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IF YOU MISSED MY BLOG TALK RADIO INTERVIEW TODAY AT HTTP://BLOGTALKRADIO.COM/BOOKBITEFORKIDS WITH THE PROGRAM HOST, SUZANNE LIEURANCE YOU CAN STILL LISTEN TO IT AS IT IS ARCHIVED. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM AND LISTEN TO IT AT YOUR OWN LIEASURE. IT IS A 30 MINUTE PROGRAM AND I MUST SAY I REALLY ENJOYED SPEAKING WITH SUZANNE. I HOPE YOU GAIN SOME INSIGHT INTO THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK ILLUSTRATING AND PERHAPS I MIGHT HAVE GIVEN YOU A FEW IDEAS.

SO HOP ON OVER TO BOOK BITES FOR KIDS AND LISTEN IN AND WHILE YOU’RE THERE LISTEN IN TO SOME OF THE OTHER GUESTS TOO. I KNOW I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED LISTENING TO THEM.

LATER GATERS…

It’s that time of year again, time to vote on the annual Preditor’s and Editor’s Poll for your favorite writer, artist, publisher, artwork, book etc. I have been nominated again this year (thanks to my devoted fan base) I am nominated in the ARTIST category and in the Book/EBOOK COVER ARTWORK category for two books: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A RAINBOW FARM:THE MISSING COLOR KITTENS” By Trish Cousineau-Peiffer AND “RODNEY RAISES A FAMILY By Judy Caughron Byers. So once again P-L-E-A-S-E VOTE FOR ME! help me bring home the Critter’s Symbol so I can proudly display it on my website. Last year I made the top ten and I was one proud person! One of these days I woukd love to make to number 1 in the Artist category. One can always dream!

So go to http://critter.org/predpoll and cast your vote! To see the tallys each day check at:

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/tally.html

I believe the voting goes to Jan 31st.

Tell your friends to vote too.

Love y’all!

OMG! can you believe it, it has been months since I have posted in my blog. Can’t say having two major surgeries can really contribute to enthusiasm for anything that’s for sure. Late June found me recuperating from total knee replacement surgery (ugh!) This is a surgery I hope to never have to undergo again.  Then two weeks ago I under went ligament reconstruction in my left hand. I had this surgery done on my right hand about 12 years ago. I have been suffering from arthritis since I was very young and it continues to strike my joints whenever it can.

But it takes more than surgeries to keep me down. I often think how odd it is that my favorite painter is Renoir. He was so afflicted with arthritis in his hands that he had his wife strap the brushes to his hands so he could continue to paint, little did I ever imagine that I too would share more than his love of art, but also his affliction as well. On the lighter side, summer has passed and my favorite time of year has come, Fall! Fall with her wonderful glorious array of glowing warm colors.  The trees have just started to turn , but the weather remains stubborn and wants to cling to summer’s hot temps. The weatherman has predicted cooler temps for the latter part of this week. YAY!

On the farm front…Mrs. Turkey frequently comes to the back yard deer feeder with ALL seven of her brood still with her. Now they are all almost full grown and as large as she is.  She has done quite a marvelous job of protecting them and keeping them alive.

We have acquired another dog to add to our family. A full blooded Red Bone hound dog named Dixie.  Tater our golden Retriever mix is in 7th heaven to have a playmate and Joe our very aging cattle dog is much relieved as he no longer has to entertain Tater.

I have had many viewers write in to ask me how to get published this is a subject I will write on soon as it takes a column by itself. Please feel free to write me in and ask me questions, I will answer them the best I can and if I can’t I’ll refer you to someone who can.

“Have You Ever Heard of a Rainbow Farm? -The Missing Color Kittens” is now available at your local book store or online at www.lulu.com. It is a wonderful book in the series. So don’t forget to add it to your kid’s library. The author and I are already working on book 3 so you won’t want to fall behind in the the adventures of the kids of Rainbow Farms and their colorful animals.

