1/2026 Adventure: I-2 ~ PAINT THAT BOOK
Time to pretend you just received a commission to do a painting - for a publisher releasing a book! If you ever thought of book illustration, here's a chance to test yourself.
RUTH WHITAKER ~ A Day in the Garden, 7 x 5, assorted soft pastels on Uart 400 lb. paper.
ANDREA STUTESMAN ~ If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, 12 x 9 - "Reading multiple books to my grandchildren, this was one of my favorites. Pushing limits is my grandkids specialty."
KATHY HUTCHINSON ~ The Secret Garden, 5 x 6, Artspectrum dark leaf green with various pastels - "These last few warm days followed by this cold windy day have left me craving spring. I've trimmed roses, pulled weeds, raked and mulched. Today is just too cold for all that so I chose to paint a garden. While I've been painting I've listened to "The Secret Garden" which is one of my favorites."
TERRILYNN DUBREUIL ~ Three Pines Is FINE, 12 x 9, soft pastels on UArt - "I built my 'Paint That Book' submission on a demo I created for a pastel society. It's from a book series by Canadian author Louise Penny. It is never titled "Three Pines" but that is the name of the town around which all the detective-solved mysteries occur. A recurring and memorable character in the book is an ancient poet, Ruth. She is miserable and negative, but actually hides a good heart. She rescues a duck who becomes her constant companion and who mimics Ruth's favorite expletive. The book of poetry Ruth wrote is "FINE". If you know the series, then you know how apropos it is."
DIANE DE GRASSE ~ A Canary For The Crossing, 12 x 9 - "This Adventure became pleasantly personal for me. I’d written a short story about our crossing the Atlantic in a small boat in 2002. We had indeed acquired a Mozambique canary in Portugal, and he is the focus of 10 year-old Jasmine telling the story. (Of course he was a hero.) I just didn't get to the illustrations. But I can at last make a cover! As a graphic designer I was prompted to typeset the title and author. That may get me to finish it! It’s on black UART, soft pastels and pastel pencils."
DEBORAH CHASE ~ Pastel Innovations, 12 x 12 - "Sometimes instead of laboring over a piece to 'get it right', it is fun to just mess around. The book "Pastel Innovations" involves stencils, rubbings, brayers, inks and other methods. I kept this one strictly pastels for the Adventure."
FRANKIE MILHORN ~ B is for Bird, 10 x 8 - "This was pastel painted on top of watercolor. Inspired by some beautiful birds I follow in social media, and the Robins of Britain."
NANCY CLAUSEN ~ A Tree in Winter, 12 ½ x 9 1/2, Sennelier Ingres paper, Unison and Rembrandt pastels - "The idea for my painting came from a poem I had to read in English class many many years ago. It was written by Joyce Kilmore. It's in a book called Trees: and other poems. It starts, "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree." I believe his tree had leaves on it. My tree does not as it's still winter. My tree is a Japanese Maple that's now about 20 years old. If I had put the leaves on it, then you really wouldn't see all the tree with its gracefulness. If you look closely, there is a little red here and there as it's beginning to bud.
JANE BEST ~ The Road, 12 x 9 - "I chose the title of John Ehle’s book, ”The Road” (pub1967) for this Adventure. My reference is from a photo of a gravel road I took near Boone, NC. The book itself is about the challenges of building the Western North Carolina railroad in the rocky and rugged mountain environment in 1879. Ehle was born in Asheville and wrote several notable historical fiction books set in the rural NC mountain areas. He has also been called the father of southern Appalachian literature. I enjoyed this adventure and reading Ehle’s impressive bio info."
MARGARET LYN-SOROKEN ~ The Lotus Seed, 9.5 x 7 - "Pastel sketch for book about girl taking a lotus seed with her from Vietnam to US. I’m going to read it. Caught my attention as I’m fascinated by seed pods, flowers etc. So many books on the lotus."
