John asked if I would make a video specially for his cousin’s son, Logan, who is in the third grade, and loves Old Bear and His Cub and Little Cub.  Logan was taking my books to class on Tuesday to read them to his classmates and give a presentation.  Here is the video I made for him so that he could use it as part of his presentation.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wplu76i67oirlyd/Hello%20Logan2.mov?dl=0

After a long hiatus from posting in this Writing Blog I am finally emerging from one of the darkest depths of despair I’ve gone through in many, many years.  It has been impossible to work on “warm, fuzzy, happy” children’s illustrations.  I have more or less been living in suspended animation.  Going through the motions of day-to-day life without really focusing on anything of any real import.

I’m happy to report that now that September has arrived the dark clouds have lifted, I’m feeling more optimistic, more like my old self.  Sometimes you just have to stop and reflect and hope you survive the dark days of doubt.

I am happily back to work on the finished artwork for A Bed for Little Cub as well as the cover illustration for Gossie & Friends Big Book of Adventures.  In order for these pictures to reflect a joyful and lighthearted spirit I have to feel the same in my own person

My editors and art directors have been more patient than you might ever imagine.  They understand that the creative process can sometimes be arduous and fraught with doubt and turmoil.

To grease the work wheels in the studio I will tackle the one shot cover art and then proceed on to the more demanding task of doing the finished painting for the 17 illustrations for A Bed for Little Cub.

Here is the rough layout for the one piece of cover art to be finished.

Sometimes the scariest thing you might have to face is a blank piece of paper knowing that you have to create something magical and memorable on it.

It helps to have an existing sketch in mind that can be adapted and altered to suit my needs.

The process is to work with the base sketch and figure out the placement of al the other key characters and elements using sketches on tracing paper or vellum.

Here is the rough layout for the cover art.  Now all I have to do is the finished pencil drawing on watercolour paper, ink the drawing, then do the painting.  And the illustration will be finished.  And my confidence will be restored!

With each passing day I am feeling a bit more optimistic, less scattered in my thoughts, and starting to spend time in the studio being creative.

I have a difficult time simply sitting down and starting to draw or paint.  To get the creative juices flowing I usually pull out an old drawing and work on it or an old painting-in-progress and work on that.  Anything that will allow me to be creative and not feel too insecure and pressured.

This time around I simply printed out a jpg of the Projection Map of Old Farm and made a few cuts to try out an idea I’ve had in the back of my mind for about 15  years.

It’s a rough concept for a pop-up book of Old Farm and the goslings.  I like how this rough attempt came out (only spent an hour on it) and I can definitely see wonderful possibilities.

I’ve been in a slump for what seems like months, if not years, now.  Molly’s death has left me feeling more bereft than anyone might imagine.   But I really need to pull myself together and get to work on finishing the illustrations for A Bed for Little Cub as well as Ruby & Roofus and Pearl.   Then I can breathe a huge sigh of relief and feel like I’m getting my life back on track.

There is a project in the works that is about to be signed into official FULL SPEED AHEAD!  As soon as I know we are heading to Boston to sign the contract I’ll make the announcement.

Dreams really do come true, even after your worst nightmare.

Molly’s death has left me feeling more empty and unfocused than any other event that has occurred in my life. There is no explanation for it. It’s simply deep grieving.

When I find myself in a slump (I try to avoid the cliché ‘depression’) I have several sanity saving things that I do. First and foremost I read about other writers and artists and the struggles they endured and how they managed to survive. In addition to reading I also listen to these biographical books in audio format.

The two books that I recently listened to are: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life by Linda Davis and Looking for Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martell.

I’m not quite certain why I find reading about or listening to other creative people’s lives fascinate me so much, but they do. And more often than not I get inspired to get back to the studio and do my own work; create my own magic on paper.

It’s not always easy but the important thing is to not let myself slip into the ‘depths of despair’. After all, tomorrow is another day, as an insightful character once said.

It’s been some time since I last posted anything here in my writing blog.   Molly’s tragic death plunged me into the depths of despair for quite some time.  I don’t know if I will ever fully get over what happened.  Time is the only thing that will help ease the pain and sorrow and anger of losing a beloved companion.

I have been rereading Linda H. Davis’s Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life.  I also downloaded the book on Audible in order to listen to it during the long eleven hour drive out here to Dearborn (where I am at the moment).

I mentioned in an earlier post that The Addams Family was always one of my most favorite series of cartoons in the New Yorker and book collections.  And I will admit that when I was a young boy I enjoyed the tv show.

Now, after all these  years, I am getting a glimpse of the man behind the drawings and characters.   To me, his life and work habits are fascinating.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember when it was that I first discovered the drawings done by Charles Addams.  It had to have been when I was between twelve and thirteen years ago and living in a large, rambling farmhouse that my family rented on the Eastern Shore.   The farmhouse was surrounded by cornfields and soybean fields.  From my upstairs bedroom windows these fields resembled the vast ocean when the wind blew the leaves in undulating patterns.