This winter be looking for Mary Wilson’s next book I will be illustrating, “Red Hat Grandma”. It promises to be another delight from this accomplished author.

Off to feed the chickens and collect the green eggs (yes my chickens really lay green eggs) Hey, maybe I live on a Rainbow Farm??

Later gaters…

It’s time to update my blog again before  my hair turns white and I am put in a nursing home. I am so sorry that I take so long in between blog entries, but it seems I have little time to sit down and write  daily things. I never could understand how people have the time to keep a daily journal. I’m doing good on answering letters and writing thank you notes.

Summer is here again and this year the arrival is glorious. Gorgeous orange May flowers have bloomed everywhere. We had our pasture bulldozed and leveled last year and when we did it spread the May flowers all over the place. So now we have a field of the lovely bloom. The Yellow Popular tree bloomed as well this year leaving the wonderful fragrance filling the air as we drove up our drive way. At the entrance to our 1500 ft drive way we also have two Lilac trees, one on each side and they also bloomed..oh heaven! I can just stand there for hours and sniff their delightful fragrance.

The white tail deer and wild turkey are plentiful and seem to know our farm is a safe refuge for them. We have a gated and fenced property and no one is allowed on our land without permission so we can protect the wild life here. “Jesse”, our old Saddle Bred horse was recently given a new companion as we purchased a wonderful Appaloosa horse trail riding horse (named “Breeze” at a recent auction. You can see a pic of him at my web site at  in my Photography gallery.

Yesterday I picked scads of wild strawberries, yum yum!  July will bring blackberries aplenty, I can hardly wait. Winter will bring Maple syrup again…my little farm keeps giving back to me..God is good!

We also have added three new lambs to our family. All Shetlands. One is a buff color, one is brown and one is black. They are all rams. “Milly” our ewe has her hand (hooves ?) fulls now. She is so happy to be their adopted mama and has taken to motherhood like a charm. Sure solved mowing the backyard problem that’s for sure and fertilizing it at the same time.

It is definitely a green summer to start due to all the recent rain that has caused so much devastating floods in the central area of the state. We have been most fortunate here with no damage or flooding.

I am currently working on “Harry Goes to the Fair” by Norma Sutton and hope to have the illustrations finished soon. Norma is a wonderful writer and makes illustrating so much fun.

Be watching for “Grandma’s Many Hats” by Mary Wilson this is in two versions the African-American and the Caucasion version to be published soon. It is a charming book about a granny in the Red Hat Society by her granddaughter.

I am looking forward to drinking lots of iced tea and lemonade and have lots of fun visiting with friends on the patio this summer. I hope you are too.

later gaters…

Those silly cows are at it again! Myrtle and Maude Cow now have their very own web site and domain name. They also have their very own fan club. So go on over and visit them at:

http://www.myrtleandmaudecow.com. In case you don’t know who Myrtle and Maude are, they are the cow characters in my children’s book “Myrtle & Maude 2 Happy Cows” that I both authored and illustrated. It is available for purchase at:

http://www.lulu.com/content/390569 or ask your local book store to order it for you.

ISBN: 978-1-60530-243-0.

Make sure you tell all the kids in your life they will have lots of freebies and games and contests.

I am often approached by illustrators just starting out in the field. I am asked many questions pertaining to “how” to get started and “what” to do.  The first thing I usually tell them is to get their own web site.   A web site is one of the most important things a beginning illustrator should do.  There are some crucial guidelines that I think are worth taking a look at when considering a web page or site.  A web site will be a vital link for the illustrator to potential clients: the authors and  publishers.

First remember your web site will reflect you as an illustrator. If you can not afford to have a web host and a site designed for you then you can do one for yourself, but in either case please consider what I have to say.

I can’t brag enough on my web designers and web host, Greenfield Design, a talented group of designers in the UK, number one in my book!

