Laird Fetzer Hamblin - Biologist, Teacher, and Children's Author and Illustrator

Life on the farm taught Laird the importance of fine work, the importance of self, family, and neighbors to accomplish any task, great or small, and an appreciation for the fragility, resilience, and beauty of life and of nature.

As a biologist, Laird has studied plants, birds and other animals in wonderful spaces of still wild places. He loves to whistle bird songs and does so all day long, like birds in wild places announcing their spaces.

Laird loves teaching children and learning from them. He writes and illustrates song-stories in rhyming alliteration to keep lit or awaken the joy of discovery inherent within each of us.

1. How do I know what to do on the white paper?

For some of us, seeing a white paper with no marks on it and deciding where to start making marks can seem overwhelming (being confused about what to do).

We may not know what medium we want to use, meaning, do I want to use graphite pencils, colored pencils, crayons, watercolors or something else?

We may not know what we want to draw.

Sometimes, we want to do it just right and that can be overwhelming too!

I find it is helpful to have a piece of paper to practice on, so that I can decide what I want to draw, how I want to draw it and what I want to draw it with.

Eventually, as artists, we will draw many pictures on many white sheets of paper.

In life, it can be difficult to start over again. In art we can. No matter whether our previous efforts to portray something wonderful and meaningful worked well or not, we can always get a new blank piece of paper and start again. Actually, we can start over again in life as well. Each evening is a time to reflect and detect if we are on the course we want to pursue and doing what we wish to do. Each new day we can live a new way; or say, I’m doing well, my life is the story I wish to tell.

2. When do I pick pencil?

I always start with graphite pencils, because I can draw lines and erase them many times while I figure out where to put the lines, so my drawing looks how I want it to look.

Before I get the lines correct, I feel frustrated that my drawing doesn’t look like what I wanted it to look like.

After drawing, erasing and redrawing many lines many times, eventually, my entire drawing has the correct perspective and proportions to look like what I am depicting (making a picture of).

Our brains and our hands are good at remembering things we’ve worked diligently at, so the next time I draw that same thing, I am able to draw it much easier.

Sometimes I keep using graphite pencils until my picture is done. Sometimes, when I finally have the picture looking how I want it, I then carefully erase the lines enough that I can just see where they were. Then I use colored pencils, pastels, watercolor or some other medium, to carefully color my picture.

3. How do I draw when I can't feel the drawing inside my brain?

Initially, it can seem difficult to visualize in our mind what we want to draw or how we want to draw it. Without actually knowing how it will look, though, we can look around us and say there is something I would like to draw, so that I can remember it or so I can show others what I’ve seen. Nature has many beautiful things which we can create pictures of. We can draw pictures of our home, our family’s car, our bicycle. We can draw pictures of our family and our friends.

Eventually, after we’ve drawn many pictures, our brain will be thinking ahead and planning new projects to draw, especially as we see beautiful things and as we meet new members of our family or meet new friends.

If we are drawing a person, an animal, a plant, or something else, we have to look at the person, animal, plant or thing, or pictures of them. We then decide how we want to see them in the picture. Do we want a person looking towards us, sideways or some other way? Do we want an animal moving or staying still?

We also have to decide if we want other things in our picture. Do we want a person holding a book, a hiking stick or anything else? Do we want to have a person walking through a forest or in a desert?

When we awaken each morning, we don’t know exactly what we will experience throughout the day. We start into each day, though, and find out what will happen that day. When we start drawing a picture, we don’t know exactly how it will eventually look. We start working on it, adjusting and deciding one mark at a time how we want to draw it, and eventually it is done.

4. What is a bad drawing and what is an ok drawing?

If you have drawn what you wanted to draw and you drew it how you wanted to draw it, then it is “good” art.

My brother Chad and I observed (carefully looked at) art displayed at a county fair. Chad pointed to a painting and said he liked it. It was abstract, meaning it doesn’t depict anything real. I didn’t appreciate it as much as my brother did, but I wanted to say something nice about it in case someone overheard us talking about it. I said that I liked the colors they’d used. A woman who’d heard us speaking stepped near us and said she was so glad we liked it. She was the artist who’d painted the picture. I was glad that we had both spoken appreciatively about her picture.

