He knows when you’ve been sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good… so leave Santa’s cookies alone, for goodness’ sake!

A very merry holiday season to all!

It’s funny how you don’t consider until later in life how little things from your childhood have influenced you in big ways!

My mother loved to collect children’s books, particularly if they were about animals, and particularly if they were from her own childhood era – the 1940s and ’50s. Of course, she had these books on her own shelf when I was a kid, so I often read them and looked at the pictures.

Now that I’m older, it hits me – of course, the illustrations in those books probably influenced me a lot. The lives of animals are colorful and incident-filled, especially when we are not asking them to look into a camera.

More recently, I have been doing more work in pen and ink, and once again I think I’m remembering the often simple ink illustrations in my mom’s old storybooks.

One of my own favorite books was “The Patchwork Cat” by Nicola Bayley. This illustration from her story has such a great detail with Tabby worried about her favorite blanket and her claws are out!

Can you believe that black dogs are passed over for adoption more than dogs of other colors? Or that some people find black dogs hard to photograph or paint? As the onetime owner of a lovely black dog, I think they deserve the very best – because black is beautiful!

This is Josie. Her mom was a black Lab and her dad was a German Shepherd/Husky. Josie got her mom’s jet black fur and her dad’s beautiful Husky tail. She was the only puppy in her litter to get an all-black coat.

Black or dark-colored dogs can take some extra effort to photograph in their best light. Brighton Dog Photography has some tips if you’re trying to take a good photo of one.

It can take a little extra time to capture the beauty of a black dog… but it’s so worth it!