Tag: illustration

Trix Are For Kids! But phearnik!® is Not (just for kids)

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Adults and Irrational Fears

Previously, I wrote about phearnik!® and how to use it with kids. In addition, the little plush also helps adults overcome irrational fears and anxiety.

In the US, nearly 20% of adults deal with irrational fears and anxiety. Treatment often involves exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which helps individuals gradually confront their fears and learn coping mechanisms. These include relaxation techniques, exercise, support from friends or professionals and practicing mindfulness. [Google AI]

Shows a black and white illustration of a young girl looking stressed
Icon by Soni Sokell

The  phearnik!® plush provides a way to practice mindfulness. Also, I didn’t make it for kids. I made it for an adult…me!

Fear Of The Blank Canvas

A picture of a man with a fear of the blank canvas. He is sitting in front of a canvas on an easel scratching his head like he doesn't know what he's going to paint. The picture resembles a Norman Rockwell painting of himself in front of his canvas scratching his head.
Collage illustration from the “Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears” picture book

As an artist, I often dealt with a “fear of the blank canvas.” It’s like the “fear of the blank page” or “writers’ block” that some writers experience.

While it’s impossible to know the exact number of writers in the US who experience writer’s block or fear of the blank page, it’s a common experience, even for those considered successful. 

The same is true for artists. It’s impossible to put an exact number on how many artists in the US experience “blank canvas syndrome.” Still, it is recognized as a common experience among artists from newbies to seasoned professionals.

Overcoming Fear of the Blank Canvas

For years, I studied what I could do about my irrational fears and anxiety of the blank canvas. I read books like Art and Fear, Affirmations for Artists, and The Artist’s Way. But none of these helped me break through my debilitating fears until I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear.” 

Gilbert’s “… Road Trip”

In the book, Gilbert offers a new way for artists to confront their fears. Instead of trying to ignore it or get over it or get rid of it, she suggests we accept and acknowledge fear. In a vignette titled, “The Road Trip,” Gilbert uses the metaphor of taking a road trip as a lesson in acknowledging fear.

A picture of a man driving a car with a girl holding her doll in the backseat with a phearnik! strapped in beside her. The phearnik represents fear sitting in the back seat as explained in "The Road Trip" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

On the trip, you bring fear along, but it must sit in the backseat. And it doesn’t get to control anything. It doesn’t get to drive, and it definitely doesn’t get to control the radio.

This idea of acknowledging fear but not letting it take control was, for me, revolutionary. I immediately embraced this new way to deal with my irrational fears. I liked the idea of  embracing fear. It makes sense because it’s always there. But it needs restraint. It needs to be kept  in its place, restricted, tamped down.

The Birth of phearnik!® 

An illustration from the "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears"children’s book that helps kids overcome their fears.

I wanted something to represent this fear in “the back seat,” an actual “thing.” This “thing” would remind me to practice the skill of keeping fear “small” or in its place. It is how and why I created phearnik!®  –  my “little fear.” And it works.

phearnik!®  Works

My phearnik!® helped me with, not only my fear of the blank canvas, but as a way to practice mindfulness to overcome fear in other areas of my life. It has helped me do what I have needed to do to bring this concept to others. I believe artists and others who struggle to overcome their irrational fears would benefit from a reminder to keep their fear under control. I believe this could help them live more fearlessly while experiencing new things and adventures.

Get the Free “5 Steps to Help Anxious Kids Build Courage”
Sign up to be the first to find out when the “5 Easy Steps to Overcome Fear and Anxiety” for adults becomes available

How About You?

Are you an adult dealing with irrational fears? Have you struggled with letting your fears get the best of you? Maybe you’re artist or writer that has experienced fear of the blank canvas or page? Or are you someone who would like to make art but you are afraid of what people would say about it?

If this is you, do you think a phearnik!® could help you remember to keep your fear “small” and in its place? Do you think having the little plush around could help you fight your fears? Tell us what you think about it in the Comments.

