Kids Kolour Book

Dad
May 23, 2003

DFO 1674 11/83

1. WHAT I'M PLANNING TO DO NOW IS PUT OUT A LITTLE FN-SIZE BOOKLET OF HEAVENLY PICTURES! A smaller size really wouldn't do it justice & it can be sort of a kolourbook for the kids. They love to colour this sort of thing. We can get up at least 32 pages & call it "Heavenly Pictures"—in other words they're supposed to be about Heaven or something Heavenly, even though some weren't originally designed to portray Heaven. We could include my favourite Maxfield Parrish pics too! I would say that his art is Heavenly, even though it wasn't necessarily always intended to be actually Heaven.

2. I WOULD LIKE TO PUB A LITTLE BOOK LIKE THAT RIGHT NOW FOR THE KIDS! Maybe the title could be "Heavenly Pictures—Other Artists' Conceptions of Heavenly Subjects!" In other words, they may be our artists, but those aren't my conceptions! The Heaven pictures run big & the ones on the Girl are going to be GN–size.

3. WE CAN PUB THE HEAVEN PICTURES JUST AS SOON AS WE GET 32 OF THEM, WHICH IS NOW, & CALL IT A KIDS KOLOURBOOK!—How's that?—A Kids Kolour Book of Heavenly Pictures! And I say Heavenly Pictures because they're not all of Heaven, but they are like Heaven, Heavenly-looking themes & girls & whatnot. The KKB! It kind of supplements the Kids Komix & that sort of thing. "Kids Kolour Book!—Heavenly Pictures For You To Colour!"

4. SOME OF THOSE POOR XEROXES WE RECEIVED MUST HAVE BEEN DONE ON THE LIBRARY XEROX OR SOMETHING, so let's see if we can put'm through photo to bring out the contrast at least good enough to see'm in black-&–white. They don't have to be perfect because it's other people's art & we're just showing a variety of people's ideas of Heaven & Heavenly subjects.

5. SO WE'VE ALREADY GOT ENOUGH PICTURES FOR THIS HEAVENLY KOLOURBOOK & I'M SURE THE KIDS WILL ENJOY DOING IT JUST LIKE OUR KIDS HAVE HERE! We can call it "Kids Kolour Book of Heavenly Pictures!"—You do the colouring! How's that? And let's start off with our best foot forward & put the prettiest picture on the cover. It doesn't have to have any other particular order or sequence or chronology or be geographical or whatever.

6. THESE ARE ALL OTHER ARTISTS' IDEAS & OTHER ARTISTS' CONCEPTIONS, SO PUT THE PRETTIEST ONE ON THE COVER & LOSE THE NOT-SO-PRETTY ONES SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE. The best policy is always to put your best foot forward, your weakest stuff in the middle, but then end up with something good, particularly something appealing or maybe decisive or something that you can even write an invitational message on at the end. Maybe I can give a title or subtitle or comment on each one.

7. I THINK WE OUGHT TO DO ONE ON THE POSTER TOO, THE DIFFERENT SCENES & DIFFERENT BUILDINGS & ALL THAT. Our kids here have had the advantage of those big mockups, & boy, have they been getting into colouring those things! They've got their room practically wall-papered with'm! They do a beautiful job, really beautiful, & it gives them something to do. You've gotta keep kids busy! They like to work, they like to do things, but they have a little hard time thinking up things to do, you've gotta think'm up for'm.

8. SO I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO PUT OUT A SERIES OF BOOKLETS LIKE THAT. We have so many pictures that come through that we could have one on Heaven's Girl, one on Heavenly pictures & different things like that. We've got these pictures now, these other artists' conceptions‚ & I want to give'm to the folks to give them an idea of how other people have looked at it by comparison. But some'll suffer by comparison with our beautiful poster! I'll bet we can easily get 32 pictures from the poster & make a nice black-&-white Kolourbook for the kids to colour!

9. I THINK WITH WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE & THE BEST OF MAXFIELD PARRISH‚ WE'VE JUST ABOUT GOT IT MADE! And if we put the less pretty ones somewhere in the middle, maybe it won't look so bad. You've got to have a little contrast in this life, sunshine with the rain‚ rain with the sunshine & to know the difference between what's beautiful & what's ugly. So if some people have drawn some less pretty pictures, well, they can appreciate the other ones better!

10. I JUST LOVE THIS BEAUTIFUL LITTLE "HEAVENLY PICTURES" MOCKUP WITH ALL THOSE CUTE LITTLE TITLES! Did you really like the titles? Maria just read'm & she likes'm. She says I have a knack for titles. Well, I just look at the picture & put down the first thing that comes to me. I think maybe it's inspiration. They're obvious descriptions, but some of them are a little bit different so I could hardly have thought up such things, they must come from somewhere!

11. THE ONLY THING WE BOTH NOTICED ABOUT THE TITLES IS THEY'RE TOO SMALL. It's for kids, remember. Techi could read this & she reads pretty well, but when the print is that small it's a little hard for kids to keep track of that small type. The words are so small, they have to follow with their finger & they're prone to skip words sometimes anyhow.

12. I THINK TECHI'S ALREADY GETTING THE KNACK OF READING AHEAD, & that's what we really do in a way. If you're a reader you develop a knack of actually looking ahead, especially if you read out loud, & she will sometimes skip words or say words that she thinks it is. So you've really gotta have the lettering big & black & bold!

13. GUESS WHAT I DECIDED TO ADD TO THE FRONT COVER?—A GN MASTHEAD!—So they'll know it's a GN & I'll get credit for it! Ha! So this will be GN 101 & it's ready to go if we can find some bigger type. So sorry about that, but this isn't quite satisfactory in that small type for children.

14. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN! Won't all our folks love to get these? I know the kids are going to love this‚ because they really like to work on these things. They like workbooks to give them something to do & they can't always think it up themselves. Techi will come in our room & say, "What shall I do? I'm so bored!" Anyhow‚ it's for kids, to give them something to do, & at the same time while they're doing it, it makes them think about those things!

15. THANK GOD FOR THAT BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF THE BACH TOWER, I ALWAYS THOUGH THAT WAS THE MOST HEAVENLY PLACE! I went there several times when I was a little kid & at noon & sunset—maybe at dawn too, I don't know—they played those gorgeous chimes, just beautiful! And it's in a Heavenly setting, the Land of a Thousand Lakes in Central Florida! It was beautiful! Do you think it was all right to put that one in?—It's a building worthy of Paradise & it's in a very paradisiacal setting. Well, anyhow, we've got all different kinds of artists' conceptions & I think they'll find it interesting!

16. SO IT WASN'T TIME WASTED, WE'VE GOT ANOTHER GN! Jac did a beautiful job compiling these, he ought to get some credit on here, so let's put "Compiled by Jac".—Then if they don't like it I can blame it on him!—Ha! But so they won't blame the titles on him, maybe we'd better put on there: "Titles by Grandpa!"—Not that I want to brag, they may blame me for it for that matter‚ especially some of these guys who may not appreciate what I said about their art or something, but at least they'll know who to blame! I think we need to let'm know who did the titles, then they'll know that I actually did have something to do with it, because really I have!—GBY! Tx! ILY!—I hope you like it!—Love—D.

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