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I relate to animals. I
talk to them, they talk back.

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I know their
personalities very well.

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I can draw them from
memory because I observe

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them so heartily.
Cows are very funny.

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They are very dignified, and
it must be very difficult to

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be dignified with these
coat hanger hips and udders and

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all this other
stuff lurking forth.

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The way I really like
to draw is out of my head,

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and I like to do
this very loose brush or

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felt tip pen kind of drawing
and then with color overlays.

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The color is less important
to me than the drawing.

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Because my drawing is
so quick and spontaneous,

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a lot of times if I
have to do that drawing over

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several times, it loses
some of that spontaneity.

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So I discovered that if I do
the drawings on tracing paper,

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and if I don't like
a particular gesture,

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I can tear that out
and put another one in.

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My final drawings wind up
looking like a sewed-together

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Frankenstein monster. 
It's all taped together.

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And I have this Xeroxed, 
so now I have

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a black-and-white
Xeroxed drawing,

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and then I just do my
watercolor on that.

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DUMPY LA RUE. I love pigs.
Pigs are hysterical.

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This is an example of
the process I use when

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I make several finished
drawings on a Xerox machine,

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so that I can paint
them in different ways.

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Originally, I did this
painting for the book.

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I had another copy of the
black-and-white drawing and

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I simply repainted it with a
daylight, sunny daylight scene.

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I like the drawings in CLICK,
CLACK, MOO. The cows have

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just left a note on the door
that is infuriating the farmer.

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I want the children to
see the cow's expressions.

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I want them to see the
note. And I certainly want

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them to see
Farmer Brown's reaction.

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How am I going to do that?
I did many, many sketches and

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wound up using that shadow
and, it was just a bonus that

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the straw hat looked like Farmer
Brown's hair standing on end,

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which showed his rage even
more. A lot of my inspiration,

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I am sure, came from
the cartoons I saw as

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a child in movies. You know,
the gesture of Farmer Brown

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with his leg up in the
air and shaking his fists.

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It is pure cartoon.

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What appealed to me
about Barbara Joosse's book

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Everybody together at Grandma's
house for Christmas,

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with two dogs and a cat,

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and a snowstorm and then they
all get to sleep there.

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I mean, I can't imagine a more
appealing story for a child.

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When you illustrate a
story like that where there are

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specific characters, you have to
give those characters a face.

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And that is always
a challenge for me,

51
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and I love that challenge.
I read the manuscript and

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then I do rough sketches. I
develop the character first.

53
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Do many, many drawings
until I get them looking the

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way I want and I am sure that
I can draw that character in

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any pose, from any angle, with
any expression on their face.

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I draw and draw before I even
get to illustrating the book.

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I like this page
very much because

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this is the first you
see of Granny's family.

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I was so excited to start
doing these characterizations.

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 "At last they came--

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Chatty Aunt Fanny and
her sister, Clarisse.

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Uncle Bert, the fireman,
and his brave firedog, Walter.

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Great-aunt Ruby, who smelled
like wild cherry cough drops.

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Annie, Michael,
and little Otto.

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Aunt Ivy and her noisy
boys--Freddie, Dennie,

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and Kennie. And Lambert,
who had a soft warm lap."

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So now I have the whole
family here to illustrate.

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Edgar the dog had to
be a big floppy sort of

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Golden Retriever kind of animal
and the children had to be

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boisterous, so, I had to
have one smashing a snowball

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on top of the other one's
head inside Granny's house

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so the mother could
be very upset about it.

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And bland Uncle Lambert,
who comes in last, waving.

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I love to end
picture books--my own or

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other people's picture books. I
like it to be just a drawing if

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I can work it out that
way, without text.

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Because in that drawing, I
like to bring something to

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the story that wasn't
told. 

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you don't know
whether or not the ducks get

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their diving board in
the text. I decided to show

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the reader that the duck did
get the diving board simply by

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having him dive off
of it into the water.

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He got his diving board. I
think I say in pictures what

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I don't say as easily in words.