author and illustrator community like? Is there still a network despite so much remote working and people visiting schools typically on their own?
The KidLit community is very welcoming. Fellow author’s and illustrators can be very generous with knowledge and advice. I hang out with a lovely bunch of authors and illustrators in the SW, and we regularly meet up to review each other’s work. I’m also currently a member of SCBWI (The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) where you can find an amazing support network and community. SCBWI runs mentorship programmes, online courses and there are chances to share your portfolio too. Plus, they run a really fun annual conference where you can meet other authors and illustrators to learn from each other and celebrate each other’s successes.

What children’s book/author/series did you most enjoy growing up?

I still name Eric Carle’s The Hungry Caterpillar as my biggest inspiration. It was my favourite and most worn, scuffed-up book as a child, and its colourful simplicity has had a huge impact on me. Eric Carle's famous collagey-style is also a really fun technique to use with children in schools.

What is your favourite animal/wildlife fact?

A koala baby eats its mummy’s poo! It does! It drinks up nutrient-rich ‘pap’ from its mum’s bum! (You can thank Lucy for including that fact in We Are Family)

What do you do to relax?

Listen to music, watch a movie, and I read of course! And I sketch. I also get outdoors for run or swim as much as possible which is a really important part of my daily routine. Without those moments of me-time and exercise I think I’d struggle to sit at my desk and focus all day!