The Inspiration For my Picture Book “Vincent Van Goat and His Starry Night”

In August of 2023, my first picture book will come out starring Vincent van Goat. Today I’ll be sharing where the inspiration for my picture book came from.

But why Vincent van GOAT?

I imagined Vincent van Goat based on my own pet goat. My first goat—and quite a hilarious goat—who had a huge impact on my creative journey.

When we adopted Vincent van Goat in 2018, he was a chubby, chubby goat who loved to eat peanut butter pretzels.

Vincent didn’t mind my 1 year-old sticking her fingers in his nose.

He loved running through the forest with my boys and the cousins who came to visit.

And he was always found a way to be involved in the farm projects, including eating nails, nibbling on paintbrushes and rubbing his head on freshly painted walls.

As our little farm grew and we adopted more animals, we built a barn for them all. Soon Vincent became the uncle to a barn full of babies, including chicks who liked to roost on Vincent’s back. You can see in this picture the inspiration for a spread in my picture book.

Naturally, He became my muse as I was developing picture book manuscripts. His naughtiness and sweetness made for fun real life stories, but also wove together into a handful of made up stories. Vincent was the perfect inspiration for my picture books.

In February of 2022, I drafted what would become “Vincent van Goat and His Starry Night”. Vincent and I spent a lot of time together as I developed sketches for the illustrations. Over the years, I have created many more stories inspired by Vincent and I hope to share them soon!

You may be dying to know, Why did I paint Vincent with horns in my Picture book when he didn’t have them in real life?

I drew many versions but I felt like he was most recognizable as a goat with the horns. Our Vincent was disbudded as a baby, so his horn never grew in. 

Why Does Vincent have one big ear in the Illustrations?

The short answer is that I thought it was funny. It’s also a nod toward the real van Gogh who cut off one of his ears, but I thought it was way more cute to have a big ear rather than a missing ear.

What is the hardest part about illustrating goats for a Picture Book?

I always forget to add Vincent’s beard! Hopefully I got a beard in all the pictures!

Sadly, Vincent passed away in May of 2023. He lived a full life and had fur that was turning gray. I’m wish he was still with us for the release of this book, but I’m also grateful to remember this cute goat in such a special way.