About DrawingsOf.com and Lillie

Drawings Of… was created in 2020 by Boston artist, English teacher, and Reiki meditation practitioner, Lillie Marshall, to share her hand-drawn educational cartoons and happy art. The delightful illustrations here help teach ELA concepts (hello, homophones and figurative language!), artistic tutorials (cute drawings!), life experiences (irony and meditation colors, anyone?), and more.

Because Lillie has taught every age over the past 20 years — from elementary, middle, and high school to adults — the articles and lessons on this site have proven useful to people of all ages. Have a desire for an article illustrating something? Be in contact!

How to Use “Drawings Of…”

Drawings Of… is divided into three different fun educational sections that reflect Lillie’s three areas of expertise: English lessons, Art, and Reiki energy work. Here is an overview of the organizational structure, with suggestions on how to use each section.

1. English Lessons

Having been an English teacher for nearly twenty years (teaching ages 5 through adult since 2003), the English lessons section of DrawingsOf.com is robust! I specialize in hand-illustrating lessons on how to remember hard words to spell in the English language, including a big list of homophones, tricky commonly confused words, and those words that everyone writes incorrectly so often, folks think they’re correct — but they’re misspellings!

As an ELA teacher, I also have a big round-up of literary terms and devices, including figurative language. (I’m working on building out the idioms section, so let me know if you have requests for that.) Since I’m also a librarian now, in addition to being a mother to two young kids, I have a section on kids’ stories, as well as the books I’ve written or am in the process of writing.

2. Art Inspiration

I’ve been an artist all my life (and I’m in my 40s now, so that’s a while)! As such, a vital part of DrawingsOf.com is the easy, cute drawing ideas section, which has drawing tutorials on everything from animals, to adorable food, to holiday art, to umbrellas, as well as drawing prompts.

If you’re looking for free printables to color in, look no further than my free cute coloring pages: easy black and white illustrations spanning a wide range of topics, from animals, to food, to holidays, to fantasy.

I also have created a great many lessons on all aspects of colors. For example, the science behind complementary colors, and a massive color mixing chart of what happens when you swirl different shades together.

3. Energy Colors

Because I’m also a very active Reiki practitioner who has worked with hundreds of clients for hands-on energy work in Boston since 2017 and specialize in chakra colors and balancing, my Reiki symbols tutorial and Reiki Principles article on this site are popular and instructive.

Click around, see what interests you, and feel free to add comments and share!

Who is the Artist, Lillie Marshall?

Hello! My name is Lillie, and I’m a six-foot-tall English teacher, artist, writer, athlete, Reiki practitioner, and mama from Boston, Massachusetts.

I ran a daily cartoon at Brown University from 1999-2003 and provided art for various companies in the years after that, but took a pause from public cartooning in 2009 after launching Around the World “L” Travel and Life Blog to focus on my photography and prose.

I never stopped drawing, though! As a full-time public school ELA teacher starting all the way back in 2003, I’ve used my cartoons frequently to explain concepts to students. Over time, the idea began to emerge: Could these illustrations be expanded to a wider audience? After starting Teaching Traveling Global Education Site in 2010, I became increasingly inspired by the many ways educators engage beyond their classrooms.

When everything shut down in early 2020 — including travel and in-person teaching (two things that had taken many of my hours) — I realized that the moment was NOW to launch this third website, DrawingsOf.com: a site completely focused on my artwork, and how I use it to teach about the world. It has made me extremely happy already, and I thank you for coming by.

Can I Share These Articles and Drawings?

You are always welcome to share links to articles housed on this site for new readers to see. Some of my educational posts may be of particular interest to teachers wishing to assign them alongside lessons. If so, feel free to have students leave comments or questions, which I will respond to.

Regarding taking my drawings and sharing them elsewhere: It’s of utmost importance to give artists credit, so if you choose to share one of my images, please make sure to clearly attribute it to DrawingsOf.com and have a clickable link in easy sight so people know where it came from and can find the rest of my work. Please do not reproduce more than one picture without my explicit permission.

What Medium is Used for this Artwork?

To hand-draw these cartoons and works of whimsical art, I use a seventh generation iPad, Apple Pencil, and the app called Procreate.

Can I Buy Lillie’s Art?

Thanks to reader requests, there is now a “Shop!” section of this site, in which you can buy colorful clothing hand-designed by Lillie, posters of Lillie’s art, and printables and worksheets. If there is something you’d like to buy that isn’t yet in the shop, feel free to contact Lillie to request it.

Are There Books by Lillie?

There now is an expanding set of paper children’s books by Lillie Marshall available for purchase on Amazon! See the growing listing of Lillie’s books here.

Are There Videos of the Drawings?

You’re in luck! Every article has a time-lapse video embedded which shows my entire illustration process, slips and all! You can click to see and subscribe to the full Drawings Of… YouTube Channel.

How Do I Contact the Artist?

Thanks for your interest in reaching out! You can use this contact form, or email me at Lillie at DrawingsOf dot com. I’d also love if you took a moment to leave a note on the Testimonials page if you’ve gotten good use out of any of the lessons on this site. Feel free to also connect via social media, especially Pinterest and Facebook. See you around!

Enjoy, and feel free to leave any comments or questions! I look forward to hearing from you.