And the Winner is!!!!!

There were so many fantastic entries, it was really hard to choose!!! I often found myself laughing out loud - But choose I did. Thank you so much for participating. As a consolation prize for those who participated, please email me and I will send you a high resolution of the image without the text for you to print out and keep (it's quite lovely) AND a $20!!!! discount for the amazing Hero's Art Journey e-course starting March 5th (see button on left for more info), which is insanely helpful for both writers, and illustrators, artists and non-artists (and it's even got a 100% money-back guarantee)!  Email miraguyATgmail.com (and even if you didn't participate - feel free to email me).

So, here is the winning entry and the reasons why I chose it.

mouse stood on bird
who stood on elephant
who stood on alligator
who stood on turtle
who stood on snake
and still they
could not see...CATERPILLAR.

All they saw were beautifully-painted wings.
All they heard was a soft flutter.
All Mouse felt was joy.
"High enough!" Mouse called down. "The view...is amazing."
Butterfly winked. "It sure is."




Miranda Paul of Rate Your Story channeled me when she wrote this entry and sometimes it takes someone else to show you what you intuitively or unconsciously knew all along. See below for the original painting WITH a butterfly. The other things I like are how concrete the answer is (abstract ideas can be challenging for young children), and the many illustration opportunities it offers as the animals go in search of caterpillar. Most of you did both of these with beautiful language useage and if I hadn't originally painted this with the butterfly... .

Speaking of language, this entry also offers great language learning opportunities for children with imagistic language related to places e.g., under the flowers, around the bushes, above the rocks, and on top of lion's head as they keep searching, overcoming the "No, not there" obstacle, until they reach the climax of finding butterfly! Yay!!

Finally, if this manuscript and dummy when completed gets published, Miranda will receive a credit in the book and a free copy as well as her choice of a free 1hr picture book Skype consultation or free admission into the Hero's Art Journey course.

Here's the original painting before I reworked it and congratulations to everyone else who submitted. I'd love to see you in the Hero's Art Journey course or one of my upcoming children's book writing or illustrating courses coming later this year : )

Adventures on this Hero's Art Journey

Calling out around the World!

I'm definitely deep in my hero's journey creating my first Hero's Art Journey international e-course. Course starts this Monday the 12th so if any of you folks are interested in learning how to draw and paint or work with collage, deepen your existing art practice or reconnect with it, meet some fabulous fine artists and children's book illustrators and authors AND have an amazing life changing experience, now's the time to sign up.

click on images to enlarge

The people already signed up range from total beginners to phenomenal artists. We'll have tons of instruction for those who want or need it on drawing, watercolors, acrylics, collage, stamp making and more, tons of inspiration, and guest interviews from the likes of incredible children's book illustrator/authors and fine artists like Maya Gonzalez, Elisa Kleven, Claire B. Cotts, Hugh D'Andrade, Elly Simmons, and TBA. You do as much or as little as you like in whatever way works for you using eay tech in the comfort of your home and the safety of our online environment.

I'm really proud of the work I've done creating this course, which is loosely based on Joseph Campbell's seminal work on universal myths where each person receives a call into the unknown and extraordinary things happen for those who heed the call. I hope you'll join us. Here's a sneak peek www.herosartjourney.com  and here's where the discounts are

Join some incredible people for a once-in-a-lifetime experience (truly). Are you up for taking the leap of faith? Do you have an adventurous friend open enough to take the leap with you into a world of creativity, mythology, and creativity? Simply sign up here and then email me at miraguy@gmail.com Family members welcome.

Take a peek at www.herosartjourney.com

Regular price $89

And here are some hopefully intriguing samples from Marge and me (you get to tweak projects so they work for you)

The wayward blogger returns with many more adventures

Oh, the guilt! I have been ridiculously busy doing way too many things since I last blogged. I presented at a SCBWI Northern California Central revision intensive. Mine was called "The Art of Re-Visioning Picture Books" and included revising both writing and illustrating picture books. I had the most wonderful group of people, and it was a real joy. Of course, I nearly killed myself putting the powerpoint together because of course, why use one picture book per point, when you can use three? Still, it was a fabulous experience.

I also did an author/illustrator school visit, where I did a presentation for the younger grades, the older grades and a professional development in-service with all the teachers. Each of these was absolutely wonderful. The teachers and I made a place-based science and math mural, where kids would learn about their local environment and animals (science), as well as learn through fun and experiential education addition and multiplication. It was a blast!

 Some of my children's picture books

 Kids are blurred out for privacy reasons

Detail of teacher's math mural. I like how this one shows our mountain lions

 You do the math. Eucalyptus trees, mountains, wild turkeys, 

raccoons, squirrels, clouds, mountain lions, and that might be it.

As the regional SCBWI illustrator co-coordinator, I also hosted a "Picture Books and More Share-a-Thon" where everybody brought a copy of recently published children's pictures books where we practiced first seduction, then deconstruction. Meaning, we just enjoyed the hell out of the books first, and then went back to see what made them so great in both art and text or what flaws they might've had. Then we all went and had lunch together. Lovely, lovely. lovely.

Finally, although, not really finally, I did an "I come to you" children's book writing, illustrating, and publishing intensive in Ahwahnee, near Yosemite, which was so beautiful, it took my breath away. We stayed with two very talented artists Chris Obers and Vicki Thomas, whose work I think you will enjoy. Here are some photos from that trip.

I've also been teaching a local children's book class and a pilot study class for my insanely exciting upcoming "Hero's Art Journey" online transformational art course. It's a tremendous amount of work making the samples, doing the research, designing the site, conducting interviews, writing articles, making demonstration videos, finding inspiring examples and creating worksheets teaching folks how to draw animals, birds, people, dragons and monsters, and all sorts of other stuff. I am planning on making it one of the most if not THE most incredible online art learning and sharing experience. Here's what's going to be on the welcome/introduction page (click to enlarge). Any comments much appreciated. Can't wait to share more details.

I'm also continuing and loving my work with seniors. Here's some of their wonderful work.

I've also been busy with is writing and illustrating some new picture books that I hope to get published. Will post some sample pages as soon as I'm able.

But, my two really big pieces of news are I have an intern who I adore. Her name is Marge and she's brilliant, incredibly talented and a true gift to work with. We are teaching each other lots. My other news is I have a new kitten and her name is Luna. Some of you may remember my blogging about grieving for our old cats, Guido and Possum who died last year. We missed them horribly, but weren't ready to get new cats until recently, when I asked my wonderful husband Guy how he would feel coming home to a new cat. When he said "I'd be fine," it was all systems go! Guy wanted to get a black cat, because they're always the last to get adopted (yet another reason to love Guy), and I wanted a kitten to train, which I'm not doing a very good job of because she is so beyond adorable. It's hard taking good pictures of her, because she's so dark and pretty much always moving [ADHD?] or conked out but here goes. She constantly melts my heart and it's a wonderful feeling.

 My gorgeous intern Marge

 Totally irresistible. Check out that skinny little tail.

 Guess who's ruling this house? Queen Luna.