When I was in elementary school, a teacher gave us each a paper with the outline of a lion on it. She asked us to each color the lion. The other children all used bright yellow crayons. I thought the orange crayon looked closer to the color of lions, so I colored my lion orange and put my name on my drawing. I felt embarrassed when I heard a classmate point out and disparage (say it wasn’t good) my orange lion amidst all the yellow lions. I knew that lions weren’t yellow or orange and I was glad I had colored it how I thought it should be colored. Yet, I was sad that my picture wasn’t accepted by someone. And I thought everyone must disapprove of my drawing. I know now that other students may have thought my lion was okay but they didn’t say so. We all need to feel that we and the art we’ve done and other things about us are accepted by others, even if it is only by one person. Sometimes, we can be that one person who is accepting of someone and compliments them on their art or writing or other things about them.

It is common for people to criticize each other, compete against each other or compare themselves to each other. It makes us all feel sad. We should compliment, console (tell people we are sad that they are sad) and be kind companions with each other.

5. When I'm finished, where do I put my name?

Where we put our name is an important decision. When we have worked diligently to create a work of art, we want others to know that we are the artist. We need each other’s acknowledgement (telling that we know) that the work we have done is important and well done.

An artist can place their name prominently (very noticeable) or discreetly (not easily noticed).

An artist can place their name in careful script (writing) aligned (same direction) with an edge of the picture; or they can place their name so that it is part of the picture, done with the same medium and colors and aligned with some aspect of or object in the picture. I have done each of these methods on various pictures I have drawn.

6. How do I say I'm a good artist?

Perhaps we don’t need to say aloud that we are a good artist, but in our mind, through our heart and with our hands, we will know when we’ve depicted something well. People may praise, applaud, or laud us; some may mock, ridicule or call us a fool. What matters most is what we say to ourselves. What matters, as well, is what we tell others about what they’ve done. And, yes! I think you are a good artist! I hope that you know that too!

It is common for people to say to a child, “You are getting so:” “big”, or “old,” “tall,” “strong,” “pretty,” …! This indicates that some day they will be: big enough or old, tall strong, pretty, …enough, but they aren’t there yet. So we spend the first part of our life wondering when we will finally be adequate in those things. We spend the last part of our life wondering when we missed the mark of being adequate in those things.

It is common to only tell girls how pretty they are, or by our silence, indicate that they don’t meet some ever changing impossible standard of what beauty is. As though that is their only value!

It is common to only tell boys how strong they are, or by our silence, indicate that they don’t match up to some fleeting, comparative standard of strength. As though that is their only value.

I say to children, “You are very kind.” I also say, “You are very:” “intelligent,” “smart” “clever,” …! These are true values inherent within each of us and we need to acknowledge, appreciate and encourage awareness of these.

At times, I have said to a child, “You’ll be a great artist,” or “writer,” “scientist,” …! Children have then replied, “I am a great artist,” or “writer,” “scientist,” …! With their wise teaching, I now say, “You are a great artist,” or “writer,” “scientist,” …!

Because we emphasize age, children often excitedly tell us how old they are and elderly people often lament how old they are, usually accompanied by some evaluation of their beauty or strength, which they’ve been taught to think is inadequate.

So I tell children, elderly, and everyone that, “Whatever age you are is the right age to be while you’re there!

There’s beauty young; there’s beauty old; beauty’s not what we’ve been told!

We don’t obtain beauty by what they’ve sold us! We mustn’t believe what they have told us! There’s nothing else that you must do; you’re beautiful being you!"

7. When do I use all the colors?

Every color is important! Just like every person is important, and every person has unique traits which creates a beautiful mosaic (pattern) of human interaction and accomplishment. A variety of colors also work together to make a beautiful picture.

We can draw a picture with only one color or we can draw a picture with many colors. If we draw many colored pictures of many things, then we will eventually use all colors and we may even use all colors in one picture.

When we use many colors in a picture, we can decide what we want people to focus on. We can use brighter, more intensely saturated colors to portray what we want people to notice most of all and more subtle, less intensely saturated colors for the rest of our picture. For example: using two very different colors, we can portray a brightly colored butterfly landing on a vibrantly colored flower in a meadow; duller hues (colors) of green and yellow for various species of grasses and forbs (non-woody plants) in the meadow; even duller, less saturated hues of green and brown for trees and shrubs in the surrounding forest; colors of gray and occasionally black for shadows in the meadow and forest; occasionally placing hues of white where light is fully reflected from surfaces; faded colors of blue for the sky; various hues of white and gray for clouds wafting through the sky.

