Amy June Bates: September 2020

HOW TO DRAW A PANDA

How is your panda-emic?

Well, we have been on a rollercoaster of many things and thoughts and feelings. Deadlines have come and gone. We have camped and canoed and tried to stay outside and away from all the things never knowing what was coming.

What I am saying is I am homeschooling.

WHAT!!!!

The good news is that I am doing art lessons with the kids and since I am doing that, why not share them with you?
Hop on board if you like.

I would love to hear all the thoughts of kind wishes and encouragement and resources that you have and that you know work. I would love to hear anything you would like to learn how to draw. WITHIN REASON. I do not draw dolphins. That is a personal line I will not cross.

The other good news is that I have a lovely book coming out at the end of September that is really about kids who need to learn their own way. I have been learning loads about Neurodiversity and what I know is this: There is no one way.

Hopefully we’ll all learn together.

My Book is “When I Draw a Panda”
It is available for pre-order now.
Please support my indie bookstore @whistlestopbookshop

P.S. Is there something in your life you regret? One time I saw a doggy sweater at a Japanese hyaku-en store for $2 that say “I am not a Panda.” I didn’t buy it and I have regretted it ever since.

#homeschool #homeschoolart #homeschoolartlessons #howtodraw #draw #drawapanda #panda #pandasofinstagram #amyjunebates #whenidrawapanda #pandatutorial #drawingtutorial #picturebookillustrator #kidlit #picturebooks
@simonkids

JOEY: THE STORY OF JOE BIDEN

I made a book.

With Dr. Biden.
#novemberiscoming #Joey #JoeBiden
@drbiden

WHEN I DRAW A PANDA

The best things come tied up in string. The cover of my new book “When I Draw a Panda.” It comes out this September 29.
I am just so darn proud about it.
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#Amyjunebates
#whenidrawapanda

#imadeabook #childrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booksofig #bookshelf @simonkids

DRAW A PENGUIN

Penguins are easy.

I mean even if you just drew a roundish potato thing and an eyeball with a halfhearted attempt at a beak and then showed it to your parents, they would probably give you a hug and say”OH I LOOOOOOVE IT” but those are your parents. My parents would probably say something snarky and make a pun.
Just have a go. Let me know if it is too hard and I will do an easier one. Like, “How to draw snakes” ? Snakes are very very easy.
Ok I’ll do snakes next.

This is for Finn

What animal do you wish you could draw?
And show me what you draw.
please please please

#penguins #penguin #howtodrawapenguin #howtodraw #drawinglesson #drawinglessons #amyjunebates #quarantineart #penguinsofinstagram #penguinstagram

DRAW LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

Don’t I wish I was Little Red Riding Hood? Actually what I mean is: don’t I wish I had my own Red Riding Hood? It would be felt and lined with something soft and there would be pockets. Yes. Many, many, pockets.
When I was little I remember going on long drives in our Yellow bug, to Jacob Lake Inn, up on the Kaiabab Plateau. We would get there at night and wind through the dark ponderosa pines to get there. It was dark and the woods were spooky.

woods are spooky.

Spooky wild woods are wonderful, aren’t they.
What a great world we have full of spooky woods, millions of stars, and lonely howls.

I love to draw
I love to look at drawings
I love to see your drawings
please send me your drawings
Even if you don’t think they are good. You are wrong they are good. show me.

#redridinghood #littleredridinghood #howtodraw #drawinglessons #drawinglesson #drawingchallenge #drawingtutorial #drawingskills #drawingpractice #drawingaday #drawingprocess #drawingcharacters

DRAW A WOLF

I like wolves.

I like to howl a deep howling of lonely, earthy magic. A good howl is communicatiion of a sort, its saying something. “Sing it with me” if you want. Or don’t. But I am howling and my hot breathe is evaporating into the dark woody night.
Its like a train whistle at 3 am. saying “I am lonely and I am telling the world that while they are sleeping I am out roaming the night, a little resentfully”
I like trains.

Wolves are very triangley. If you are not feeling ready for triangles just now, go back to the hedgehog lesson. Hedgehogs are hardly triangley at all. And while you might not ever need to draw a wolf, you will definitely need to draw a hedgehog.

I love to draw
I love to look at drawings
I love to see your drawings
please send me your drawings

#wolf #wolfatdoor #wolves #wolvesofinstagram #wolfpack #redridinghood #howtodraw #howtodrawwolves #drawing #drawinglesson #drawinglessons #drawingchallenge #drawingtutorial #drawingprocess

DRAW A CAT

Cats have the most beautiful eyes. Dogs I love you and your eyes are lovely gravy pools. But cats eyes?
Cats and I have been social distancing for many years.
I am so allergic.
i used to be unallergic, happily petting cats and not getting hives and swollen eyes and inability to breathe out of lung. So either the cats all conspired against me personally, or my body did. I’m not sure which.
One time I was riding on a bus in Germany, talking to my cousin about cats and how I was allergic, and a woman overheard our conversation and angrily said “YOU don’t LIKE CATS!!! I suppose you don’t like Star Trek either!!” For the record I never said I don’t like cats.
I have done 4 cat books and one lion book. I love cats. From six feet away.