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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging vol.21.09 Where Will I Go? Creation of a Children's Book [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-01
Back in the day, in art college in downtown Chicago - I was assigned a project to write/illustrate a children’s storybook.
I’m an only child - not much experience babysitting, no brothers or sisters, so had no idea what to write about.
It was fall… I laid down in my backyard, my mind begging for help to find a story, and looked at all the colorful fall leaves dropping around me….
The leaf colors were beautiful… Yea, I thought…. why the heck not??
I could definitely work with this concept. I had an idea in my head for the illustrations… but wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish it.
I knew I wanted to illustrate with colored pencils, but I needed a base color… Gouache? Acrylics? Oils? I settled on gouache (opaque watercolor paint).
The only art supply store that sold gouache at that time was Utrecht.
We poor art students were always looking for the cheap art supplies, so a bunch of us artists-to-be trod down Michigan Avenue to Utrecht - a phenomenal art supply store - to get our art supplies. Utrecht was the only art store at that time that sold gouache paint, so I had to go!!
I walked 2 miles down Michigan Avenue to get my gouache, passed the Art Institute with the lion sculptures (there was a rivalry there), but I got the gouache and got the job done…. beautifully, if I may add! So glad!
Keep in mind that my book was created before computer typesetting… all text in this book was done with press type (rub on) lettering. Not easy, but I did a good job! All the flat colors in my book are gouache, with color pencil details drawn over the gouache to add shading and highlights… look closely, you’ll see it!
Also, I’m showing the book single page-by-page, but it works much better when both pages of the spread are shown at the same time.
My book is copyrighted, so feel free to show any kids in your life!
I’m sharing my book because it prolly won’t ever be published (seeing the state of our country) so wishing you smiles, and I hope my book caused some of those smiles!
The cover
Actual layout (spread). Will post each page individually for legibility
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
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