We are telling a story with our picture. We are inviting anyone who sees the picture to join us to see what we have seen, to be where we have been, to delight as we did then.

Sometimes we want to create a picture that looks exactly like what we are looking at. This is called realism. In realism, we would only use the colors that make our picture look like what we are depicting (making a picture of).

As an artist, we get to choose how we depict something. We may want to make it realistic, we may want to change it to give some specific aesthetic (visual) effect, we may want our picture to tell a story of something we’ve seen, something we want to see, or some place we want to be someday. We may want to draw a picture of some imaginary thing that has never been but that we wish could exist here or in some other place far away or in some other time long ago or far ahead.

With only some simple lines or colors carefully placed on a piece of paper, our mind can finish the picture, imagining things we’ve seen somewhere before which have that shape or that color. Someone seeing our picture, who has also seen those things, immediately also knows what we are depicting. We are telling a story with our art. We can draw a picture with everything just as we want the reader to picture it in their mind, or we can portray just enough to guide their thoughts and let their imagination finish the picture.

Humans like to remember things we’ve experienced. We do so by drawing pictures of what we saw or by writing in words what we saw, heard, smelled, felt, or thought. On rock, wood or other hard surfaces people sometimes scratch simple outlines of what they’ve seen or write words to express their thoughts. This can be a long lasting image for people to remember things and it can show others what they’ve seen or tell others what they’ve thought. Depicting something on paper, cloth or something similar allows us to carry that image with us, share it with others or bind it into a book.

I will explain here what color is as we have come to understand it by scientific studies. It may be hard to comprehend all the information initially, but as our minds think back about what we’ve read or heard, our minds gradually begin to fully comprehend it. That is how we learn new things. As we learn new things, we want to learn more, so we ask questions and search for answers to each question. That is scientific experimentation; asking questions, searching for information to answer those questions and analyzing the information we’ve found until we understand it well. We must always be watching and listening for new information which can teach us even more or even change our understanding about things. That is scientific study well done, to always be learning and always improving our understanding of everything.

Everything emits energy. Light is electric and magnetic energy released by a sun, fire, light globe or some other source. Energy undulates as it travels, meaning that it moves up and down or side to side. Electric and magnetic energy travel together, undulating perpendicular to each other.

We can see the effect of undulating wind energy upon surfaces such as water, sand, snow and cloth (like flags). We call this effect waves or ripples. Some waves or ripples are shorter or longer than others, meaning that the distance between waves or ripples is shorter or longer. We refer to the distance between two waves as a wavelength.

Our eyes can respond to some wavelengths of light energy. Our brains then interpret groups of wavelengths as particular colors.

When light lands on something, some of the light bounces off, and some doesn’t. We say that the light that bounced off was reflected. When we see something as a color, such as a green leaf or brown tree bark, that is because the light that reflected off of the leaf or bark was undulating at a wavelengths that our eyes respond to and our brain interprets as green from the leaf or brown from the bark.

We can find things in nature such as minerals (like rocks are made of), charcoal (burned wood), leaves, bark or other things which reflect colors. We can grind these into powder, mix them with wax or some other binding agent, then make pencils by placing these into wooden shafts; or we can mix the powder in a liquid such as water or oil and use them as paint. We can then draw or paint with these to make pictures of things we see reflecting those same colors.

Light can travel through some things, such as water or glass. Sometimes, when light travels through things, different wavelengths of light are separated from each other and they move forward side by side with each other. We call this refracted light. We see refracted light in rainbows.

When we speak of all wavelengths of light at once, we call it a spectrum of wavelengths. We can only see wavelengths in the middle portion of the spectrum. This is sufficient for us to interpret millions of sets of wavelengths as millions of unique colors.

If a color made by a set of wavelengths from one part of the spectrum is placed next to a color made by a set of wavelengths from a different part of the spectrum, our brains perceive both colors to be brighter than if we see these colors separately. We say these colors are complementary to each other. Complementing means to provide something that was missing, making it more complete. Artists and scientists have created charts to show us colors that are complementary. We can use complementary colors together to make our pictures appear brighter.