Try to think of your web site as a simple resume’ , in a sense. You wouldn’t send an 6 page resume’, but a crisp, precise one page statement of who you are, what you do and some samples of what you do.

It should download fairly quick and not take 4 hours to download! I have visited a few web sites where I have found myself ready to scream waiting for the site to finished downloading that you swear you are even going to find out the illustrator’s blood type, last will and testament and possibly funeral arrangements.

Of course you want to highlight the positive about yourself and your achievements, awards and outstanding skills, but oh golly, hold off from bragging on yourself until the cows come home.

I have read some illustrator’s web sites that boast about illustrating 50-100 books in the last 6 months for various clients.  Well first of all if I was an author or a publisher that would throw up a red flag immediately, not to get off the subject, but this is an example of where a boast can hurt more than help.  A good illustrator will take at least 3-6 months to illustrate a book many times even longer.  If an illustrator is cracking out books that fast that tells me he is turning out “cookie cutter” characters and most likely digital medium only.  There’s nothing wrong with digital medium, but it should be a tool for the illustrator unless you’re an animator then it is a commitment. A illustrator should be a more varied in the mediums.  Now to the subject of what I mean by “cookie cutter” characters.  This term applies to an artist’s characters and often is found in animated or digital work.  Do the characters all look alike; such as the animals and the people?

I recently had a publisher contact me to illustrate a book, but since I already have too much on my plate I referred him to a friend illustrator’s web site.  The publisher’s response was “You got to be kidding! If I wanted ALL my characters to look exactly the same with huge eyes and garish colors that looked like they were from the planet Zor, then maybe. Can this guy even draw freehand? “  I think this explains what I am trying to say:  character conception or the illustrator’s ability to create characters for different manuscripts.

Include a brief Bio of yourself. You don’t have to tell everything about you, in fact it is not a good thing in this day and age of identity theft and security to include too much info about yourself.  If a publisher wants your professional resume’ he’ll ask for it.

Include links for lists of recent books or upcoming books.

Links are a great way to keep items organized on a web site.

Put a few samples of your work on the site , not 100! and make sure they are not so huge that again it makes your page slower to download. You can make a clickable size increase so if the viewer wants to see a larger view all they have to do is click on the thumbnail size sample.

Include a contact box, but I wouldn’t recommend your personal email address.

Surf around and view different illustrator’s web sites.  Note what you like and what you don’t like.

Just remember to stay organized. I think the most important thing to remember is your work will speak for itself in the end, but as I stated before your web site is a large reflection of you.

I’m really excited about Book 2 in the series “Have You Ever Heard of a Rainbow Farm?-The Missing Color Kittens”  by author Trish Cousineau, is to be released soon by Dream Ridge Press. This book is even more super cool than the first book. It has the same full color format, but is loaded with many more illustrations and the story promises to delight all kids and adults again!  Author Trish Cousineau has outdone herself with this darling story of the three characters, Jesse, Cody and Cassidy and their adventures on their rainbow farm in search of the lost color kittens. Trish’s books not only are wonderful stories for children, but also teach colors, counting concepts, and animals with their sounds recognition. So be watching my web site, My Space site, My Tagged site, My Gather.com site for details of it’s release.

Some people like to paint and draw inanimate objects. They get turned on to art or inspired by this sort of thing like a beautiful Italian vase on a table by a window with a sheer veil curtain, or an old weather worn wagon loaded down with vintage tack, but I find my inspiration in nature. It could be your cat, dog or bird or in my case I have acres full of nature to draw from. Trees, flowers and wildlife both serious and amusing.

On my  blog I have mentioned Mrs. Turkey many times. She is a wild turkey who lives on our farm. There are several wild turkeys who roam our woods and come to our deer feeder in our back yard for the corn. Our farm is in between two other farms and it is a “safe” farm that means we do not hunt or allow hunting on our farm. We have several wooded acres where the deer and wildlife roam freely and are safe to reproduce and live without fear of a hunter killing them. It is not uncommon to see a doe and her baby right in the middle of our driveway on your drive up to our house or a turkey running smack up the middle of the drive.

