nice article in Sentinel

http://www.cumberlink.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_8deea802-6452-11df-aca3-001cc4c03286.html

Mother's Day

Mother's Day somewhere up top in Pine Grove Furnace. Alex's new GPS toy informed us that we hiked 6 miles that day! All with the kiddies. Although we intended the hike to be more like three miles. My two yr old did 3 of the 6 miles. The real Mother's Day present was that all the kids were in such a good mood, happy, smiling and telling stories. It was a lovely day-
A lovely day to be me.

Katie

Katie, my sister, came for a visit. It was so fun to see her and.. she is going to have a baby. She is just beautiful.

We went to the D.C. Zoo and saw the Pandas. They were really tearing into the bamboo, almost like it was edible.

Here is a sketch of Mae Xiang the Panda by Juniper...

...and another sketch of Mae Xiang by me. She, the panda, is also going to have a baby- they hope. Yay! baby pandas. I could not get enough of having Katie here- come again soon.

Did I invent the phrase "Cuter than a Panda's ear?" well I should have. Panda's ears are cute.

Spring is Sprung?

Here is bouquet of spring flowers picked by Juniper,
and three lovely reviews of my new book (coming out soon) "Bear in the Air." IN this book I got to draw my own little boy Sean in the family pram. I really did push all three of my babies around in it. It is very bouncy.









Publishers Weekly gives Bear in the Air a *starred* review in this week’s issue!

“The stuffed animal carried away on a long, unexpected journey is a perennially popular theme; here, it’s illustrated with delightful attention to period detail by Bates (The Dog Who Belonged to No One). The baby who owns the unfortunate teddy bear is accompanied by a young mother in wellies, a polka-dot skirt, and a snug cloche hat for their boardwalk stroll at some pre-WWII seaside resort town. Bates works in roughly sketched pencil and soft, lustrously shaded watercolors, evoking a lost, gentler age. Meyers’s (Puppies! Puppies! Puppies!) verse is sturdy, obedient to its metric structure: “This is the dog that found the bear,/ Shook it and tossed it high in the air,/ Carried it down to the sandy shore,/ Trotted away with the ribbon it wore.” Bates honors each person, creature, or force of nature the bear encounters (from sailor to seal to sea breeze) in stately picture frames that appear at the start of each leg of the bear’s journey under the sea, up into the sky, and eventually—to readers’ relief—into a neighbor’s yard to be rescued by its owner. Ages 4–8. (May)”

Booklist:

A young mother puts her baby and his teddy bear into an elegant pram and wheels them along a boardwalk overlooking the sea. When Bear falls to the ground, a dog grabs him and romps down the beach. A wave pulls the teddy bear into the water, a seal takes him deep below the surface, and a pelican swoops him up into the sky, dropping him on land. A lady hangs Bear out to dry on her clothesline, where the bemused Mother and happy Baby find him. Told in graceful, rhyming couplets, the story of Bear’s adventures unfolds in a pleasant manner. The pencil-and-watercolor illustrations, which create a 1920s setting, feature nicely proportioned human and animal characters drawn with energy and expression. Young children will find plenty to enjoy in the pictures, including a little red crab that tags along with Bear and, near the end, a bird’s-eye-view map featuring landmarks and characters that will help viewers retrace the teddy bear’s journey. A handsome picture book with a satisfying story and artwork as fresh as a sea breeze.
— Carolyn Phelan

Kirkus:

To a “House That Jack Built” rhythm and style, a teddy bear has a great adventure when a baby drops it out of his carriage and it falls, hidden, beneath the wheels of a lemonade stand at the beach. After baby and mother leave, a dog finds the bear and plays with it for a bit before discarding it. Waves swallow up the bear, and eventually a bird snatches it out of the water, takes it for a ride in the sky and drops it in the yard of a woman who hangs the wet bear on her clothesline—where mom and baby spot it for a happy reunion. There is a familiarity here that is comforting, but that very predictability may make older preschoolers wish for an unexpected twist. Bates, however, creates a nice vintage feel with her expressive, traditional watercolors, framing key characters like portraits as they are introduced. Overall, the direct plot, retro styling and satisfying end may remind adult readers of the days when picture books were a quieter pleasure—like a glass of cold lemonade in the summer.

To keep with the sketching theme, I am going to put up some sketches for my new book "Christian the Hugging Lion" written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and which comes out this month.

In the 1950's there was a "Famous Artist's School" which was a correspondence school put together by Norman Rockwell, Albert Dorne, Robert Fawcett and few other fantastic illustrators from back in the day. These books are the best books on illustration out there, bar none, thats it, the end. Period.
There is a section in these books about Animal Drawing which basically compares the anatomy of humans to animals- the point being that basically the bone and muscle structure is very similar between most animals and humans. So I could go on and on about this. My point is sometimes I am asked how my animals look so "human" well the answer is that they basically are.
So, for example drawing the lion Christian pretty much ended up being my own children posing for the lion. Particularly since I don't have any Lions hanging around posing for me (Insert cheeky comment, Alex). From toddler to kid to adult it is pretty much my own family wrestling and roaring and acting like wild animals- just like any day of the week I guess.

sketching

I LOVE TO DRAW. Here are a couple of drawings of my kids. I have been wanting to draw Juniper on her bike for while just because she kills me. I have to say I got it. The way she rides with a mixture of being so proud of herself and completely in her own world.
The other two are of Sean. He rides his little car with SO much energy. I am here to tell you that he can ride that thing at least two miles. Of course playing with his trains.
I've done a couple of school presentations lately and we have been talking about body language. Kids are so amazing because they have learned body language and it speaks in volumes. But kids haven't learned how to hide their emotions so every movement they makes speaks about how they are feeling.
With these drawings I included a couple of gestures. I always do a very quick little sketch that helps me map out the structure of the body and how I want the whole drawing to go.

Martin Luther King Jr

Here are some of my favorite images from the book Martin's Dream by Jane Kurtz. The book came out a year ago. A couple of thoughts on this book: First I love the look of this man. A Passionate speaker. A pleasure to draw and to capture the look of him. Very long eyelashes. Classic curved upper lip so distinctive.
I also remember two years ago on this day, MLK day, I was taking pictures of the Lincoln memorial for this book and got separated from my husband and children. We couldn't find each other for another 41/2 hours by which point I was about hysterical! Then again he had the three kids.
Anyway what a remarkable man Martin Luther King Jr.
-"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." MLK