(Compliment, spelled with an “i” instead of an “e” means to say appreciative things to someone. This is also important to do as artists and as good neighbors to acquaintances [people we know] and strangers.)

Seeing things in color adds tremendous joy to our lives, as do all of our senses. We can smell fragrances wafting from beautiful flowers, we can feel soft flower petals, we can hear bees and other insects gathering nectar and pollen and with our eyes and our brains working together we can perceive light reflected from flower petals as many vibrant colors.

Art is a gift we give to ourselves and sometimes a gift for others displayed for them to see what we’ve portrayed, inspiring contemplation or new imagination of things once seen or hoped to be seen some day; guiding thoughts to drift away, to wander off in new directions or waft aloft in fond reflections.

8. What kinds of children's books do you like the most?

I like picture books with wonderful, informative stories and beautiful, informative illustrations.

Words carefully written can paint a picture in our mind as we read them.

Illustrations carefully drawn can tell a story in our heart as we view them.

All humans are inherently enamored with rhyme, rhythm and song; so much so that we delight with anything that even slightly resembles a rhyme, seems to arrive with a rhythm or sounds in our hearing, like a song.

Children readily display their delight with rhyme, rhythm and song. Tragically, most adults have been trained by dreadful diatribes which “tout” that rhyme is “out.” Some people have tried to persuade us all that poetry should be obscure, art should be abstract and music should be discordant! Not so! Poetry, art and music should be beautiful to our eyes, enlightening to our minds, and soothing to our hearts.

Oh, what a wonderful story rhyme, rhythm and song will tell when they are done well. They are excellent tools for teaching. The story or teaching is what is important. Rhyme, rhythm and song are methods of delivering the message. Rhyme, rhythm and song delight us and help us remember what we heard and what we learned as our thoughts repetitively repeat them thereafter.

Unique abilities we each have are like gifts. As with all gifts, we can apply them or not. We can use them as we will or won’t. As we apply with each other each gift, we either pull down or we uplift.

9. Are there any artists/photographers that inspire you?

A kind, wise librarian placed books by Bill Peet on shelves at the small elementary school I attended as a child. Bill’s wonderful, meaningful rhymes and beautiful, delightful illustrations inspired me as a child. Half a century later, I can still repeat parts of some of his rhymes and I remember the delightful characters, beautiful scenes and marvelous messages of his stories.

10. How do you ensure that the illustrations are age appropriate and engaging for young readers?

Sometimes, writers, illustrators and musicians inundate children with hasty, racy, loud, lewd or rude words, illustrations or sounds, hoping to “engage” them thereby.

Sometimes writers, illustrators and musicians inundate children with simplified words, illustrations or songs.

I write stories and songs using very specific words to portray what I want a reader to hear. Sometimes, I use long and complex words. As any of us, including children, are introduced to new words in context, no matter their length or complexity, we learn the meaning by the context. We learn to pronounce new words by comparing them to similar words we already know. Our brains, even as children, are capable of learning very complex things.

I illustrate to tell a story. When I illustrate an animal, I usually have it looking at the reader to connect with them as we do with each other. Some animals appear to us to be angry or sad. I always slightly adjust their countenance so that they look friendly, contemplative, and happy.

I carefully depict animals in settings that are intriguing and have them positioned and looking as if to say, “Please, come join me on my wonderful journey.”

11. What inspires you?

As I teach children all the wonderful things I’ve learned in life, they teach me all the wonderful things I’ve forgotten. Children still know to laugh and cry, sing and dance, and to always ask, “Why …?”

I once noticed a young boy who’d been sent on an errand to place something in a bin near a store on a mountain pass. Instead of walking on the sidewalk, he walked across the landscape and over a large boulder. I was delighted with his adventuresome route and wrote a rhyming story about children on an errand who take time to admire plants, birds, waterfalls and other things along their way, eventually forgetting why they’d begun their journey. I conclude with the perspective that things not done along the way can be done another day. Enjoying the journey, learning important things and appreciating the wonderful people, animals, plants and all other things found about us is most important on any journey, as well as throughout and about each person’s life.

Laird, thank you for your lovely insights into writing, artistry, and the natural world! You are a wise teacher and our readers will benefit from your advice. Please follow Laird on social media and remember to enjoy the journey. Keep shining!