A Lot Of Atmosphere

Illustration Friday's latest challenge, ATMOSPHERE.

Well, how much atmosphere do they want?
Opened up Lynda De Witt's, What Will The Weather Be?
One of the best things about illustrating a HarperCollins
Let's Read And Find Out science book is learning so many
things I didn't know about the subject. In this case, weather.
And weather happens in (ahem) the atmosphere!
What to choose? Finally, I decided this image of a cold
front moving in showed the most atmosphere.
Here are some others choices.

Like I keep saying.... 
I've drawn almost everything in
the world at least once.  ;-)

Getting Sirius, Dog Days

(click on images to enlarge)

In case anyone thinks this blog has gone to the cats,

I felt compelled to mention that I have drawn and

painted my share of dogs as well. 

For reasons that will become immediately obvious,

I'm starting with my chapter heading (above) for 

"Sirius" from Peter Limburg's WHAT'S IN THE 

NAMES OF STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS. 

Sirius being the "Dog Star" after whom these dog 

days of August are named.

This farm dog from my THE THREE BROTHERS,

Whitebird/Putnam hangs around Amos, the youngest 

brother while he does chores. Animals can enliven

picture book illustrations, even when they may not 

mentioned in text.

In FINGERPLAYS AND SONGS FOR THE 

VERY YOUNG (known in my family as the

Patty Cake Book) Random House, pup enjoys

the game.

This dog "helps" the girl put on a warm sweater

in SNOW, LET'S GO, by Karen Berman Nagel, 

Scholastic Cartwheel.

From Baby Bug Magazine. Can you hear the 

puppy panting waiting for the boy to throw the ball?

Doesn't the picture say it all? (check out the dog's

expression). Sample promotional piece.

And In Memorium

left; Buster and right; Sophie Schnauzer Croll, Tizzy and Fred's

Chicago cousins

Sadly, my brother Jonathan sent word today

that his beloved little Schnauzer "Cutie Girl 

Sophie, Queen-of-Almost-Everything" passed 

away this morning. 

Hopefully joining the spirit of her brother, Buster. 

 ^..^      ^..^

( x )     ( x )

Little Star Gazing

Colleague Paula Pertile, whose delightful blog Drawing A 

Fine Line at http://drawingafineline.blogspot.com I enjoy,

put me on to www.illustrationfriday.com 

   This week's topic "Star Gazing" reminded me of 
    Laughing Cloud, Little Star's Mother wishing 

    on the smallest star for a child, my illustration 

    from LITTLE STAR, by Mary Packard for 

    Scholastic. 

    A charming story about a Native American girl, her

    desire for a horse and her special beaded necklace. 


    Initial evidence that I have drawn everything in the
    world at least once.......... ;-)

Alarming Fred

Time to make the coffee this morning. 

                     (click to enlarge)

Every morning dear clever Freddie lets me know 
the kettle is boiling. Its also how I know its time 
to clip his claws. Forensics; tiny holes on the upper 
right leg of jeans and work pants match his paw 
prints which match the pin holes in my thigh. 
And now, caught in the act, photo evidence.  =^..^=


PS: DNA match found in claw clippings 

CATalog Samples, part I

(you can click on images to enlarge)

Hardly any of my books are cat-less. It all started

when Jane Flory asked me to illustrate her rollicking 

cat tale, We'll Have A Friend For Lunch.

My first picture book. Not too sure what I was doing, 

made a full color dummy and sent it to Jane's publisher, 

Houghton Mifflin Co. in Boston. A very patient and 

humorous Walter Lorraine taught me color separation 

over the telephone and that my 38 page dummy needed 

to become 32 pages.

As author as well as illustrator, in Too Many Babas,
my first I Can Read book for Harper, I gave Baba 
Edis a cat. While the Babas are making soup, the 
cat is otherwise occupied in the pictures only.

Lee Bennett Hopkins supplied the how, what, where, 
when and who poems in QUESTIONS, another Harper 
I Can Read book. Lots of places for cats. This one 
accompanying the poem What Do I Make? by Ilo Orleans.

My, oh, my, watching Grandma make SWEET POTATO 
PIE, from Anne Rockwell's delectable singsong early Step 
Into Reading book for Random House.

Caterina and Pavel wishing for a child of their own, 

see that even the Cat has kittens from THE LITTLE 

SNOWGIRL, my retelling of an old Russian tale for 

Tomie De Paola's Whitebird imprint at Putnam.

The Farmer and his cat hear something spooky. 

From Tony Johnston's very clever/funny/not so 

scary Halloween ghost story for early readers, 

BOO, A Story That Could Be True at Scholastic.

Sometimes a little cat just wants to be there.

From FINGERPLAYS AND SONGS FOR 

THE VERY YOUNG, (which my brother Ted 

calls, "The Patty Cake Book") illustrating

Ride A Horse To Boston, another for Random

House.

Bob Barton's retelling of Paul Gallico's sweet 

story about a boy and his Donkey, THE SMALL 

MIRACLE, Henry Holt. No cats in the story. 

But that never stopped me. That's why there's 

a cat, who looks a lot like Tizzy, watching 

from the window.

 

There are lots of farm animals in THE THREE 

BROTHERS, my retelling of a German folk tale,

Whitebird/Putnam again. Here is the cat witnessing 

the magic of the ending along with the Father 

and his sons.

Lastly (for part 1) is this cat looking out the window to

see WHAT WILL THE WEATHER BE, by Linda DeWitt, 

a Let's Read & Find Out book from HarperCollins.

Don't know about you, but after all this,

I need a CAT nap.  =^..^=

Tizzy Turns Ten

    

little Tizzy, 20000

This weekend marks Tizzycat's 10th birthday.

His sister Jasmine and brother Silver are also 10.

Seems like yesterday I brought this fuzzy little guy

home from his birthplace down the hall in my

neighbor Irene's apartment. Her son had driven 

from Las Vegas with his unexpectedly expectant

cat, Nutmeg who had gotten out a short while

before departure east and came back just in time.

She never said where she had been or with whom.

Hey, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", right?

Nutmeg (Nutty) Tizzy's Mom

Her condition was revealed by the Vet when she was 

taken to be spayed. Nutty was still practically a kitten 

herself at about a year old.

kittens Jasmine, Silver and Tizzy

She had 4 babies in the back of a walk in closet. 

2 tiger striped, 1 orange and white(who sadly

didn't live long) and 1 tuxedo black and white.

Tiger sister Jasmine (Jazzy) stayed with her Mom. 

Silver went to live with hairdresser Michael. 

Tizzy moved down the hall with me.

kitten Tizzy watching snow fall

Early on, I found him licking then chewing on

a slice of banana in my morning fruit salad.

I chopped up the slice and put some in his

dish along side his kibble. The first time he saw

snow, he chirped with excitement trying to get

outside the window. He'd jump into the tub after

my shower to watch water drops run down the tiled wall.

He tells me stuff all the time, but I have trouble with 

conjugating verbs in CAT. But I've gotten pretty good

at cat sign and body language.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET TIZZY!!

I can't believe so much time has passed so quickly. We

must be having fun.  =^..^=

Himself!!