1. Hello from snowy Alaska!
Some time back you received a message
from me briefly describing my upcoming
non-fiction picture book, ELLIE'S LONG
WALK, about my dog Ellie and me hiking
the 2174 mile long Appalachian Trail.
Now that the text is finished for ELLIE'S
LONG WALK, we move on to the
illustration part of the book. The same
editor, Michelle McCann, who worked with
me on the text will now be working with the
illustrator, Bill Farnsworth.
When you open an illustrated book, you see
what are called spreads. A two-page spread
has a left and right page. Each spread has
text that tells a part of the story and the

2. illustration accompanying a spread tells that
part of the story through art.
To start this illustration process, Michelle
sends the text to Bill. After he has read it, he
creates very rough sketches showing his
concept of how the illustration should look
for each spread and sends those to Michelle
and me. These rough sketches are called
thumbnails and are black and white. In these
sketches he will position our bodies and
rough in the scenery enough for us to get the
idea of how he sees the scene.
(First attachment.) Since this a non-fiction
book, Bill wanted to create illustrations that
would be as close to the actual events as
possible. The book starts with me meeting
and adopting my dog, Ellie, when she was
just six weeks old. Since there are no
pictures of that event and Ellie is now just a

3. tad too big to hold (68 pounds!), I posed
against a blank wall holding a stuffed dog
and emailed the picture to Bill. I sent him a
pose for every spread.

4. The second attachment is the first, rough
sketch or thumbnail of me meeting Ellie.
(The bottom of that same page is a sketch of
Ellie and me training together.) Notice Bill
has raised the angle so the reader is looking
more directly at the scene and has closed in
a bit, giving the reader a better look at Ellie.

5. Also, he has chosen to place the illustration
on the right page with me facing toward the
text. The spread would be unbalanced and
look odd if he had positioned me on the
right page looking away from the middle of
the book. He has also drawn lines on the left
page to represent text. Bill must always
think about leaving enough space for the
text and leaving that space in a place that
allows the text to be held together and not
scattered all over the page. When he finishes
the illustration, there will actually be a white
space on his canvas for the text.
Michelle makes editing comments and I
only comment on factual errors. My
comments go to Michelle and Bill and
Michelle's comments go to Bill and me so
everyone knows what is happening but
Michelle is always in charge. Then Bill

6. revises his sketches and sends the revisions
to us.
The third attachment is a real surprise.
Usually Bill would send the revised sketches
in black and white and then go to color. But
he surprised us by sending color revisions.
Here you can see that Bill is starting to fill in
shading, background scenery, and showing
Ellie trying to give me a kiss with her
tongue. A little touch like a dog kiss goes a
long way to make the scene warm and
loving. He also changed my brown shirt that
I posed in to a red jacket which is a much
happier color. The artist has the license to
make such changes as long as it doesn't
affect accuracy of the story.
That's it for now. We all have to wait to see
the final art for this spread because it's still
being created.

7. The next message will show the
development of a scene in the middle of the
book where something very dramatic
happens.
Pam