It’s interesting that during the Yuletide season I work on an All Hallows Eve book and at the Summer Solstice I’m usually working on a Yuletide/Christmas book.

The house is decorated and lighted with candles. We will burn the traditional bayberry candle on the Winter Solstice and on Christmas Eve as well as New Year’s Eve.

The house is cozy and comfortable with a cheery fire burning in the fireplace. We are well stocked with food and drink and lots of candy for the festive season.

This is the Pups’ Yule Tree in the dining room. Each pup has a silver framed photo and there are lots of pup ornaments.

And, of course, the Christmas/Yule candy!

I am having a great time working on black paper (Stonehenge 140 lbs. Cold Press) with gouache and cut-out figures. Here is the newest “practice piece” for ALL HALLOWS EVE.

Working on a new picture book that I have had in my mind for a few years now. I wrote the story in September of this year and have been experimenting with the colour layouts.

The buildings will be a bit brighter. But I do like the contrast between the bright figures and the background.

This was the very first practice piece.

I love working with cut-out figures so that I can quickly see if a layout works or not.

The cut-out figures are all in the archives here in the studio. When I do the finished artwork all new figures will be created and used for the book.

Here is the original piece of artwork.

If this was a finished piece of art the ‘ghost tree’ would be larger.

The idea started on a scrap piece of kraft paper. I liked the starkness of this composition.

Playing around with adding other figures. I would move the text block to a higher position. I wanted to see how the figures would look overlapping the text block.

I experimented with making the book more appealing for the youngest readers. As much as I like this idea I like the black background layouts better.

And, of course, the cat’s legs are completely wrong. But I like the idea.

I like the shape of the hill in this layout better than the other one.

The trim size for the book would be 9 ½” x 9 ½” or 10″ x 10″. The font is Papyrus. The medium is gouache.

As I work on the layouts I saw a pattern emerging that I will definitely use in the finished art. At first I thought the Old Woman would have a cow, then I decided she would have a large pig (Guardian), but then when I found the old cut-out of the Old Woman with here little dog pulling a wooden cart with a pumpkin in it I knew this was the right combination. The pumpkin in the cart provides the motivation as to WHY the Old Woman was out and about on All Hallows Eve.

A couple years ago my editor asked me if I would consider writing a mystery novel for middle readers. At the time had no ideas for the story, characters, setting, etc. But, now I do. I have to finish a long overdue picture book deadline and then I can concentrate on writing the mystery. It took me about two hours to come up with the idea, the plot, the characters, the title, the setting, etc.

I have written the Overview as well as the thirteen chapter headings and basic progression of the story in each chapter.

Because I am too well known as the author/illustrator of the Gossie & Friends books I will write the mystery novel under a different name—just to prevent confusion.

Here are a few front cover layouts that I did just for fun:

The Vampyre Room Boxes continue to grow as more details are added. In the Spring 2025 we are building a new barn studio just for the projects and work I do creating the Vampyre Room Boxes. It will also provide much more room to display the room boxes. My Illustration Studio will go back to being just for illustrating books and doing graphic design and board game design.

Here are a few recent photos. These two Vampyre Room Boxes are in our bedroom nestled in amongst all the vampyre books.

We hope that everyone had a festive and snowy Yuletide season with lots of snow! We had snow here at Henwoodie. Our herd of deer has grown to about 40 and keep us busy throughout the winter months keeping them fed and close by and safe.