The Happy Machine

I owe this illustration to my four year old. A kid whose creative ideas honestly make my own seem pale and second-rate at times. Over the summer she drew me a picture of a "happy machine" that spit out hearts and suns, and that inspired me to create my own version (with her blessing of course). I added wheels, wings, and flower antennae. I ran it past my collaborator and she approved. She especially liked the addition of the stars and the machine's jaunty shoot, or snout, or whatever you want to call it. I like to think he might be an upcycled tennis ball machine.

I've had this drawing rolling around since then and just this past month I fleshed out story ideas based on this "character" for PiBoIdMo (see the link to the upper left for more info on Picture Book Idea Month). The story idea I've started to create around The Happy Machine, as well as 29 other ideas (some OK, some lame), are down on paper. What will become of them? Who knows? But they are there...and that's the first step right?