By Shya Beth
June Evers knows the ups and downs of life as an illustrator and graphic designer, and is living proof that pushing through the more challenging times and not giving up one’s dreams is the pathway to living them out. Specializing in graphic design and illustration, June typically does not create custom illustration projects.
“It tears me apart to hand something over,” she said. “I can be a graphic designer all day long working on magazines, advertisements, cards and other designs, and can hand those right over. My illustrations, however, are a part of me, and I just can’t give them up unless they are in printed or book form. The originals always stay with me. From a business perspective as well, I prefer being able to create a design and then have it take on a life of its own, bringing many people joy and a smile, rather than just an individual piece.”
As a graphic designer and illustrator, June has created countless types of products and creative projects, but the books stand out as her favorite. Two of her most popular, “Anyone Can Draw Horses,” which teaches people of all ages to draw horses, and the out-of-print “The Original Book of Horse Treats,” filled with recipes for treats and things you can make for your horses, are among her favorites.
Simplicity is often best when it comes to the actual physical creation of her work, so pencils abound in her studio. “I love the feel of a pencil sliding across paper. I use marker composition layout paper, the type we used to create ‘comps’ in advertising prior to the computer. It’s similar to printing paper, but it’s thinner and kind of see-through, so you can put another piece over your drawing to trace and to fix a section. I do use digital processes for the printing of greeting cards, stickers and books, but everything always starts with pencil and paper.”
Designing Her Own Path
In the early 1980s, June was between colleges. Previously an equestrian major at Lake Erie College, she took a few years off, feeling unsure of the path forward. Working at Standardbred racing farms as a groom, she started a sign-painting business. “Back then, people actually hand-painted signs,” June said. “I was actually doing well at that, and then I started hand-painting horses on T-shirts, which I would sell at fairs. The entrepreneurial spirit bit me hard and stuck with me.”
When June went back to school and attended the Rhode Island School of Design in 1983, the mood around art was different. “They were hardcore, and they drilled into your brain how difficult it was to be an artist,” she said. “With many illustrators aspiring to be political or editorial cartoonists or artists, I had a different focus. I tried to learn as much as I could about everything, particularly graphic design, and my senior project was focused on horses. That made me a bit of a laughingstock at school, but I knew I had more of a chance as an equine illustrator than any of the other projected illustration careers.”
After graduating in 1986, June lived and worked in New York City doing mostly graphic design and art director jobs. It was in 1990, in her apartment, that she created a tote bag with a horse design and placed an advertisement in the magazine Horse Illustrated. Lots of success came from that, and soon after, she learned about an equestrian wholesale trade show in Pennsylvania and created two more products—a mug and a nightshirt. Sitting on the mezzanine of the show with hardly any foot traffic, one tack store retailer finally sat down and said, “I want to place an order.” She was hooked, and after all this time since then, June still has the same retailers she met back then placing orders and considers them all friends.
Making Friends Along the Way
“All of my projects are meaningful, from those first totes to larger designs,” June said. “I’ve worked with the AHSA, now known as USEF, and the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden, when they were in NYC, and I’m still friends with many of the people I worked with. Now, for the past 10-plus years, I’ve been working with the New England Dressage Association on their monthly magazine and love it. It’s so much fun to work with horsey people. Throughout this time, my own work has evolved, too. I’m a stickler for conformation, dimensions, structure and getting hooves right. I know in a second if an equine illustrator worked from a photo and doesn’t know the skeleton or actual structure and muscles of the horse. When you know the insides of a horse, you can make your horse believable and in any crazy position you’d like to draw it.”
June’s own horse passed on two years ago, but as a horse owner and rider for over five decades, she knows horses inside and out. Being an artist is about feel, and being on and around a horse helps with that feeling, though sometimes there are still creative blocks. “Whenever I have a creative block, I take a step back, work on a different project, perhaps a house project—we live in a house built in 1810, so there is always lots to do. I just put whatever I’m working on down and revisit it later, but often revisit the project in my mind, move things around inside my head, and usually come up with a solution that way, too.”
For others looking to pursue equine art, June’s advice is simple: “Do it! Keep the day or part-time job so you can keep your passion going with financing. There are going to be times when you’ll put your head in your hands and wonder what you’ll do, but don’t despair. In those times, the best ideas and solutions pop into your head. Sometimes bad things, bad times or unexpected events are the catalyst for the good and the exceptional. You will have so much fun, too. As for my own goals and future, I’m living a dream right now. But I sure would like to get that wallpapered hallway in the house stripped and redone!”
For more information, visit horsehollowpress.com
