Painting Stories in Watercolor: the Alaskan Alice series

Children's literature has played a pivotal role in my life. Illustrating children's books brings me great joy, as I envision a child reading the story, exploring a new world through the author's words and my art.

"Alice Meets Inupiat Eskimos," is the second of two Alice books written by Sara Budinger Peterson, Alaskan educator and author.

When I first spoke with Sara Peterson about illustrating her book, "Alice Meets Inupiat Eskimos", it was the sense of place (Kachemak Bay, upon who's shores we live) and the idea of recreating the verbal history of that place into a fictional story that piqued my interest.

After agreeing to work together, Sara and I sat down and ran through the story, chapter by chapter, developing ideas for imagery that served to compliment the text. I started by making thumbnail sketches for each illustration. Once a concept for an illustration was agreed upon, I worked up larger sketches, refining compostion and style, and then produced the final watercolor paintings which were used to illustrate the book.

Sara and I took many walks along the beaches of Kachemak Bay, to help keep the illustrations accurate. During the 1940's, an orca skeleton was found on the beach near Homer. To be able to accurately portray this event, I visited a museum in Friday Harbor, Washington, to be able to actually see a complete skeleton, and make sketches of it for this painting.

Character models in the illustrations were mostly based on real people from our everyday lives.... folks very much a part of what Homer means to many of us. Dr.Watson in this painting was based on Brother Isaiah Bates, a long time Homer resident. To create Alice, I relied on photos of a local girl who had been used as a model in the first book of the series. But the child who modeled for Alice in the first book had grown considerably in a year, and was now older than the character in the book. To portray her at 6 years old, I needed to compile sketches of other 6 year old children, and combine them with the Alice character.
 
 

One of Homer's "pioneers", Yule Kilcher was a colorful and well known man. "Music on the Beach" is a tribute to his life and family.

The painting for the chapter "Christmas in Homer", of Northern Lights is also now available as a Greeting Card.