Want To Know More?

If you would like to know more about phearnik, join the phearnik! Campaign.

Help bring the plush to all who could use its subtle power!

Join the phearnik! Campaign and support Kids’ mental health

If you’re inclined, give this post a “Like!” 

Share this post. You may help someone overcome their fears.

* Sources: Blank Canvas and Writers’ Block

Grand Opening! The New aws Studios Art Shop

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“Art and health. No. Brainer.”

Wendy MacNaughton, Illustrator and Creator of the popular kids show “Draw Together”

aws Studios Art Shop

While at the 2024 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas last month to pitch my mental health skill-building toy, I also met with artShine, a home decor licensee. It was one of the best meetings I had that week and artShine motivated me to start my licensing journey by selling my art online. I have been sharing my mental health curricula online, but this was the first time I thought about doing the same with my art in my new aws Studios Art Shop.

Drum roll…

This week is the Grand Opening of my aws Studios Art Shop on Etsy! Offering prints and original art products, the Studios’ shop is currently showcasing originals of “The Whimsicals.” These simple blank cards delight with fun and kooky characters using illustration drawn with pencil and painted with watercolor. Both kids and adults will relate to “The Whimsicals” simple, yet relatable all-occasion cards.

Slow but Sure

My plan is to roll out inventory slowly, mainly as it becomes available. In the days and weeks ahead, I will be adding more of my illustrated cards. This fall, I will launch an exciting line of products specially made for the season. Think “apples.” Hint, hint! I’m excited to show you!

Check it Out and Let Me Know What You Think

I hope you check out my new aws Studios Art Shop. While there, treat yourself or your friends to one (or more) of “The Whimsicals.” Everyone deserves a little fun and whimsy. Don’t delay, do it today!

After taking a look around – at my current little shop – let me know what you think in the Comments below. Thanks for reading!

My Future Story Documentary, a fun and inspiring goal setting and planning activity

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A Favorite Goal Setting Activity

A picture of the My Future Story Documentary goal setting worksheet

One of my favorite mental health/social-emotional learning activities I developed is “My Future Story Documentary.” It teaches a goal setting and planning skill I wish I had learned when I was in grade school.

My Future Story

Back then, my future story was to sing, dance and act on stage. My mother pointed out New York City was probably the best place to pursue these goals but she didn’t think I should go. In her mind, NYC was a scary place and that was enough to stop me from moving forward with my idea.

In the “My Future Story Documentary” goal setting resource, one crucial step is for the “filmmaker” to identify their “Supporting Film Crew.” These are friends, family members, teachers, coaches, and clergy, etc. who support the maker’s future story, an important part for turning dreams into reality. And, like in my case, they may not always be a friend or a family member.

An aws Studios.art illustration of a adolescent ballerina - if only they had a goal setting activity like My Future Story.

Goal Setting and Support

My mother (whom I love dearly) may not have embraced my dream, but Marion, her best friend, did. Marion, who herself dreamed of performing and later became an award-winning ballroom dancer, noticed my talent. Though, I never shared my dancing and acting dreams with her. The “My Future Story Documentary” activity prompts students to identify supportive adults and share their dream with them.

It’s tough when immediate family are unable to be supportive. Nevertheless, there are many success stories where dreamers found support elsewhere.

Get the “My future story documentary” activity here!

Now as a picture book author/illustrator and mental health curricula supplier (with no regrets!), my supports are everywhere —family, friends, and colleagues — and it’s great!

What about you? What is your success story and who was your supportive “crew?”  

Give them a shout out in the “Comments” below!

Create a Picture Book Fast with Pastiche!

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Picture book pastiche

I spent the entire summer working on my newest book Apples for Cider. Apples… is a pastiche of one of my favorite picture books, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and a fast way to create a picture book. A pastiche is a type of intertextuality in literature. Intertextuality is either deliberate or latent. Deliberate intertextuality purposely borrows from the text. Some are exact lines while others are vaguely referenced. Latent intertextuality is incidental – “when references occur incidentally—the connection or influence isn’t deliberate” (masterclass.com). Forms of intertextuality include parody, pastiche, retellings and allegory. Some examples include the main plotline of Disney’s The Lion King as a take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the structure of James Joyce’s Ulysses modeled after Homer’s Odyssey.

