How Spring Valley artist Reggie Brown went back to the drawing board and found success

Voting-rights activist Stacey Abrams was a joy. Abolitionist Harriet Tubman was an honor. President Barack Obama was a challenge.

For artist Reggie Brown, capturing the likenesses of Black icons and the sweep of Black history in the new best-selling children’s book “Who Are Your People?” was a lot of things. All of them were rewarding; none of them were expected.

“I did not give any thought to anything like this happening. I thought, ‘I’ll just try putting my artwork out there. Maybe it will take a couple of years to get an agent. Maybe I’ll get one or two books and then go find another 9-to-5 job,'” Brown said from his home in Spring Valley.

“It’s been awesome. Sometimes, I can’t believe it myself.”

Born in the Philippines and raised mostly in San Diego, Brown started drawing almost as soon as he could hold a pencil. He took art classes in school, and he perfected his skills by copying the comic books he loved.

But after graduating from Scripps Ranch High School, he decided he was less interested in pursuing art than he was in getting a job and living life. It took a big life change to get him back to the drawing board.

Brown’s unbelievable journey to the New York Times Best Sellers list started in the spring of 2018, when he was laid off from his customer-service job at a San Diego biotech company. After the shock wore off, Brown started doing graphic design. He liked it well enough, but it wasn’t his ion.

So he decided to go for what was.

At a friend’s suggestion, Brown started thinking about children’s books. In November of 2018, he ed the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and began posting his drawings on Instagram. By January of 2019, he had an agent. By March, he had a contract with Penguin Random House to do the illustrations for “The Magnificent Makers” science and adventure series.

Less than four years after taking a leap into the career unknown, Brown has landed in a very sweet spot. He has now illustrated five “Magnificent Makers” books (Theanne Griffith did the writing); the “Soccer Baby” and “Baseball Baby” board books (written by Laura Gehl); and “Santa in the City,” which was written by Tiffany D. Jackson.

“People always say it was fast, but I’ve been drawing for 43 years,” said Brown, who turns 44 at the end of March. “It might seem fast, but it’s been a long time coming. It was me finding my way to it.”

With “Who Are Your People?,” it was a matter of success finding its way to Brown when he wasn’t even looking.

Written by attorney, politician and political analyst Bakari Sellers, “Who Are Your People?” celebrates some of Black history’s most groundbreaking people and places. When it came to the illustrations, Sellers gave Brown the freedom to follow his artistic spirit wherever it chose to take him. Some of his illustrating journeys were more challenging than others.

“Stacey Abrams was fun to draw, and the Harriet Tubman scene was the most fun I had. It’s weird to say that, but I just really liked the imagery and the composition of that piece,” Brown said.

“Obama was the most difficult, because everyone knows what he looks like. He is so current. If you don’t get him right, people are like, ‘Who’s that?'”

And in connecting young readers with everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Kamala Harris, “Who Are Your People?” also introduced Brown to the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Less than three weeks after its release in early January of this year, the book debuted at No. 4, just behind new picture books by inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and Stacey Abrams herself.

“It was really an out-of-body experience. It wasn’t until I went to Warwick’s (bookstore) and saw it on display there that it really hit me. Seeing your book in a bookstore and seeing your name there, it’s such a great feeling. I don’t know how to describe it. It was a really great high.”

Whether they are capturing civil-rights activists, fearless girl scientists or magical mystical beasts, Brown’s illustrations are buoyant and full of life. That joy will be on full display again in April with the release of “Kicks,” a picture-book ode to sneakers and the people who love them.

The book was written by award-winning poet Van G. Garrett and illustrated by Brown, a man who turned a blow into a bonus and ran with it.

“A lot of people wait for that golden tap on the shoulder, where someone just picks them out of the blue. I think what I learned from this is that you have to put yourself out there, show your work and go for what you want,” said Brown, who credits the enthusiastic of his wife, Demetria, with getting him through the first doubt-filled months that followed the layoff.

“I don’t think I ever would have done any of this if I hadn’t been pushed. It was kind of a desperation thing, but it worked out for me.”