Walker works with former professor to illustrate children’s book

     A local graphic artist can now add children’s book illustrator to her list of accomplishments.

   Faith Walker, of Monticello, worked with her former college professor, Susan Dolter, of Dubuque, to illustrate her children’s book “Wuzzy and Doe.”

   “Children’s book illustration has been on my bucket list since I was a child,” reminisced Walker. “This opportunity turned into such a blessing!”

   Walker and Dolter met at Clarke University in Dubuque when Walker was a student. She graduated in 2015.

   Walker also worked as a tutor in Clarke Writing Center.

   “I met Sue during my freshman year at Clarke,” recalled Walker. “She was my professor in Approaches to Literature. She then became my supervisor and mentor.”

   Dolter has been in education for 44 years. She served as the director of the Writing Center and was also an adjunct faculty member. She retired in 2017, thought she continued to provide writing assistance to students in Clarke’s graduate programs.

   Dolter is also a proud mother and grandmother, which inspired her to write “Wuzzy and Doe.”

   She said she chose Walker to illustrate her book due to Walker’s “enormous talent.

   “Faith created illustrations that far exceeded my expectations,” she boasted. “I am convinced that readers of ‘Wuzzy and Doe’ will recall Faith’s rendition of the characters long after the narrative becomes a little fuzzy in their memory.”

   The children’s book is about a bear, Wuzzy, who doesn’t have a mouth. He thinks something is wrong with him until a lady finds him on the shelf sta. drugstore and decides to bring him home with her.

   Doe is a small baby bunny. Similar to Wuzzy, she has a self-perceived flaw – that she is too small. The same lady who bought Wuzzy spots Doe on the shelf at the store and brings her home, too.

   In the end, Doe and Wuzzy are introduced to each other and become big brother and little sister.

   “The overarching themes are self-acceptance and the love of neighbor,” Walker shared.

   Dolter said it really only took a couple of months to write the book.

   “I spent a total of perhaps two hours writing the narrative,” she admitted. “I stored it my creative file and revisited it several times over the course of a few weeks to ensure consistency in tone, vocabulary, characterization, and the like.

   “When I was satisfied with it,” she continued, “I gave the story to a couple of teacher friends and to my pediatrician son. Their responses were very positive.”

   Knowing she needed to find an illustrator, Dolter confessed she felt “deflated” because she had nowhere to turn.

   “It took several weeks for the realization to dawn on me that I did know an illustrator,” she said.

   Dolter and Walker met up for lunch one day and Dolter recalled Walker’s enthusiasm to be a part of her children’s book.

   “Suddenly my dream of sharing ‘Wuzzy and Doe’ with an audience was on the path to coming true,” she said.

   “I was thrilled at the opportunity to illustrate ‘Wuzzy and Doe!’” exclaimed Walker. “After reading the story, I fell in love with the themes… I knew I could create illustrations to do these important themes justice.”

   Both Dolter and Walker said the book is rooted in truth.

   “Everything in the story actually happened,” said Dolter. “Wuzzy and Doe are real, and so is the lady.”

   Walker notes that it was actually Dolter who found the two stuffed animals on the shelf at a drugstore.

   “She brought them home, gave them names, and wrote the story,” shared Walker.

   When the met for lunch early on, Dolter brought Wuzzy and Doe with her for Walker to see the actual inspirations for herself. Walker took photos of the two for her inspiration as well.

   “Wuzzy’s defining characteristic is that he has ‘coconut fur,’” she described. “I was excited for artistically create that gentle wispiness.

   “The illustrations came along after I made my initial character sketches of each character and determined a color scheme to use – complementary maroon and deep green.”

   To do the actual, hand-drawn illustrations, Walker wanted to use watercolor, her media of choice. But she knew that wouldn’t translate well digitally when it came to Wuzzy’s fur. She then resorted to using the software program Adobe Fresco on her iPad.

   “Fresco also allowed for perfect color accuracy when establishing a color scheme as opposed to physically painting the illustrations,” she explained. “This was first opportunity to really explore the different brushes and artistic capabilities this program holds, and better refining my digital illustration skills was an enjoyable challenge.”

   Walker had to determine the size of the book and page count early on in the process. She worked with Julin Printing in Monticello, where the book was ultimately printed.

   Seeing her book in print form for the first time brought tears of joy to Dolter’s eyes.

   “I wept; enough said.”

   For Walker, she said it was “profound” to see the final product.

   “I am incredibly proud of the illustrations within the pages of ‘Wuzzy and Doe,’” marveled Walker. “I was able to express my creativity in a new way to carry such an important message to everyone that reads the book. The message that God created all people equally, despite our self-perceived flaws; therefore, everyone in inherently worthy of dignity and respect.”

   Walkers’ young daughters, Morgan and Brittlee, can also enjoy their mom’s work of art for themselves for years to come.

   “When it was finally printed and they were able to hold it for the first time, their face slit up!” she said of their reactions. “This story has made an impact on our family, and it has been so special to share this journey and the book’s important message with my daughters.”

   Dolter had a second career as a copy editor. Her wealth of experience helped her to bring her words to life.

   “I decided early on that I would self-publish,” she said. “The field of children’s books is saturated, with hundreds of thousands of publications vying for attention. I dislike competition.”

   Dolter said she wanted to maintain her own vision for her book from the start, and had in intentions of marketing it “in the conventional sense.”

   So, she chose to generously give away copies of her book.

   “My goal was to reach out to not only kids and parents,” she said, “but also to teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers – anyone who provides services to children.

   “I envisioned the book being donated to children’s hospitals across the country to be given to patients as admission gifts,” continued Dolter. “Kids who are hospitalized are so very vulnerable, and I thought ‘Wuzzy and Doe’ would bring smiles to their faces.”

   It was also her discontent with social media that was one of Dolter’s motivators for giving away copies of her book.

   “I believe we, as a society, have made missteps in the last 20 years or so by becoming dependent on – maybe even addicted to – our devices,” she said with honesty. “We have allowed social media to dictate to us how we should look, behave, and even think. I wanted to let young readers know they did not have to abandon the God-given gift of their uniqueness in order to measure up to someone else’s – sometimes damaging – expectations.”

   Dolter is working on arranging dates and locations for book-readings, where copies of her book will be given away.

   Copies of the book have been donated to the Monticello Public Library for check-out, as well as every classroom at Sacred Heart School in Monticello.

   So does Dolter have more children’s books in her future?

   “I think so…,” she teased. “There’s one in my creative file.”

   Walker can also reveal that she is currently working on illustrating her second children’s book, written by her sister, Cassi Sawhill. The book is called “Louder Than Thunder.” The hope is to have it published in time for Christmas!

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