Parody vs pastiche

I was familiar with parody – a humorous take on a classic piece of literature such as in the picture books Goodnight iPad (a parody of Goodnight Moon) and The Taking Tree (a parody of The Giving Tree). And I wondered if there was a way to take a classic and not make fun of it, as in a parody, but use the classic text as a foundation to pay tribute to it. That’s when I came across pastiche. The following is a description from literarydevices.net:

Shows how the illustration is a pastiche of the original picture book
Illustration pastiche, a fast way to create a picture book!

Pastiche is a literary piece that imitates a famous literary work by another writer. Unlike parody, its purpose is not to mock, but to honor the literary piece it imitates. In pastiche, the writers imitate the style and content of a literary piece to highlight their work, as the original piece is accepted by the vast majority of readers as landmarks of their age. So, imitation in such works celebrates the works of the great writers of the past.

Fia finds Papa Deer

A pastiche of Blueberries for Sal, a fast way to create a book

I was thrilled to find this was “a thing.” I wanted to do a book about how my granddaughter helps her grandfather (my husband) make cider from the apples in our neighbor’s farm. I think the title Apples for Cider came to me first which immediately made me think of Blueberries for Sal. Blueberries… was the perfect foundation to tell the story of gathering apples to make cider. As an early-career illustrator, creating the pastiche gave me the opportunity to make a picture book fast, getting an entire book done in five months – over the summer and into the fall (by November so I can give it to my granddaughter for her birthday). It allowed me to get right to my book making – I didn’t have to wait to have a new manuscript written, edited and ready to go.

Self-publishing opportunity

Unless a publisher desires the rights to Apples…, my plan is to learn about self-publishing and use this book as my first attempt into that realm. I’ll keep you posted on my foray into self-publishing and when it’s ready for sale, I’ll let you know. Then you can tell me if you think my book Apples for Cider honors McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal! Wish me luck! And let me know in the Comments if you have ever written or read a pastiche!

Picture Book Boosts Disabled Children’s Mental Health

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From art to mental health and back

When I first started this blog, I mainly wrote about my art – how I made it and why. Then, as I tried to find a publisher for my picture book Adventures with phearnik!™, I learned the importance of building a platform to help launch my books and curricula into the market. That’s when I started to post more about how most of my work is about boosting mental health skills. Today’s post has a little of both –art and mental health skills.

Most of my picture books so far, I wrote for my granddaughter, Fia.  One Christmas, I made her a pillow out of a coat that had been her great-grandmother’s, my mother, Lucy. I wrote Lucy’s Pocket to tell the coat story and how it became a pillow. The following year Fia wanted a rag doll like the one I had made for myself. I made her a matching doll and wrote Adventures with phearnik!™ to explain the meaning of the doll and gave it to her for her birthday. The book giving is now a tradition where I try to make one a year for her birthday.

JP character sketch for a book about children with disabilities

Picture books in the making

This year I had two book ideas – one a pastiche of the book Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (more about this later) and a book about her Uncle Peyton. She doesn’t see him often, so I wanted to tell her more about why he drives a power wheelchair and how he’s a power soccer athlete.

When I started writing about “Uncle Peyton,” I couldn’t stop! I wrote pages and pages – many more words than a picture book. So, I thought I had started a chapter book. But after getting feedback from my critique group, I got the manuscript back to picture book size. This week, I sent the “Uncle Peyton” story, JP Wants to Play Sports, out to a publisher looking for stories about disability, diversity, and inclusion!

