This week P&O is thrilled to have our friend, author/illustrator, Abby Hanlon, join us for a guest post. Take it away, Abby!
Abby’s twins. (click to enlarge)
My six-year-old twins are in desperate need of money right now to buy more Star Wars Legos. They have been thinking of ways to capitalize on the foot traffic on our busy Brooklyn block. The other night at 8:00 (bedtime) but still light outside, they convinced me to let them go out (in their pajamas) to set up a portrait drawing business. They brought an empty jar for money, a couple of clip boards, black pens and a stack of paper and sat on the stoop waiting for their first client. I listened from inside (feeling slightly mortified for them) as my daughter said in her most polite voice to the first person that walked by, “Excuse me, we are drawing portraits. May we draw you?” In 15 minutes, they drew three portraits and made two dollars.From inside, I listened to the small talk while each person waited for his/her portrait. Since I remained uninvolved, I don’t know what the portraits looked like, but nobody rang the bell to complain. Read More
I’m an animal fan (to put it mildly). When I came across this book,”Animal Faces by Akira Satoh and Kyoko Toda, I couldn’t believe my luck. It’s such a simple idea; take a bunch of portraits of one kind of animal and put them next to one another. What comes out is something truly amazing: we see how each animal is an individual. Personalities appear. The disparities in their markings or fluffier cheeks make a huge difference when you compare one to the others in her species. Read More
Pen and Oink 