This morning Mrs. Turkey was back and she came back with seven chicks. I watched them as she took them to the deer feeder and they followed suit as she pecked at the corn. She then took them to the soft dirt . She rolled and shuffled in it to preen her feathers and then in turn each little chick did the same exact thing.

We have two raccoons who regularly come to feed at the feeder. One is a young one, the offspring of the older one who was the only one we saw last year. I love to watch him eat the corn. He picks up a kernel, rubs it in his hands to clean it and then eats it. He does this with each kernel he eats.

If that isn’t enough inspiration for children’s books there is always the birds. Red ones, brilliant blue birds, woodpeckers with red heads and solid black bodies and red heads and black and white ladder designs on their bodies, Blue Jays, Golden Finches and the list goes on. Oh and of course the squirrels, last year mama squirrel had three babies. We have red squirrels and gray squirrels and sometimes there are as many as twelve squirrels eating at the feeder at once. Chaos happens when the squirrels are eating and the Cardinals arrive. Look out if the Blue Jays come too as soon they all start running each other off, but if a Woodpecker shows up he will get first choice and everyone runs! Who the heck needs T.V. my windows are continuous entertainment and inspiration for my art!’

‘Yes it will soon be that time again, summer. As far as I am concerned, it already IS summer. Today the temp is supposed to reach 90 degrees, HOT, HOT, HOT. I am not too excited about this as I had enough of the hot weather when I lived in Texas for 21 years. I was more than happy to leave “the Hellhole” (as I called it to the grasshoppers) and return to God’s country, the midwest. Now all you Texans don’t be sending me hate messages, my kiddos and grandbabies are still there and lovvveee Texas to pieces.

Anyhow, back to the subject of summer. Ah yes, the scent of new mown grass, the sound of sprinklers swishing, birds singing in the trees, children laughing and playing outside..I do love the summertime. Then there is painting in “en plein aire” which means using natural light to paint in, sunlight, outdoors. Summertime is a wonderful time to join your local art association or guild as many of these organizations get together and paint in the area parks or nature habitats to paint or sketch. Natural light painting is a creative experience and once you try it you’ll tend to want to stick with it. Of course when an artist is outdoors surrounded by God’s beauty you might find yourself overwhelmed with inspiration, so take along your camera too and get in some good shots while your’re at it.

I was born drawing, scribbling whatever you want to call it. It was a gift the Good Lord decided to bestow on me. And as long as I could remember my heart’s desire was to illustrate children’s literature. Well life sometimes gets in the way and although I continued to draw, paint create in anyway I could create, things just didn’t go the way I dreamed as a child. I married and we started a family. My husband and I entered the pastorate and the dream of going to art school was put on the back burner of my heart. I had plenty of opportunity, however to use my talent. There were churches and denominations always looking for an artist to design brochures, flyers, newletters,posters, paint murals, illustrate Christian literature, teach seminars and workshops, you name it, I did it and I did it for 26 years. Homeschooling my last child through his last year of high school, I entered my first year of art school, I was 45 years old. I was as giddy as a kid starting kindergarten. I was on an exciting artistic adventure. Then after my first year, my old enemy, arthritis struck me again. I had to have surgery on my right hand, I am right handed. Would I be able to ever draw again? Would I be able to finish school?

I would have to have my thumb joint totally removed and a tendon taken from my wrist and put in my thumb joint so I would be able to move it. The recoup time would be at least a year. So school would have to be put on hold.

But I did return to school that next summer after nine months of physical therapy and I graduated with honors two years later at the age of 48 years old. I have since been actively involved in my dream of illustrating children’s books, children’s magazines and much more.

So follow your dream no matter how old you are. One of my favorite artists as a child and now as an adult was always Grandma Moses. Little did I know she would be my inspiration in more ways than one.