Keith Negley: Award-winning illustrator and writer

When award-winning illustrator and author Keith Negley ’00 (Illustration) isn’t completing projects like his most recent book of “forgotten trailblazers,” he’s creating portraits of celebrities like Taylor Swift, Emma Stone and Chelsea Clinton, and doing editorial illustrations on topics like neurodivergence, organ transplants and the opioid crisis.

“To me my different work topics don’t feel all that different,” says Negley. “They exist in the same universe – it’s like emotions for adults and then there’s emotions for children. I use a lot of the same vocabulary. It’s just the pieces I do for kids the colors tend to be a little brighter.”

Negley’s latest book, “The Running Machine: The Invention of the Very First Bicycle” (Balzer & Bray, Harper Collins, 2024), received a 2024 In Show Original Art Award from the Society of Illustrators. The book completes his trailblazers triptych.

“I love that book so much,” Negley says, “but it was also one of the hardest stories I’ve ever tried to tell because it involved so much. ‘The Year Without Summer’ in 1816 resulted from a massive volcano that caused a famine in the entire northern hemisphere. Everybody used a horse to get around, but horses either starved to death or they were eaten by their owners.

“Right there, you buy a book about a bicycle and I’m talking about a volcano and horses and it’s like what? Having to fit all of this information into 20 spreads in a way that flowed … that was tricky.

“I had also always used a lot of computer in my illustration work, and I really wanted to try getting away from that. All the drawings are by hand and … there’s a lot of collage work. So that was another tricky thing to figure out how to do in a way that felt right – embracing happy accidents and spontaneity and being okay with not having all the control I’m used to having. It was a challenge but also super fun and I’m very very proud of the book.”

Negley says he also loves doing portraits, such as the one he did of Taylor Swift for The New Yorker, but that that wasn’t always the case. “At some point something clicked,” Negley says, “and I realized it’s okay if they don’t look exactly like them. Once I gave myself permission to not make them perfect, they became a lot more fun.”

Originally from Door County, Wis., Negley lives in Bellingham, Wash., with his two sons. His online bio includes a bolded statement regarding his MIAD and MFA degrees: He doesn’t regret the student debt one bit.

“At MIAD, there was so much more than just the degree I got,” explains Negley. “Those four years – transitioning from a child into an adult – that MIAD provided, it was integral for me to find my own center of balance, my own center of gravity. Any time I’d walk in I felt like I was in the presence of magical things happening.”

It’s been an interesting road for the highly awarded Negley, whose scores of clients include The New York Times, OPRAH, The Guardian, NBC and Sub Pop Records.

“I barely graduated high school,” Negley says, “but I did go to MIAD’s Pre-College between my junior and senior year. That program made art college not scary; it made it seem like something I could do and … something that I could be good at. When I got to MIAD I just fell in love and I flourished.”

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