Bryan Beus and Professor Robert Barrett, Visual Arts: Illustration

Our project has been quite an adventure. We began with this original goal: “For my project I wanted to find a way to use my talents to help children who are long-term patients in hospitals. What I am going to do is put together a children’s book with these children where the drawings are done by the children, me, and then both of us working together on the same drawing. The idea is to teach these children a way to use their time to be creative, have fun, and learn even when they are stuck in a mucky situation.” However, along the way we had to make several modifications.

The first task was to find a script. I talked with friends who were writers, looked through old fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and even tried to write one myself. However, nothing met with any success. My friends were too busy on projects of their own, all the fairy tales that I could find would need massive revision in order to be used, and I found I didn’t have the experience necessary to know what made a children’s book a good one. To further complicate things, the story had to be such that it had to be illustrated by a large group of many children, all running in every different direction and would be likely be impossible to direct. Finally, I came upon Marsha Broadway in the Children’s Literature section of the Harold B Lee Library. Marsha and I worked out a series of ideas of what could be illustrated by many children and then approached a nationally published children’s author, Rick Walton. I showed Rick my ideas, and he was very willing to help.

After reviewing what was necessary for a children’s book of this type, he invited me to look through his personal collection of old scripts that he had written and never used. This turned out to be a gold mine; we soon found 3 scripts that could possibly be used, and eventually “Aren’t You Afraid” was chosen.1

At this point we began looking for the actual children to do the drawings. Things seemed promising at first with the hospital venue. We began working with Debbie Hem at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Debbie was quite willing to help and we began working to get a group of children together. However, the children were never in the hospital long enough to get them drawing. Or, if they were, they were unwilling to help. It began to be a struggle because getting the parents permission was quite difficult, and there weren’t very many children in the hospital to begin with. So, I expanded my search into all of the hospitals along the Wasatch. After meeting with several people and struggling to get various hospitals on board, I learned that what we had already done with Utah Valley Regional was, unwittingly, not legally sound. Because of the strict child privacy laws, it wasn’t very safe for us to continue working with the children in the hospitals. At this point, we decided to go a different route. I began calling around from school to school looking for children with which to work.

Eventually the Boys and Girls joinedin, along with two other 2nd grade classes, and in several weeks we were able to acquire a large enough sample of children’s drawings in order to form the book.

Once we had the drawings, I narrowed down the selections to fit with the text and laid them out to fit with the text. They were then scanned and the cover was painted in preparation for this report. 2

I have spoken with Margaret Weber at Covenant Communications about a possible publishing of this book, all the proceeds of which will go to charity, and there is interest. The book will hopefully be completed and published sometime this year or next. I’ve also spoken with David Stevens from Franklin Covey pub. and he has agreed to help with preparations for print.

There is still a great amount of work left to do but it is enjoyable work and I look forward to it. Thank you very much for your support. The funds were used to provide materials and software necessary to create the art.

1 AREN’T YOU AFRAID!
by Rick Walton
You’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No.
Then you’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged
orange-furred monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No.
Then you’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged
orange-furred
blue-scaled monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No.
Then you’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged
orange-furred
blue-scaled
yellow-tailed monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No.
Then you’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged
orange-furred
blue-scaled
yellow-tailed
red-eyed monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No.
Then you’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged
orange-furred
blue-scaled
yellow-tailed
red-eyed
gold-clawed monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No.
Then you’d better beware! Because here comes the
green-legged
orange-furred
blue-scaled
yellow-tailed
red-eyed
gold-clawed
silver-horned monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
No. Because I’m a
green-legged
orange-furred
blue-scaled
yellow-tailed
red-eyed
gold-clawed
silver-horned
purple-toothed monster!
Aren’t you afraid?
YES!