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5 Stars Silly Frilly Grandma Tillie Laurie A, Jacobs Anne Jewett Flashlight Press 32 Pages Ages: 5 and up Inside Jacket:  Sophie and Chloe are lucky that their Grandma Tillie knows how to be royally silly. To their delight, whenever Grandma Tillie babysits she seems to disappear, only to be replaced by a parade of [...]

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Title: Lead Me Home Author:  Vicki Lewis Thompson Publisher: Harlequin Blaze

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

Whenever I get into a reading slump, I find myself reaching for a Harlequin category romance.  I don’t know why, but these things always seem to get me back on a reading track.  Maybe because of the formula, and because I know that despite all adversity, the protagonists will find a way to get together.  I’m not suggesting that they are all 5 star reads, but I find a great deal of comfort in the formula.  I have only read a few titles under the Blaze imprint, and so far, they have been quick, satisfying reads, so I  gravitated to one of these.

I picked Lead Me Home to load on my Kindle because of one thing:  the hero is a horse trainer.  I am always a sucker for a book with horses.  I am also extremely critical of stories featuring horses, because there are certain ways we do things at the barn, and then there’s the way everyone else does things.  Usually, it is in sync with how I expect horse care and horse training to be described.  Sometimes it is not.  With the exception of young Lester’s “natural” riding abilities, and the abbreviated time spent training Houdini, the unruly stallion, I didn’t have much to complain about with the horse scenes.  I would like Lester to come and show me how to canter on a runaway horse, because I am having a heck of time cantering on one of my mares.  Of course, Lester was helped out by a jerk throwing a rock, so maybe under different circumstances, he would have a problem, too.

Anyhoo, getting back to the book, Matthew is a huge guy, 6’5” and solidly built.  He is a muscle machine.  I am assuming that he’s training quarter horses, and my only other nitpick is that he is a big guy.  Quarter horses aren’t huge horses(well, except for their rear ends).  I am thinking that he looked pretty silly on Houdini, unless the stud was built like a brick sh!thouse, too.  I know how ridiculous my trainer looks on one of my mares, and she isn’t a small horse.  Oh! I am wandering off track again! Sorry!  Let’s try again!

Matthew is a famous horse trainer, probably along the lines of Clinton Anderson.  He is a published author, and everyone recognizes that he is a horse training expert.  He jets all about the world, working his equine mojo.  He also feels detached from people, and has no real committed relationships.  Both of his parents have passed away; his mother when he was a young child, and his father just a few years ago.  His father was so devastated by his mother’s death that he was an emotionally distant care-giver.  Matthew found completion training horses, and hi

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The latest work in the garage involved a study of the chef.  After drawing and painting the original proposal, tracing/adjusting the figure on the panel, and now drawing and painting the study, I went back and looked at the chef in my sketchbook.  I did this when I was just playing around and brainstorming.  Drawing is more my strength and the sketch is much looser and fun. 

Original sketchbook "brainstorm" for the chef

The biggest difficulty and motivation behind the study was to figure out the right hand gesture.  But, since the study is small, I can only work out so much.  I kind of wish I'd gone back and looked at the sketchbook designs before I started painting - I might have taken the figures in a slightly different direction.  But, I also know that I'll always find something to second guess myself and I'm better off letting go of some things and letting the painting develop as it will (for sanity reasons).  The truth is that I'm learning a lot every day that I'm out there painting.  And, it's far from done - much more detail and "whimsy" will follow.

Photocopy of chef panel used in the projector and recent color study

My biggest lesson on this panel is the realization that the yellow that I purchased (which I chose because it was the most lightfast and permanent version of the yellow I needed) is probably the most transparent paint I picked up.  That explains why I've gone through more of it than any of the other paint colors.  It takes a lot more of it to cover anything and to create the mixtures that I've used for the various foliage.

In the past, I've had frustration with acrylic paint in general - mainly, the short drying time making which meant I had to remix colors frequently and the fact that it dries a slightly different color than it goes on.  But, with the Nova Color paints, the Sta-Wet Palette, and all the time spent working on this project, I can safely say that acrylics and I have made peace.  In fact, I plan to work with acrylic paint for more of my future illustration projects.

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The produce has started flying - so far lettuce, onion, garlic, celery, broccoli, tomatoes and yellow squash.  Of course, there's more to come...

A little touch added to the panel that wasn't in the original is some produce on the floor (garlic and onion in the background, a celery stalk in the foreground).  I have another change planned, but I won't spoil the surprise, now.


Also, the chef now has a complete mustache (I'm sure that will come as a great relief to everyone).

A stylin' "stache"

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I've been working on a couple of different things lately.  I've stepped back into the chef panel, doing a little here and a little there.  I put in a layer of color on the architectural elements and started the grape leaves creeping across the top.  I added a couple of minor veggies and filled in the purple grape at the bottom. 

My challenge here was the splash.  I originally started using cerulean blue and was horrified - blech!  Switching to ultramarine was much better...but, wait a minute!  I didn't try pthalo.  Might have to try that tomorrow.


