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Phil Shepley (Writer): I am the father to two excellent, spunky, and often-challenging daughters. I use the word “challenging” because no matter what I have read or learned about parenting, they seem to find ways around the “rules.” So I rewrite the rules, and they rewrite the responses to the rules, and the game goes on. Yes, challenging was the right word.

Challenging, and worth it, because we’re not raising robots, who can be programmed exactly one way and then respond exactly how we think they should. We’re raising unique and wonderful individuals. People. Individual people.

Think back to the day that you first saw your son or daughter, then look at them now. They are the same person that you looked at back then, just refined. When my younger daughter laughs (sometimes now at me… sigh) I hear the same laugh as the first time I ever heard her laugh. It’s awesome, really, and it’s hers and no one else’s. The same, of course, goes for her big sister. They are two utterly different people, and they each raise massive challenges every day, just as the will in the future.

I like to write about a lot of these challenges, so hopefully you’re here to enjoy reading them along with John’s excellent illustrations. After all, the purpose of a challenge is not only to overcome it, but to learn from it and share it. My beautiful wife, the kids and I currently reside in Florida.

John Simon (Illustrator): I’m the drawing monkey in this operation and also a father of two young children (1 boy and 1 girl) and a husband to a wonderful wife who lets me spend time drawing for hours while the kids terrorize the animals and ransack the house. The kids don’t seem to be as courteous as her when it comes to ‘drawing time’, but it’s worthwhile when they like the artwork (and want to ‘help’).

As a parent and illustrator, this is a great platform to discuss the dynamics of fatherhood while having an outlet to create something fun and worthwhile. Having kids changed my relationship with drawing. When the little ones were born, there was no time to draw between feeding, soothing and entertaining. I soon found myself not drawing at all. Then the light shined through when I started drawing with the kids with markers and crayons. It was like learning to draw all over again. The toddler drawing lessons really let me perfect making circles, squares and triangles. Who knew how much you could do with those. And now, after that training, I’m ready to get back on the horse and make some artwork.

I hope you enjoy what you see on the site. My goal is to gradually improve as we go along while exploring how to be the best father I can be. I’m excited to see the progress. I guess it’s all an experiment and exploration, so we’ll see how the journey goes.