Hello and welcome to Peri Illustration! I'm Jen, a natural science illustrator who particularly gravitates towards mustelids, marsupials, arthropods, cephalopods, carnivorous plants, orchids, artifacts, antiquities, and antiques (to name just a few things), as well as the odd creature that doesn't exist...but possibly could.  Out-and-out monsters are also fun. Art deco, art nouveau, Golden Age illustrators, and the work of more than a few Old Masters (particularly Hieronymus Bosch), are all incredibly inspiring to me, and I love having opportunities to try to incorporate aspects of those aesthetics into some of my artwork.

When not illustrating, I can be found sewing contemporary and historical clothing, cooking, learning to play fingerstyle guitar, fishing, antique-hunting, exploring, and playing the occasional ultimate frisbee game (NOT all at the same time). 

       Jen Gillies attended California State University's Science Illustration Graduate Program in Monterey Bay, Class of 2014, ending with an internship doing entomology illustrations at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She previously attended the PEG Program at Mary Baldwin College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Anthropology in 2008. She has worked professionally with Adobe Flash and Illustrator for over seven years.