Meet Author & Illustrator Carol Heyer
Carol Heyer is a full-time illustrator and writer. Heyer worked for a movie production company as production designer and writer of feature films. She left the production company to pursue a career as a freelance artist and writer. One of Heyer's specialties is children's books. She has retold and illustrated numerous books and fairy tales.
Heyer has won awards for her children's art from The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, The Carnegie Art Institute, and The Society of Illustrators LA. To date, well over one million of her books have been sold.
Heyer's father and mother, William J. and Merlyn M. Heyer, were great influences in their daughter's life. Heyer credits the success of her freelance career to the support her parents gave her. This support in turn allowed her to take "the road less traveled, which has made all the difference" and, the most wonderful thing of all, the opportunity to write and paint the things she loves.
Carol, tell us a little bit about yourself. Your website says you live in Thousand Oaks in Southern California. Are you a native Californian then?
Not native exactly! I was born in Cuero, Texas, turkey trot capital of the world! But we moved out to California when I was four, so I feel like a Californian. I live in a beautiful area and I’m very lucky to have a wonderful group of family and friends around me. I have two little dogs. T.C. is my Yorkie; his initials stand for Tough Cookie. When he was a tiny puffball puppy he used to woof at everything and always acted tough, hence the name. He is twenty years old now and is my smiling fellow. (He actually shows his teeth when he smiles.) My other dog is Tinker. She is a Chihuahua, but thinks she’s a princess. No one has told her any different. She’s fourteen now.
I always take a busman’s holiday; in my free time I write and paint even when I don’t have assignments.
How old were you when you first decided you wanted to write and illustrate children's books?
The first book I can remember writing was an autobiography. I was six! It was actually a school assignment that also had illustrations and of course photos. But putting those pages together and making a book out of it stuck with me forever.
Can you remember the deciding factor that "put you over the edge" to actually do this?
Well, I was working for a movie production company full-time but doing some freelance work on the side. One of the jobs was drawing two characters for Northwind Studios, run by Katherine Zwers and John Tobin. They owned the rights to two characters named Hopscotch, a lamb, and Sebastian, a shepherd. I was drawing black and white cartoons that appeared every week in church bulletins across the country.
I’d been doing this for about a year when Katherine and John came to me with a Christmas picture book they wrote called A Star in the Pasture. See
http://www.carolheyer.com/hopscotch.htm
http://www.carolheyer.com/hopscotchhouse.htm
K and J asked me if I wanted to do some samples on spec and they would do all the marketing. I said “absolutely,” and it wasn’t very long after that we sold the first book. As they say, the rest is history.
I did one more Hopscotch and Sebastian book before going out on my own. My third book was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which I illustrated in colored pencil. See http://www.carolheyer.com/beautybeastquery.htm
http://www.carolheyer.com/snarlingbeast.htm
What did you do before deciding to write and illustrate for children full-time?
When I graduated from college, I taught art part-time and freelanced for several small companies who couldn’t afford a full-time artist. I did T-shirt designs, logos, and demonstrated computer art at SIGGRAPH and various other conventions before working full- time at a small movie production company.
I worked at Lynn-Wenger Productions for ten years doing storyboards for the effects division, production design, and I also wrote screenplays. Thunder Run was a film I co-wrote with Charles Davis. It was my first feature film, and it starred Forrest Tucker and John Ireland and was released by Cannon Films. I also wrote a screenplay titled May Day which Lynn-Wenger produced and released to the video market.
What kind of training did you have for your artwork?
I’ve drawn my whole life. My mother, Merlyn, was a brilliant artist and she taught me all of my basic art techniques. My father, William, was also very creative and I learned lapidary and jewelry making from him. I went to Thousand Oaks High School and took art classes at Moorpark College. I graduated with an art scholarship from California Lutheran University.
What's your favorite way to illustrate (e.g., watercolors, oil, etc.) and why?
My favorite medium is acrylic paints. I’ve developed a dry brush technique that looks very much like airbrush. I love it because I can work very fast. My technique dries quickly and flat so I can make any changes the publishers request. I can rework the art in the morning and send the final painting back to them in the afternoon mail.
What inspires your characters for fantasy?
I love all the old legends and fairy tales, creatures from myth, and some from my own imagination. Happily Ever After is based on The Frog Prince. See http://www.carolheyer.com/HappilyEverAfter.htm
I like to do my own take on all these creatures from Pegasus to Magicians. See
http://www.carolheyer.com/Pegasus.htm
http://www.carolheyer.com/smokingwand.htm
Do you write your story first and then develop the characters from your writing, or do you draw the characters first and then write your story?
I’ve done it both ways. For picture books I seem to visualize characters first and draw them out, even paint sample illustrations.
In the middle grade and YA stories I’m writing now, the stories seem to take on a life of their own that includes the characters and their descriptions. I’m never sure which way I’ll go on one of my own projects!
Why do you prefer the fantasy genre to other genres?
I love fantasy because to me, it is liberating! You can design any kind of character, creature, or world you want. Someone can tell you your dinosaur isn’t right, but no one can tell you your dragon is wrong! It’s your complete creation. No laws of science to worry about, as with sci-fi. Fantasy is your world to design and bring to life any way you wish.
Tell us about your books – you've published so many!
Well, I’ve had twenty-six books published. My books have sold over 1,500,000 copies so far.
I’ve illustrated books for other authors, such as Dinosaurs Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle and Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O’Malley.
I’ve done numerous retellings of fairy tales and legends, including Excalibur, Sleeping Beauty, and Robin Hood, which I also illustrated.
What are your favorites?
