Illustration Friday: Friendship (starring Sophie and Lambie) "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." ~ from The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams. But you already knew that. Note: Another from the Elena archives; I apologize, but I have really exciting projects I'm right in the middle of and this week I couldn't do a new illo, though I really wanted to. I have been blessed with some of the truest and most wonderful friends a girl could ever hope to have, and I will write more about them later (and illustrate, too, I hope). And I will also share some great news soon. (And NO, it's not a baby!)