Painting
This is where MJ does the art for her part of the illustrations in a painted book like THE PLOT CHICKENS, SOUPERCHICKEN, or PRINCESS AND THE PIZZA. Her drawing board is right next to the wood stove, which is especially nice for the cold upstate NY winters. It's a favorite spot for the dogs, too -- especially Zeke.
MJ paints the chickens and whatever scenery Herm needs to complete a page. She then gives these paintings to Herm, who scans them into his computer. If the book has human characters, MJ often paints the heads separately. By making the heads larger than they will appear in the book, she can put more details in the facial expressions. Herm shrinks the heads down to size in the computer when he puts the figures together.