Robin Hood is one of my favorites. I have a lot of great memories with that book and all the family and friends who were involved in it with me. I think I had the most fun working on that book. One of the reasons is that I use friends, family, and local people for models in a lot of my art and books.
When I was getting ready to do illustrations for Robin Hood I couldn't find a model that I thought fit the part. So I asked everyone to keep a look out to find a great Robin. I had lined up a couple of newspapers to cover my photo shoot at a local park. The day before the shoot I had the merry men, but still didn't have anyone lined up for my main character.
That evening, we ordered pizza. Can you guess? The delivery boy was 6’4” with long brown hair, and I knew he was the right person for the job! So every time I talk about this book I tell everyone that Robin Hood is my pizza delivery guy!
Another reason it’s my favorite is parts of the old Robin Hood movie starring Errol Flynn were filmed out in my area. A trailer park and homes are there now, built along streets named Nottingham Lane and Maid Marion Drive! The oak trees that grow there are massive and ancient. This was part of Sherwood Forest in the movie and in my book as well.
I made a special trip out there and took lots of reference photos of those trees. It’s just a kind of neat little thing that meant something to me since that’s one of my favorite movies.
Here are a few model photos and the final art that incorporates them. The first one is ROBIN HOOD. See http://www.carolheyer.com/models-robinhood.htm
http://www.carolheyer.com/models-topsecret.htm
http://www.carolheyer.com/models-rapunzel.htm
What books are coming out soon?
I’m working on an Easter book with Ideals Children’s Books. It will have some humor and a heartfelt ending like Humphrey. We’re just in the preliminary stages of the project now.
Of all the characters you've ever created, who is your favorite, and why?
Humphrey the camel from my latest book Humphrey’s First Christmas is my favorite character. This is my first original story, and it felt like my first book. I also did the illustrations. It’s told by Humphrey, in first person camel. He is a cantankerous fellow who spends most of his time tormenting the camel driver and trying to get a new blanket to replace the old one he lost on the trail. But when he arrives in Bethlehem and meets a baby shivering in the manger, his whole attitude changes.
If you click on this link and scroll down a little you can see art samples from Humphrey’s First Christmas. See http://www.carolheyer.com/new.htm
You've also won many awards for your work. Can you tell us about some of your favorite awards and what book the award was for?
I’ve always been proud to have won several awards from Spectrum, which is an international competition for fantastical art. One of the illustrations that they published was “The Guardian at the Gate,” another was the wicked witch from The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. It was titled “Faerie Fire.” Here’s a link to the illustrations on my web site:
http://www.carolheyer.com/angel.htm
http://www.carolheyer.com/witchsleepingbeauty.htm
This same painting also won an award from The Society of Illustrators LA.
Print Regional Design Annual printed an illustration I did for a sci-fi story published in Aboriginal Science Fiction Magazine. It was titled “A Cry of Seagulls.” See http://www.carolheyer.com/cryofseagulls.htm
I was also very excited when I received the Best Fantasy Portfolio Award at the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) Summer Conference. Winning the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for a Dragon Magazine cover titled “Frog Prince” is also an award I’m proud of:
http://www.carolheyer.com/frogprince.htm
You attribute a lot of your success to the influence of your parents. Can you remember 'way back when' to how your parents encouraged you to write and draw?
Well, as I mentioned before, both of my parents were artistic and they both encouraged me in everything artistic. I wrote poetry, stories, painted, and made jewelry and of course everything I did was wonderful to them. They encouraged me to experiment in every aspect of the arts. They never once told me they didn’t think I could or should try something.
When it came time for me to choose between my job at the production company and my real love, illustrating, my parents made it possible for me to transition over. I first worked on a part-time basis at the film company. Then when my third picture book came out and I was getting book covers, collector cards, and gaming jobs, I quit altogether. It was a huge drop in salary at first and without their support, financial and emotional, I would never have been able to do what I’m doing today.
Did they read to you at all? How old were you when they started to read to you?
My mother read to me as long as I can remember. She also told stories. Her stories about fairies and magic from Grimms’ Fairy Tales were usually better than the books, and I loved hearing them. I think that’s part of the reason I like fantasy so much.
It is very rare to find an author who is also an accomplished illustrator who has been able to get the writing and illustrating jobs together in one book. Do you have any secrets you can share with us on how to do this? So many places (including SFC) usually don't want to see an author's story accompanied by their own illustrations. How do you get past their objections?
Well, I guess I’ve been very lucky since I’ve always sent my art out with my writing and have never been rejected for that. I’m open to having my story purchased and not my art and vice versa, but of course I prefer to do both. I work very hard on my writing skills and have a couple of writing groups, as well as a wonderful illustration group. When I finally send something out, it is the best I can make it. I think that’s always the best tip.
What was the funniest thing that's ever happened to you in your writing/illustrating career? How about the saddest?
Well, one of the funniest rejections I ever got was from a publisher who liked what I did, but could never purchase the project I was presenting, because birds were among the main characters, and she disliked birds. Not only that, but they were chickens and she particularly hated chickens. She told me there was no way she could look, day after day, at art that had chickens in it! So at least it was one of the less painful rejections I’ve received and the funniest.
Bad reviews, rejection letters, losing assignments are always tough. At least I don’t cry anymore!
Is there anything else you'd like the SFC readership to know about you?
My decision to leave a good paying job and become a freelancer was a hard one, but one I’ve never regretted it. I love what I do for a living and wouldn’t do anything else. I won’t kid you, it’s hard work being a freelancer. You have to be your own PR person, do your own marketing, have an idea of contract law and still find time to paint!
But I always remember my favorite poem written by Robert Frost, called “The Road Not Taken.” This is my favorite stanza:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.