I’ve just completed writing, illustrating and designing 20 guides for elementary school children, on themes including bullying, lying, teasing and moving. Commissioned by Boulden Publishing, these will be sold to school counselors. I wrote each guide from a child’s perspective so these are called “kid-to-kid guides”. I remember being utterly shocked when I encountered girl bullying and cliques in junior high school and thinking, “when I grow up I want to write about this”. But I hadn’t thought about that since. Amazing, the power of intention.

click image to enlarge

I just finished this illustration for the preschool book, which is now entitled: It’s Time for Preschool.

This one is about Sharing, share cupcakes on your birthday, share instruments to make a marching band.

I’m playing with being loose about style in this book. The more tender scenes use no outlines on the figures, while this one, and other more energetic scenes, do, as seems appropriate. It’s tricky, because I want the illustrations to hold together throughout. I’m counting on the consistency of palette and the characters to be the stylistic glue.

An interesting thing happened as I was working on this. I was using a photoshop brush that scatters multi-colored squares for the sprinkles on the cupcakes. I use an app. called Forever Save, that saves my pieces automatically every 15 minutes so I don’t forget. Only trouble is that if I am in the middle of painting a stroke it will send up a line up and to the left of that color. As I was scattering the tiny squares on the cupcakes, the save came and shot a scattering of squares up the left side of the illustration. I loved the effect but was going to erase it, as it made no sense, narratively. I showed it to my partner and he said “Leave them, they’re great!” So I sat with it awhile and realized that I could make a dance of these squares around the illustration to illustrate the joy of sharing.

Here is a photo from Dr. Emoto’s research of water crystals before and after different prayers and intentions.

To All People Around the World

Please send your prayers of love and gratitude to water at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan!

By the massive earthquakes of Magnitude 9 and surreal massive tsunamis, more than 10,000 people are still missing…even now… It has been 16 days already since the disaster happened. What makes it worse is that water at the reactors of Fukushima Nuclear Plants started to leak, and it’s contaminating the ocean, air and water molecule of surrounding areas.

Human wisdom has not been able to do much to solve the problem, but we are only trying to cool down the anger of radioactive materials in the reactors by discharging water to them.

Is there really nothing else to do?

I think there is. During over twenty year research of hado measuring and water crystal photographic technology, I have been witnessing that water can turn positive when it receives pure vibration of human prayer no matter how far away it is.

Energy formula of Albert Einstein, E=MC2 really means that Energy = number of people and the square of people’s consciousness.

Now is the time to understand the true meaning. Let us all join the prayer ceremony as fellow citizens of the planet earth. I would like to ask all people, not just in Japan, but all around the world to please help us to find a way out the crisis of this planet!!

The prayer procedure is as follows.

Name of ceremony:

“Let’s send our thoughts of love and gratitude to all water in the nuclear plants in Fukushima”

Day and Time:

March 31st, 2011 (Thursday)

12:00 noon in each time zone

(getting this late in the day? You can still affect the water with your prayers,  joining up with others in other time zones –SR)

Please say the following phrase:

“The water of Fukushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry to make you suffer. Please forgive us. We thank you, and we love you.”

Please say it aloud or in your mind. Repeat it three times as you put your hands together in a prayer position.

Please offer your sincere prayer.

Thank you very much from my heart.

With love and gratitude,

Masaru Emoto

Messenger of Water

Daddy Adventure Day

This heartwarming book by Dave Keane is so well-observed and dryly funny, I felt like I was making a little comedy film.

Kirkus’ Review

Editor Review (reviewed on April 1, 2011)
A young boy narrates a special time spent with his dad.

Daddy Adventure Days have some rules: there’s no reading the newspaper or calling work. There are perks, too: Surprises often happen, and the narrator “always get[s] a lot of great stuff.” Today’s Daddy Adventure Day is dedicated to going to the boy’s first big-league baseball game. But things don’t start out too well for dad: He is woken way too early by the thumping of a baseball rolling down the stairs, and he’s grouchy about missing his paper and not being able to call the office. The contrast between the hyper-excited boy and the laid-back dad provides gentle humor. Ramá’s saturated watercolors and collage skillfully depict the boy’s many happy moments, such as his wide-eyed wonder as he gazes upon the “green checkerboard” field, his surprise at being given a caught foul ball and his utter contentment as he and his dad lay on the couch at the end of the eventful day. Keane’s classic pairing of a father-son relationship and baseball will be best shared one-on-one.

As a blueprint for father-son fun, it’s not a bad one. (Picture book. 3-5)

LA Times

“Daddy Adventure Day” by Dave Keane, illustrated by Sue Ramá (Philomel Books: $15.99, ages 3-6) also sings the praises of undivided attention. Just in time for the beginning of the baseball season, it reminds fathers who find it overwhelming to find time to spend with their kids that, really, all they have to do is show up, and the rest takes care of itself.

The “Daddy Adventure Day” of this book is clearly an uncommon event. Dad is grumpy because it’s not a vacation day as he knows it: He’s not allowed to read the paper or phone the office. In fact, most of the stuff dad feels responsible for is irrelevant today. For the little boy going to his first ball game with his father, rooting for the white shirts trumps knowing the rules, and the seagulls at the ballpark are as fascinating as the foul balls. But gradually, father and son get on the same page, so that by day’s end, they’re a happy pair.

One tip for the dads: Just showing up is most of the battle, but you might want to wear clothing that can tolerate a lot of spills.

Bolle writes Word Play, which appears monthly at http://www.latimes.com/books.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Booklist

The paper scans a bit gray, so I did heighten the contrast in this image, so the paper goes white.

I’m happy with the result.

I have become addicted to making portraits since joining a marvelous flickr group, Julia Kay’s Portrait Party.  Begun by artist Julia Kay, artists in this flickr group from all over the world paint each other’s portraits, and support each other quite wonderfully. Perhaps you’d like to join us?

I’d like to try a more abstract version.

My paint colors are my new Daniel Smith watercolors:
Bronzite, Verdana Blue, French Ocre, Sodalite (or Lunar Violet?) and Serpentine. I used a candle for wax resist in places.

Lisa posted some interesting photos on flickr.

For my first portrait I used a soft water-soluble pencil, which quickly yielded some nice dramatic effects.

For the second, I thought a lot about Whistler, and limited the palette to a Daniel Smith deep green, DS Sodalite, and Holbien Permanent Crimson.

For this piece I worked mainly in Holbein “irodori” paints, which seem like a cross between watercolors and gouache.  I also used a rich Daniel Smith green, I believe it is green apatite.