Amy June Bates

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

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.

Cocoa @ellashatzie
Fiona my neighbor
Farley @laurentlinn
Tigerlily @therileybrood
Mulan @whistlestopbookshop
Sylvie @sharonincarlisle
#cats #catsofinstagram #catscatscats #catsofig #catsofinsta #howtodrawacat #howtodraw #amyjunebates #drawinglesson #drawinglessons #blackcats #gingercatsofinstagram #mainecooncats #europeanshorthaircat #snowshoecat #blackcats #gingercats

DRAW A DUCK

Ducks have teeth.

I hope you sleep well tonight knowing that. I won’t. I don’t think I will ever sleep again. I have a whiffle ball bat under my bed and I am prepared to vigilantly sleep with one eye open for the rest of my life.

chew on that.
Ducks are geniuses. Scientists say so. And they have teeth.
But ok, it really bugs when the big headline news on an animal is that scientists discovered the animal has feelings, or can communicate a language or do a task with a tool.
I feel like animals are feeling a bit patronized right about now.

I am taking this information very seriously. If ducks and squirrels ever become allies we are done.
“Now who has opposable thumbs?” they’ll laugh at us when they have taken over everything.

teeth
*shudder*
sweet dreams.

This duck is for Emily @drmlee