During the last two years I have spent a lot of time working on a children’s book for my granddaughters. I have always loved children’s book art. I think that it is the storytelling aspect that draws me to these beautiful and often amazing illustrations and images.
I was thinking about the process of putting together a children’s book and how my connections with different artists made doing it possible.
Several years ago I took a class called Writing and Illustrating Books that was taught by Roger Trottier and Lloyd Retzlaf. Lloyd taught the writing part and Roger the illustration part. It is a daunting exercise to look at a story, once it has been written and edited, and work out how best to convey what you want to express in pictures. Roger’s expertise and generosity in sharing everything he knew provided me with the information I needed to put together a book.
The next artist who most influenced my current style of work is Miranda Jones. Her mixed media class opened me up to using a variety of mediums that I had never worked with before and fell in love with. I have always connected to Miranda’s work and working with her allowed me to feel free to explore subject matter that I had previously been reluctant to work with even though I was really drawn to it.
When my first granddaughter was born in February 2020 I decided to start the process of writing and illustrating a children’s book dedicated to her. With help from my daughter Erica we wrote a story called Loving Ewe. When I started putting together the book I had no idea how it was all going to come together, all I knew was that I wanted to illustrate it in my current style and to self publish it.
I was appreciative of the support that I received from my fellow artists in the Artists’ Workshop group. My connection with Kathryn Green enabled me to get the best version of my story written with her expertise at editing. Pat Katz recommended a graphic designer that I could work with to put the finished book together. Several others had used J&S Picture Framing for professional art scanning, and Paige Mortensen gave me the name of a printer in Victoria, BC who specialized in self published books.
My book is now at the printer and I look forward to seeing the finished product.
Artists' Workshop Saskatoon 
Awesome job Val. congrats I can’t imagine how howaccomplished you must feel. Will it be at Amazon? I want to get one for every child and newborn I know.
Hi Debra, Thanks for your comments. I am currently only having 25 hardcover copies printed and as they are quite expensive to print, will be selling them for around $50. I will let you know if I do a soft cover print run which is a lot less expensive.