Another thing I started was a study of a tree - the type of tree that will go in panels 1 and 2.  This is especially challenging because it's a truck load of green, green, and more green.  I have 3 different greens in the hillside and another 3 (or more) greens that make up the tree.  I'm having to find ways to create contrast, even though in the reference pictures that I'm using, it does blend together at times.  I need to work on it a bit and work out the kinks.

Not very accurate color, but wanted to share what I have so far

I think I have a studio guest at night.  I'm not sure, but I think it might be this guy:


I've heard him rustling around here and there.  I suppose we can share the space for now...so long as he doesn't start using my paints.

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Title: Deep Autumn Heat Author: Elizabeth Barrett Publisher: Random House-Loveswept Romance

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

I don’t think I have read many romances featuring chefs.  Either they didn’t make an impression on me at all, or my innate dislike of cooking has steered me away from books with chefs.  I just don’t find them very sexy.  Sure, it would be divine to have a culinary artist at my beck and call, preparing mouth-watering dishes to please my taste buds and tame my wild heart, but then I remember what a glutton I am, and I realize that if I did find a sexy chef of my own, I would soon weigh as much as my horses.  Like, both of them put together.

In Deep Autumn Heat, both protagonists make a living by cooking.  Lexie runs a small restaurant in Star Harbor, a tourist town on the East coast, and Seb is a glamorous and wealthy chef. His New York restaurant is popular, expensive and five-stars in every way, and his skill in the kitchen has made him rich.  His good looks has landed him a TV show, and, well, this guy has an ego the size of a houseboat.  His first opinion of Lexie’s place is that it’s quaint and a step or three beneath him.  He makes a terrible impression on Lexie; first, he treats her like she’s “just” a waitress, and then he acts as though being in her place should be an honor for her.  He’s THE Sebastian Grayson, after all, and he is eating in HER restaurant.  Then he tries a slice of her coconut cake and it’s all over for him.  He loves her cake and wants to know what’s in it.  After sizing her up again, he decides that he wouldn’t mind getting to know what’s in her pants, either.

Lexie, for her part, is too busy and too focused on making her business successful to give Seb much more than a second glance.  OK, so she gives him a third and a fourth glance, because he is drop dead gorgeous.  Of course he is!  He’s rich, dresses in black, and rides a motorcycle, too, which makes him like a bad boy chef.  A bad boy chef who knows how to clean pots, pans, and various cooking implements, and has a smile that makes every woman’s brain go numb when he flashes a great big smile her way.  Kind of like gulping down a gigantic Slurpee and getting a case of brain freeze.  That is Seb’s effect on all women, including Lexie, though

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I’m writing a picture book that I know should work. But it’s not.

Consider the Picture Book Audience

Part of the problem with this story is that it’s set in a commercial kitchen and I have a kid who wants to cook. Critiquers tell me that the writing is great, the kid is great, but they wonder about that kid in a commercial kitchen.

Wouldn’t it violate child labor laws?
Wouldn’t the kid be in danger of getting burned?
Would a kid even WANT to be a cook? Why?
How old is this kid anyway?
Why is the kid even in this restaurant, so he gets hooked on cooking? Maybe, it’s his uncle’s restaurant and his parents work and he has to go over there after school and study.

ARGH! No!

Obviously, the adult audience for this story doesn’t connect. What about the kid audience?

At nine or ten, I was baking birthday cakes — from scratch — for my six brothers and sisters. One of the few dissenters in the group of critiquers says that her kids LOVE to make her coffee (Obviously, she lives in the great NW.) It just seems natural to me that a kid would want to cook! I’m convinced the story will work, if I can get around the adult objections.

And I do understand the objections. And I will address the objections. But it will mean starting from scratch and reconsidering both audiences for picture books, the adult and the child.

Research, then Revise

I decided to research. I’ve read through How I Learned to Cook, edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan. This fascinating book is first-person accounts from some of the world’s greatest chefs on how they fell in love with cooking as a way of life.

Many of the accounts are about a chef’s young adult years, or about some mistake s/he made during chef school or at a first job. But a couple were about falling in love with food and cooking at an early age. I’m also doing free-writes about why I liked cooking as a nine year old. And I’m reaffirming what is the heart of the story for me, remembering why I wanted to write this story.

A new draft will come. And it will be better.

Post from: Revision Notes Revise Your Novel! Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. The Dual Audience for Picture Books
2. Audience
3. Audience

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Well, I've finally made it into panel 5 (and it's turned against the side wall of the garge - hence, turning the corner)! 

Just started mapping out the floor tiles and fixing some proportions.  While the projector was incredibly handy, working from a very small original painting means that little distortions are increased in my tracings - mole hills become mountains.  So, some adjustments to the chef are necessary.  Also, the floor tiles are taking a little bit of time to get a sense of fairly balanced visual perspective without being overly hard-edge and mechanical.  But, I'm enjoying working on something different for a while.

The toasting figures are in a good place for now - I'm content with the direction that they're going.  I was not able to capture much detail in the original proposal because the scale was too small, so I've been making them up as I paint.  I'm not working from any models either - they're basically imaginary composites.  

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