JP Wants… is a somewhat fictionalized story of how Peyton (“JP” in the story) looks for sports to play as a power wheelchair user. I hope the book is published so that non-disabled children like Fia learn about their disabled peers and see how, in many ways, they share the same desires. Plus, the book provides a way for disabled children to see characters like themselves in picture books, an essential mental health booster for their social and emotional health!

New character sketch

I submitted the manuscript without illustrations but told the publisher that, if interested, I would be happy to do the pictures. I did do a character sketch of JP, though. I like how it came out. I think he looks a lot like the young Peyton – happy, confident, and full of life!

So, fingers crossed that I get a positive response from the publisher. In the meantime, I’m working on the illustrations for the pastiche (I’ll tell you more about that later)!

If you know a publisher who is looking for picture books about children with disabilities, contact me here!

Overcoming Anxiety During the Pandemic

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sunrise in the preserve

My 2020 and 2021 collages, “Sunrise in the Preserve” and “Sunrise near Bellacina” are currently showing in the Venice (Florida) Art Center’s new “Near and Far” show (running now through February 11, 2022).  The two works together in a series of three (including “Sunrise on the Bay”) tell the story about how creating art during the confines of the covid19 pandemic helped me maintain and, possibly, strengthened my mental – social and emotional – health. 

Isolated in the first many months of the pandemic in 2020, I found solace in my small studio.   The unassuming, demure space provides me with plenty – the secure comfort I desire for my creating.  Ever since I was a little kid, I have always enjoyed the confines of small, big-enough-for-only-me spaces.  The enclosed spandrel (the space underneath the stairs leading up to the second floor of our house) was my indoor playhouse.   Every morning after breakfast, I couldn’t wait to play under the stairs with my dolls, in my own private, cozy representation of my family’s kitchen, complete with a 1950’s toddler sized white metal kitchen sink, stove and refrigerator.  It was the safe sanctuary that my natural introversion craved.

Like the enclosed spandrel, my two, small, big-enough-for-only-me studio spaces (one in upstate NY and the other in Venice, Florida) provide me with the safe and secure calm I desire for my creative focus.  In this soothing space, I  relax and, along with my collage practice, destress.  It was in my Venice studio where I “got through” the early pandemic months (and the later ones too) with peace and relaxation. 

sunrise near Bellacina

Creating collage – the cutting and securing paper or fabric to a ridged surface – helps me manage my mental wellbeing.  Scissors and X-Acto knives (slim, small knives with similarly slim razor blades for cutting my materials) are, for me, therapeutic.  The concentration and attention required to accurately slice fabric or paper flows through my body. It calms my arms, hands and fingers down into a focused peacefulness.  Again, the concentrated practice allows me to exhale my stress and tension.

sunrise on the bay

Collage also satisfies my desire for a challenge. It provides me another way to take care of my mental health.  Stimulating our brain with challenges and problem solving helps to improve our  mindset. This helps to make us feel more positive about the future.  It helps to build confidence and gives us something to focus on. Problem solving takes our minds off the things that cause anxiety.  Creating a picture that represents a story with Impressionistic-like simplicity is my challenge and goal.  But the pandemic in early 2020, created an additional challenge. The challenge of trying to find materials needed for my collaging (remember, at first, stores closed completely)! 

my work desk in my demure studio!

One of the reasons I made pictures of a sunrise was because the only ridged surface I had at the time to build my collages on was a piece of florescent orange cardboard leftover from another project (I totally can’t remember what that was)!  The bright orange became the  perfect background to represent the dramatic streaks and peaks of the morning’s rising sunlight.  Another challenge was obtaining colored paper to cut and collage the sky and foreground.  Again, the only thing I had on hand were magazines.  Even though magazines are not the best choice when considering a picture’s longevity and its archivalness,  the “Venice Magazine” about Gulf Coast living,  provided me with a broad selection of colors; the heavier cover paper becoming my favorite choice to weave into my sunrise representations.