I never found the Addams Family cartoons scary or frightening.  To me their huge rundown Victorian mansion was cozy and inviting (for some strange reason).  The high ceilinged rooms with their pools of pale lamplight and family members huddled together reading or watching tv epitomized coziness and togetherness in my mind.

This cartoon is a good example as to what I mean.

I always longed to live in a house that had a bay window with cushioned window seat just so that I could curl up with a good book on a stormy day or night and be one of the Addams Family’s members.

It was cartoons like this one, as well as my obsession with early Gothic romance novels, that prompted me to cover an old flat topped trunk with a quilt and pillows and push it under one of my bedroom windows so that I could read and write in my own cozy, Gothic setting.

To this day I still keep the rooms in our house darkened with pools of lamplight where I can read or write.   Drawing is the only activity that requires me to have better lighting in the studio.  But even then the studio is dark with the only light coming from my drafting lamps.

This cartoon, of course, exemplifies my idea of reassuring coziness at night in a bedroom.   There is another cartoon of Wednesday in her bedroom that I have to find (and post) in one of my books back at Henwoodie.   It was Wednesday’s octopus that inspired me to give Gideon an octopus for his beloved stuffed toy.  In fact, the cartoon I want to find shows Wednesday’s octopus as having pointy, spidery tentacles.  The first octopus I drew for Gideon also had these.

One of the very first sketches of Gideon.  You will notice that I hadn’t named his octopus at this stage.

Of course, one of my most favorite Addams Family cartoons is this one:

I have always loved, loved, LOVED this cartoon!  Mostly because of the wonderful perspective shown in the mansion.

When I was a young boy, who had fallen under the Addams spell of ghoulishness, we used to drive to Nanticoke River to fish and crab.   I hated these activities and always took a book to read while my family fished and crabbed.

There were two exciting things about these trips:  1) we always stopped at a small mom and pop grocery store where I bought an Archie comic book for five cents and some of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten.   I’ve never had cookies like these anywhere except at this little grocery.  I can’t even remember what kind they were.  My suspicion is that they were some sort of molasses flat, dark cookies.  2) we always had to drive past a lonely, dilapidated Victorian house that looked exactly like the Addams Family mansion.   This house stood alone in a field with dark, broken windows and the tall tower where I imagined my bedroom would be on the top floor.

I wish I had had enough foresight to have photographed this house.  But, for some reason, that thought never occurred to me.  It was enough just to see whenever we drove past and wonder if anyone lived there.  Naturally, I imagined that a real life Addams family must occupy the house.

My novel, Wythe’s End, is my Addams Family without being ghoulish and creepy.  It was the strong family bonds within the Addams family that impressed me as much as the spooky, darkened rooms.

So, for now, I am still listening to the chronicles of Charles Addams’s life and adventures.  When I listen to the audio book I am always in bed, in a darkened room, with one small lamp providing a pale pool of light for comfort and nostalgia.

Oftentimes stink bugs or lady bugs like to visit me while I’m working late a night at the drawing board.  I enjoy their company and will put a drop of clean water on a ceramic palette for them so they can have a drink.

Colour studies and dummy for Pupper!

Colour studies for my book It’s Snowing!

When I work on large, medieval maps I prefer to work outside.  The maps can be quite large and the process is a bit messy.  I tend to draw and paint with both hands at the same time.

I thought it might be interesting to post a few photos of my drawing board and me working at the drawing board.  I am what you call a “white knuckle” illustrator—always in a near panic when I’m working on the illustrations for a book.  I am NOT a relaxed illustrator.  Trust me, writing comes much more easily and more naturally to me.

My temporary studio in the living room when I was working on the finished illustrations for Gemma & Gus and Gus.  Molly had just had leg surgery and could not go up and down the stairs. So, I moved my studio down to the living room and slept on the couch for six weeks while she recovered.

I work on a number of illustrations at the same time—this helps me keep the colours consistent.This photo shows a picture-in-progress.

This is my original journal that I wrote when I was seventeen years old.  It is the basis for my edgy, coming-of-age novel: 4″ written under the name Gabe Hooton.  This photo shows the journal, old photos, and the box in which I keep the manuscript.

You can read 4″ at amazon.com.  Just search by title and Gabe Hooton.

More old photos of my life when I was a teenager and the actual newspaper clipping that reported the near fatal car accident I was in.

This is what my handwriting looks like in the journal from 1971.

It’s another cold, wet, foggy night here at Henwoodie.  The bleak, dreary weather fits my sad mood perfectly.  The snow is melting but the days and nights are still chilly and damp.  Still having difficulty sleeping after Molly’s tragic drowning.  Still have not found her body in the swollen river that still has ice sheets on it.

Will try to settle down in the studio later on today and attempt to get some real work done.  I need to keep my mind distracted and not think about Molly.   Not an easy thing to do, I must admit.

I like to remember these cold, foggy nights so that I can describe them in my writing, especially Wythe’s End and LOME.