Dear Readers,
Thank you for joining us on our creative journey to write and illustrate our magical story, PONIES IN THE PARK. One of the first things we did after Mary told me about her wonderful idea for a picture book about the Looff Carousel horse coming alive, was to head down to Riverfront Park and took a ride on that beautiful carousel. We imagined what it would feel like if we could take off and ride through Riverfront Park. What would we see? What would we do? What might happen?
We walked around the park, (rode the Lime scooters of course) and looked at all the wonderful sculptures. We plotted, planned and took many photographs for reference. Then, Mary went home to research everything she could find out about Spokane’s Looff Carousel and carousels in general. Good writers always do a lot of research before they start.
Since I am the illustrator, I knew I’d be drawing many, many carousel horses, so I needed to do research too. I started sketching. I also made a traceable model of a horse, so all the horses wouldn’t be in the same position. I’ve included the kind of model I made in the download/resource section, so you too can draw your own carousel horse or two, or three…In the months to come, you will find so much interesting material about carousels and Spokane Riverfront Park and then have some fun with the other activities we will include. We would love to hear from you and see some of your work, so please send it to us at www.poniesinthepark.com.
We are so glad you are joining us,
Mary L. Carpenter & Mary Pat Kanaley