Many artists relate their practice to helping them with strengthen their mental health. During the scariest early days and months of the pandemic, my “art saved me” (as it often does).  It provided me a way to escape from the worries of what the virus.  My secure and safe studio gave me focus. It illuminated a silver lining to my isolation – that of creating three related collages.  Even the show’s opening night helped me grow my social health. My husband and I met another artist and his wife who also live in Venice.   The four of us closed the reception down. We were the last to leave. We enjoyed a conversation of getting to know each other, exchanging numbers and promises to get together again.

How about you?  Did/do you find solace  during the pandemic creating art and or crafts?  How does art or craft making affect your mental health?  Have you noticed ways art helps to strengthen your social and emotional health? I would love to hear from you in the “Leave a Reply” below.

An Easy Way for Picture Book Authors to Illustrate their Books

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Lucy’s silhouette

In a recent meeting of the Florida SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), I heard writers expressing their desire (and frustration?) for ways to illustrate their picture books.  Two years ago,  I came up with an idea to make my granddaughter a picture book about my mother (her great grandmother) for Christmas.  Since the idea sprang up late in the year, I didn’t have time to do full color illustrations.  The method I finally chose is one writers (who are not illustrators) could use for their picture books.  

While spending a weekend at my sister’s and thinking of ways to illustrate my book, I spied a small, black paper silhouette cutout of my mother in her twenties that she had made of herself while visiting the boardwalk in Atlantic City.  Silhouette is one of the oldest forms of expression that advertising and other print media have used for decades. 

In “Printers’ Ink”, an old journal for advertisers, a commercial art manager said of the art of silhouette that, “History refers to it, and the French have always been fond of [the] simplified art”; adding, “[t]he silhouette is more than apt to print under any and all circumstances… generally speaking, it is accident proof”.  Along with black and white “clipart,” the profile portrait of my mother became the perfect foundation for my story’s illustrations.

Fia’s silhouette

As a collage artist, I enjoy the hands-on cutting, manipulating and laying out of paper on paper and did not use a computer.   Finding boarders and frames to use with the black and white pictures and laying out the pages was, for me, a lot of fun.  Some frames I found I collaged or printed in the text I needed to illustrate from the story.  To mirror the boardwalk silhouette of my mother, I made one of my granddaughter for the book.   While babysitting her one weekend, my husband and I took her to a local beach where while playing in the sand, I was able to snap a picture of her in profile which I then turned into a silhouette.

I printed the clipart and the frames and boarders out on my studio printer and laid out each page of the picture book on 8”x 8” card stock.  Along with some modifications, it still took me the four months working part-time to complete the book getting the text and layout just right.  Once all the pages were complete with the printed text, I took all the pages to be copied and bound to Staples.  There, I chose to have the book and it’s copy spiral bound.  The Staples print technicians* at the store in Clay, NY did a great job with the printing/copying and the binding. 

I was pleased with how my black and white picture book came out.  It’s rare for a picture book to be produced in black and white instead of color but it works for this book.  I think some of the reasons are that it’s a small book, the text moves right along with quick page turns and many of the black and white illustrations show movement i.e., the banner on the beauty school, the “sailor” on the Playbill, the shopper, the dancers and the ribbon waving behind the seamstress. 

 Also, the silhouette is a unique communication tool that has been used by print media for their concise and immediate recognition.  Their simplicity engages readers by leaving something to the imagination, which, I think,  especially works with children.  My book must “work” because my four-year-old granddaughter says she loves it and it has often been her number one choice when choosing a book to read!

If you are not an artist or illustrator and if you are looking for a way to add illustrations to your picture book, clipart could work for you too. 

How about you?  Have you ever seen clipart used for a picture book?  Have you ever tried using clipart to make illustrations?  Let me know.  I’d love to hear from you.  Use the “Comments” section below.

*I found out with my next picture book that all Staples print services are not the same.  You are not guaranteed the same services even from your preferred store as it can depend on the specific technician.  If you are pleased with the results from a certain technician, I recommend that you get their name so you can request their services in the future.

Custom Christmas Cards

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Forty Years of Custom Christmas Cards

May your Christmas be all smiles!

