Coming soon...

They say some people match their dogs.
I wish I had a dog so I could know what I look like.
I so often enjoy looking behind the camera at the world.
For an upcoming project, I was asked to make a kid portrait of myself. 
A selfie? A sketchie? A skelphie?

I approached it the same way I approach a new character. 
Sketch a zillion bundle of possibles,
then hone in on who that character is.
So.. who am I?


What do I look like anyway?
What do I feel like?
What would I look like if I combined me now
with some of my favorite things from childhood?
Books. Overalls. Sunshine. Rain.
Puddle boots.
 
This is the girl I settled on. Bookish. Hopeful. Happy.
Not afraid to get messy.

Here's to finding your happy self this week, my friends.

borrow

A happy accident in pencils, cardboard backing 

and color palette experiments

is my latest submission to the May SCBWI Insight's prompt word "borrow."

Don't you love getting to borrow from all the delicious books waiting in the library?

Here's a question for my creative friends -  do you ever work with prompts?

I am stretched when I work on art for Birdy's sight word cards.
I try to think of all the ways a simple word speaks to me,
looking for the story behind it.

Online resources such as SCBWI Insight drawing challenges
or Colour Collective's weekly color prompts are a fantastic springboard
for experimentation. And online challenges are abundant, once one starts looking.
 

  How do you stretch yourself? 

Do you write from prompts?

Do you ever coax words out left-handed, if you're a righty?

Sketch with eyes closed, if you're an artist?

How do you dig deeper for inspiration?

My brother, illustrator Jesse Joshua Watson continually inspires me,
He paints jaw-dropping wonder on reclaimed wood, old surfboards, drums, plywood.

Beauteous.

Some of our borrowed library treasures this week:

The Night Gardener - Terry and Eric Fan
Roar Like a Lion - by Tae-Eun Yoo
A Rock is Lively - Diane Hutts Aston, ill. by Sylvia Long
The Bear and the Piano - by David Lichtenfeld
Pax by Sara Pennypacker, ill. by Jon Klassen
Tiny Creatures : the world of microbes by Nicola Davies, ill. by Emily Sutton 
The Adventurers by Rachel Elliot, ill. by Valeria Docampo

Dream Animals - by Emily Winfield Martin

What does BORROW bring to mind?

Pirates in the Library

It's National Library Week.

How glad I am for libraries this week and always.

How rich it is to have a place to borrow books,

 to load up on research, art, music, words, and stories!

How glad I am for the staff at my library, 

gracious souls who do not even sniff

when the wildebeests and I emerge

with a mountain of books to take home. 

How patient they are with the noise and flamboyance 

of kid-ruckus and story hour, 

even when small bears and dragons and pirates

weave and wail beyond their story circles.

How perfectly like a matchmaker 

is our children's librarian, 

always hunting down treasure 

to help her patrons fall in love with reading.

Happy Library Week! 

Our latest librarian-found treasures: 

When Mischief Came To Town by Katrina Nannestad

Hector and Hummingbird by Nicholas John Frith

Tea Party In the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi

Detective Gordon: the First Case by Ulf Nilsson

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

Happy birthday

Happy birthday, Beverly Cleary. 

Thank you for Henry, Ramona, and Beezus.

Thank you for Klickitat Street.

Thank you for your books. 

Spring sale

Because you always wanted to save 10% in my shop

with the code Spring16. 

Birthday cards? Wall art? 

Sight word flashcards, anyone?

A gift for your teacher, your pre-K, your kindie...

 A gift for your walls...

  
My Spring Sale goes through April 30. Cheers!

Bucket List

Things to do on your third stroke-aversary:

Sketch. 

Read.
Write.
Dig for treasure. 
My treasure might be hiding in the mountain of dirty laundry downstairs.
Or maybe in shuttling wildebeests to lessons, or practice.
Or maybe the treasure is in every speck of this beautiful daily dirt.

The sun is shining,
the flowers are out.
It's beautiful.

Being alive is good, my friends.
It's so good.

Peter, Wendy, and the Cupcakes

My adorably rogue-ish nephew played a pirate in Peter and Wendy a few weeks back.
His mama asked if I'd like to try some Peter Pan art for the bake sale. 

Tink. Hook. The ship. The acorn kiss. Peter and Wendy. 

Enough for a whole fleet of fairies and lost boys, 

and their cupcakes, too.

Avast and Blimey! What a yardarm of sweet pirate bounty.   

Books!

Peter Pan by  J. M. Barrie, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Peter Pan retold by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson illustrated by Mary Blair

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

Fairies and the Quest for Neverland by Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by David Christiana

 

Small Business Saturday

 
Small Business Saturday!

Thank you, friends, neighbors, you lovely folks all
who burst the coat buttons off our tiny downtown.
Cheers to you, supporters of the small!

Pip and Winnie helped all day.
 
 Decorating the chalkboard was one of their important jobs.

The Holiday Bazaar held a treasury of beautiful things to be found-
handcrafted jewelry, rescued cashmere, shelves of books, felted creations,
art and prints by the Watsons (my dad Richard and my brother Jesse).
 
See the sight word cards in their handmade green and blue folios?
It felt strange, seeing them all lined up so soldierly after all this work.
I was kind of excited about the greeting cards and gicleé prints, too.

My heart feels squeezed up with gratefulness.

And just to keep the adventures rolling in, 
I re-opened the Etsy Shop.
  
Birdy and Sugar Snack helped me with the photos.
Sight word art cards are in stock,
prints and cards are coming soon.
 
Have a look, if you like! 

And thank you, my friends.
I'm warmed to the toes
by all of the support and love
I've had from so many of you.

Here's to warm toes,
new adventures,
and joy in each journey!