Documentation of the fateful Christmas!

Finally found the photo documenting the pivotal Christmas. Oh that it was only in color, then all would be so plain! I was all in blue, my sweet cousin all in pinks....

Pumpkin head

As a term of endearment, the little kids were often called "punkin". So the line, "I guess I can understand pumpkin head, but..." naturally crept into the book. The illustration took on a life of its own and kept growing until it is ridiculously large to be supported by that little hand. This is the first ink rendering of the idea. Later we added colored pencil and the ink really made it pop. It's still one of my favorites.

Evolution

As with all characters, the cousin evolved over time. The pencil rendering came first, then I took out the bewildered little red head cousin in the background, plumped the dress and gave her a little more attitude. There's even more attitude in the final color version.

She was loosely based on the three 1st cousins near my age. All had beautiful dark hair. We were sure they were part Indian. They could stay out in the sun; I burned. They could have cute, smooth, page boy hair cuts; I had ringlets and ponytails. They looked like their mothers, all who had dark hair, I didn't. Moreover, they were "in style" as teenagers with long straight hair. I was still battling the curls and color.

I enlarged one experience for the book. Our mothers always seemed to "color code" us rather than let us choose the colors we thought we would like. Hey, it's hard to choose colors for cousins I have now found out. I was always in blue and one cousin always in pink. Anyway, it was sort of funny and stayed with me.

By the way, all three cousins are wonderful women (still with dark hair) and I certainly value their friendships.