For over 40 years, I have made my own Christmas cards.  If I ever forget what I did when, I only need to refer to my stash of homemade cards to remind me.  At least in the first years, each was themed with a depiction what was happening in my life at the time.

While living on my own for the first time in my early twenties, like my mother before me, I took up the tradition of sending Christmas cards to friends and family.  “May your Christmas be all smiles” was my first homemade card.

My Life Stories as Christmas Cards

  • Baby’s first Christmas tree!
  • Tis the season
  • to make folly!
  • From a mistletoe point of view…

The next year, “Baby’s first Christmas tree” (one of my favorites) was about, again, being on my own and owning a puppy for the first time.  Another of my favorites, “Tis the season to make folly” illustrates a bad fall I took skiing that year.  “From a mistletoe point of view” summed up a year or so of…well, dating (like the princess and the frog maybe?)! 

Then, after finding my prince and while working for the airlines, my card showed me coming home for the holidays parachuting from a plane into my back yard where, looking up to the sky, my husband and dog awaited my arrival.  When the two of us remodeled our first home, a small farmhouse, the card showed me sewing a “Sampler” of our home. 

Everyone Fair Game

It must be Christmas!

Then we had children and I made a lot of cards about them.  One, a pen and ink drawing, shows our first born, my daughter, as a baby “Reaching for the stars”, yearning to have the bling on the top of the tree and then pulling it down to get that gosh darn star (she really didn’t do this but I did have visions of it happening)! 

Black and White and Color

The next year another pen and ink of her in her frilly Christmas finest rocking on her rocking horse.  Then, when my son came along three years later, there are black and white ink drawings. These are of my kids posing together when they were three and six. Another one of them a year or so older looking out the window for Santa and his reindeer. 

The “It must be  Christmas” card with the dog and cat next to each other shows how we tried adding a cat to our house of two adults, two kids and a dog. 

Making it Easier, Using Photographs

As my life became a little more hectic with family and work, I started to make cards from photographs.  One year I took a picture of a curtain I made of our cabin in the Adirondacks and turned the colorful applique into a black and white photo making it look like winter. 

Another year, I used a log cabin bird house  that I  never put outside for the birds but instead used it as one of my  “winter” decorations once the Christmas ones were put away.  I took a picture of the house sitting on our dining room table and, collaging a sky into the background, turned the piece into a card.   

A photo of the Christmas village I always set up with small houses lit from within by small light bulbs became a card and a photo of an especially nice-looking Christmas tree of ours – a lovely blue spruce – also became a card.

Giving it Up and Getting it Rolling Again

My custom chalkboard kitchen sign

In the past five years or so, living in Florida during the holidays has thrown me for a little bit of a loop to get me into the spirit of the season.  It just isn’t the same without cold and snow (my experience for sixty-plus years).  I decided I wasn’t going to send Christmas cards anymore. 

But, when I didn’t send any, receiving them from friends and family made me feel guilty of not reciprocating and the guilt inspired me to get the ball rolling again.  Last year, because we were renting our friend’s home to be able to stay “up north” near family for the holidays, I didn’t have a way to make and send a card.  Instead, once I was in my Florida studio, I sent a “homemade” Valentines card to the usual Xmas suspects in the new year.  It was not a typical Valentine as I made a card from a print of the chalkboard kitchen sign I designed sending it along with the story about how I came to make it.

Wintry Night, Bangor, PA by Lucy Wintle, 1944

This year, I’m in Florida again and I was thinking of not sending a card as it was getting a little late to get it in the mail in time for people to receive before the big day.  But while looking for a photo for another project, I came across a picture of a small oil painting my mother had done back in 1944, a snowy night scene of a church.  Voila!  A perfect subject  for my 2021 card.  Thank you, mom!  You saved me. 

Who knows what next year will bring for my Christmas card making? In the meantime, happy holidays and may your dreams come true in the new year!