ALEC HALL ~ Lassie Come-Home, 10 x 8, UART sanded pastel paper, 500 grit, Rembrandt, Great American, Carb-Othello Pastel Pencils - "I chose one of my childhood favorites “Lassie Come-Home” by Eric Knight. I read the book in elementary school and must have watched the original 1943 movie with Roddy McDowall and Pal (who played Lassie) on TV on many Saturdays; and of course, I watched the TV show “Lassie” in the 1950s. While I marveled at the beauty and intelligence of Lassie (a heavy-coated, sable, rough collie), it always bothered me that Lassie was not a Border Collie, since the story took place in Yorkshire, England and Scotland. Thus, I edited the book’s main character to be a champion Border Collie. All the names of the characters, the plot, and the story’s location remain faithful to Eric Knight’s novel. Happy painting!"
WILL EVANS ~ "Another great challenge. This is a nearby scene that I’ve painted a few times but with the recent snow, it’s all new. I blocked it in with Nupastels and relied on Terry Ludwig’s to complete the scene, the challenge was to portray the new snow as it reflected the sky and surrounding landscape. With all due respect to Mr. McDermid."
KAREN KNAUB ~ Cat in the Hat, 9 x 11 - "The hardest part of this challenge was deciding on a book. So I just kept it simple. Thank you for another fun challenge."
PAT FENDA ~ The Phantom Tollbooth, 13 x 9, hard & soft pastel on Canson blue paper "Drive through the tollbooth past the Doldrums and Dictionopolis to the kingdom of Rhyme and Reason. I wasted no time in looking at images of tollbooths and phantoms to come to my conclusions that I had fun! A wonderful excuse to again read one of my all time favorites with illustrations by Jules Fieffer. Have a strictly artful day."
LINDA MEDDERS-JACKSON ~ How to Train Your Dragon, 7 x 5, mixed brands pastels and pencils - "Very quick attempt -used premiere paper and it did not work well for or this subject that needed detail."
ANNE HUDSON ~ 12 x 14, Uart on sanded paper - "Good afternoon, Thank you for the opportunity. This painting represents the book "Rose Cottage" by Mary Stewart. I used the book cover as a reference, then took liberties with the color. I kept the name, 'Rose Cottage'."
PAT QUIGLEY ~ 16 x 12 - "This was a super challenge! Spent the first days trying to settle on a favorite book. Decided to go with a girlhood classic, Little Women, because I admired the independent and serious Jo March so much. But it was hard to find a reference of a her writing in the attic. I ended up using a clip from a film version. The book title lettering was done in colored pencils; the rest in soft pastels on Canson Velvet. Sorry for the strange dotted surface – I tried to spray fixative at temperatures below freezing and the dots did not disperse! Ugh!! Lesson learned! Thanks again Adventure Guru!"
CATHARIN MCCARTHY BANTA ~ The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, Uart 9x12, Terry Ludwig and Nupastels - "These trees are actually taken from a picture in my backyard. For many days this piece was many different shades of green and not fun at all. I finally decided to loosen up, change the color palette with many complements which I felt like made the whole piece more appealing. This was a fun challenge!"
MERYL MEYER ~ Winter's Snow Birds, 9 x 11, Blue Pastelmat with assorted pastels - "I love photographing birds in winter, especially during and after a snowstorm. Over the years I have been collecting photos. I am particularly fond of the Dark-eyed Juncos and Cardinals. This is from my own reference. We had a group of Juncos this morning. This particular Junco is a female with brown, gray, and white feathers perched on my deck railing. I liked the artistic pose and played with the background adding an impressionistic feeling of the woods. I attempted to soften the feathers. I liked painting on Pastelmat for the soft effects. This was a fun Challenge, one that I am quite familiar with. I published a children's book about 3 years ago which I am quite proud of. It was a 3 year labor of love. I decided to create a new pastel illustration for this challenge of another possible book. I added text on the cover to help imagine it as a book."
*The book mentioned in the previous submission, by MERYL MEYER ~ Their Secret to Keep, 8.5 x 8.5, white Pastelmat with pastels and fine ink pens - "Self Publishing a book was intensely challenging. I learned a lot in the process. I put my heart into each illustration. This book also had a winter theme with backyard critters, myself and my cat, Moonbeam."
