I want to capture the feeling,"" says Jackson, a raccoon artist tired of the capable likenesses he paints of scenes and other animals. ""I think an artist has to make the world seem new again,"" advises his duck friend Crackers. ""Start fresh."" So Jackson goes to the city and paints the crowds and buildings, but it's still not right--until his new rat friend Sloppy Joe suggests, ""Maybe you haven't put enough of yourself into it."" This inspires Jackson to an abstract expressionist frenzy of ""swirling, dripping, splashing, and rubbing,"" not to mention hurling paint at the canvas. ""It's like being lost on a crowded street of feelings,"" he exclaims. There's nothing wrong with Glass' message except that it's pretty hackneyed; but except as an antidote to rigid instruction, it won't say much to a picture-book audience--which is yet a long way from approximating a likeness. And Glass' pictures in patchy soft colors, capable and cute as they may be, don't sing out with feeling.