How about you?  Have you ever made and sent your own Christmas card?  How does the tradition  feel -to send a card every year or do you choose not to join into the annual practice?  I’d love to hear what you think.  Scroll down to the Comments section below  and let me know.

More aws Studios art here!

Illustrator bucks current!  Sort of…

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Like my old friend and colleague, illustrator, Jerry Russell, who chooses to work in different illustration styles  dismissing the adage that illustrators should settle into one or two styles, I too have worked in a variety of media and, overtime, have shown different styles.  (Though, I admit that, currently, I have settled comfortably into collage as my style du jour.) 

My Sewing Machine

“My Sewing Machine” is an example of my foray into computer generated art and design.  For a while, I liked using the computer to make art.  At the time, I was just beginning my venture into fabric and paper collage, and making pictures using  the  computer was, to me, a lot like making collages (or maybe that’s just how I approached the media).  But, alas, it didn’t last and back to the tactile I went, liking the  handling, cutting and gluing of fabric and paper over the point and click of a computer mouse (styluses and tablets were just coming on the market).  As one of only  a few of my computer illustrated works,  “My Sewing Machine” was a representation of another important media I worked in – sewing.  I did all sorts of sewing including costume construction (for the Syracuse Stage Costume Department), dressmaking, appliqué and machine embroidery.  (For a  while, I had a dressmaking business designing and making one-of-a-kind gowns ultimately providing a niche fashion market designing and constructing wedding gowns for the “Pregnant Bride”!  [More on that maybe in another post!])

The applique and machine embroidery lend well to illustration, though, they are much more time consuming.  Instead of quickly (somewhat) gluing paper or fabric down on a surface,  applique and machine embroidery rely on sewing, either thick “lines” of thread to secure pieces of fabric to another base fabric “canvas”  for applique,  and “lines” of thread to “draw,” “sketch” or “paint” pictures on a fabric “canvas” for machine embroidery.  These sewing methods require more time than the typical collage method.  (Knowing the work and time required for these illustration techniques provides me with ample respect and appreciation for fabric artists like Bisa Butler and her detailed and colorful applique portraits.  Amazing and beautiful!)

Boot Shot applique
Friends machine embroidery

Both of my sewing machine-made art pictured here were “squares” for a “Bon Voyage” quilt I coordinated and made for friends who  were leaving to sail their sailboat around the world.  I coordinated the making of the quilt by asking other friends of the sailors to each pitch in a square.  The “Friends” square is a machine embroidery portrait collage of the friends who “spared a square” for the BV quilt.  “Boot Shot” is an applique I created representing a favorite shared activity between many of the quilt making friends – our love of hiking in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York.  (Later, I made a print of this square and entered it into a t-shirt contest sponsored by The Adirondack Mountain Club.  Like my entry in the Dali Museum contest, again, my design wasn’t selected! But as usual, it didn’t stop me from more creating and entering!)

I don’t think I will go back to these media and methods.  Though, you never know!  What do you think?  Should I do more of the computer-generated art, the applique or the machine embroidery?  Illustrators, do you have just one or two styles or, like Jerry and me, do you, too, buck the norm?  I’d love to hear about it in the Comments section below.

A Different Kind of “Self-Publishing”

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DIY Picture Book

With “How-To” Download!

“Adventures with phearnik!™” hardcover
Trimming the edges
Covers folded and glued to inside
Applying white glue with a brush
End pages hold the stitched pages in the book
The overnight pressing
Completed hardcover book!

A couple of posts ago, I “debuted”, “Lucy’s Pocket” © 2020, a black and white picture book. I created the book for my granddaughter. It was one of her Christmas presents. 

In my last post, I unveiled another picture book, “Adventures with phearnik!™” © 2021. I wrote and illustrated this one too. It was for the same granddaughter. This time for her birthday. (Hopefully, it will be a less chaotic time than Christmas to present her with a special book!)  

I needed a copy of the book for the gift (soon!). I also wanted another for myself. I would use it to have on hand to show and shop around.  I’m looking for an  agent to help me shop the book to publishers.  I’m not travelling the “conventional” self-publishing route. If I were, having just finished all the illustrations this past month, there would not be enough time to get the books printed by mid-November.   

Book Building

I also costed  “photo books” made by online photo book printers but the cost was a bit beyond my budget – around $50 per book for a 32 page 8” x 9” picture book.    So, I decided to travel a different “self-publishing” route and made built the books by hand.

I have been through the process of putting my own picture books together before with “Lucy’s Pocket” and another book I made for a nutrition unit for a family daycare provider training I developed. For both of those books, I took the original pages of text and illustrations I had laid out, one on card stock and the other on paper printed from my home printer and laminated, to Staples for copying and binding.

Not Spiral Bound, Hardcover

With “Lucy’s Pocket,” Staples Print Services made a copy of the original  8” x 8” pages and spiral bound both the original and the copy into two books for less than $20 each. (More like two-for-one compared to a 32-page photo book from an online printer!)  Because many of the illustrations in “Adventures …” are full page spreads (occupying the whole of two facing pages), I did not want the book to be spiral bound (the full page spread illustrations would have a gap between the two facing pages) and  I wanted to try my hand at making my own hardcover book.

Tools of the Trade

I started by using my personal home scanner and scanning my illustrations to the computer, saving them as jpeg photos. Then, I used Microsoft Publisher to layout the pages of the book. Publisher does not have book or booklet templates for custom sizes, so I had to create my own.  I made an 8” x 9” “Custom” “Blank” page and used this to lay out all 32 pages of the book.  I then imported my scanned illustrations onto the pages and copied and pasted my text from Word into text boxes in Publisher.

At first, my pages were presenting with a white border around each page.  Although it looked nice, I couldn’t have a border where the two pages came together in the center to make the full-page spread.  I finally figured out how to remove the borders and was able to layout the spreads.  Once the layout was complete, I used Staples again to print out the pages, but this time, I did it myself on one of their “self-copiers” using a pdf of the Publisher file saved on a thumb/jump drive. 

Learn From my Mistakes

Because the “Adventures…” book pages are 8” x 9” and they were printed on 8 ½” x 11” paper, I had to cut each page down to size.  I unfortunately made the mistake of printing each page one sided instead of two-sided!  I can’t believe I did that!  (Even my husband said, “All book pages are two-sided”.  Like, “Duh”!)  I had to glue all the pages together to make them two sided, making sure each “front” page was glued to its corresponding “back” page.  Next time, I will be sure to print the pages two-sided!    After that, I laid out the pages, taped them together with Magic Tape, added the “end pages” (the ones that get glued to the inside of the cover) and stitched them together with my trusty, old metal Kenmore sewing machine and pressed them folded overnight. 

I then made the hard cover for the book.  I used an old, stained piece of 4 ply (1/16”) mat board (it was getting covered so the stains wouldn’t matter) cutting two pieces to the size of the finished book – 8” x 9” and a thin, ¼” x 8” piece for the spine.  I  covered the board with the front and back cover pictures.  This was tricky because the pictures only measured 8.5” x 11” so there was not enough “cover” to fold around to the inside of the board.  Because of this, I glued more paper onto the cover pictures so they could fold into the inside nicely.  Once the front and back covers were glued down, I glued down the end pages covering up the folded parts of the covers.  And after another overnight pressing, the book was complete!  I’m really pleased with how it came out. 

Now that I have “built” a hard cover picture book from start to finish, I am no longer intimidated by the process.  I recommend it as a good experience for any picture book illustrator.   (You may gain a new appreciation for publishers and printers! I certainly did.)   Plus, I may have started an annual tradition – giving a very special granddaughter a Nana book for her birthday (or maybe even Christmas)!

Have you ever put a hardcover book together from scratch?  Did you run into any issues?  Were you pleased with the results?  I’d love to hear about it in Comments!

Get the “how to” steps here!