childrens book – Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Are you an over the knees or around the ankles kind of a person…

March 7, 2023March 7, 2023greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Well now, that’s a deeply circumstantial – and awfully personal question. And the answer is, it depends. Am I home, away, early in the am, very late at night, inebriated, hung over, under gastrointestinal distress? Everything factors in to the answer. No way would I let fabric touch a public men’s room floor. Nu-uh! No way. Never. But if fighting for my life on the seat, may strip down entirely (when at home). Who needs clothes on when it feels as though your entire life is draining into the porcelain. Unwanted firehose spray back is a powerful deterrent. Like I said, that is deeply personal, and I thank you for respecting my privacy at this time.

Tuesday – forgot it was recycling day today. Saw the neighbours gear out front and twigged to it, luckily before the green trucks came through. I didn’t even register it was going to be Tuesday while prepping for gymnastics last night. Usually I pull the bins out of the guard box on Sunday or Monday to load them up, and be ready to spring into action anytime after 7:00am should I hear the grumble of the green trucks on our street. But I completely blanked on it. How odd. I have been fairly busy straight through since January 2nd this year, which is – really, really rare for me. No major breaks as of yet. Oh I know they’re coming. Highly unlikely I’ll be this busy all year long.

I had to put the Urn build on hold due to the cold, and volume of work I had on tap. Glue doesn’t set properly in deeply cold weather. And as mentioned before, no major heat source out there right now. I have it partially insulated, but I have a long way to go before the temperature would stabilize enough to work comfortably between December and Mid March. The base is done, the exterior chamber is done. I have the pieces for the interior cut and ready to glue in place. I have the top of the cover ready, and can build the tray and cover fairly quickly. Then it’ll just be a matter of scraping, sanding and then a highly polished finish to make it shine! I’m ok if they decide to not want it. I’ll put it in my office closet up out of the way, and can hold on to it for myself.

Started a Richard Morgan book I’ve had in my possession since 2007. I remember how much I loved the Altered Carbon book series. This is in that universe, but not directly related. I have a fantasy novel he wrote from 2008 in my to read pile too. I usually tend to buy more books than I can read in a year, so I’m happy to oblige historical me, by actually getting around to reading books that have sat on a shelf for ten-fifteen years or so. I know I have a Mo Hayder book I haven’t read yet too. I’m usually not into horror / murder books, but she writes great, creepy, gripping stuff. The current Richard Morgan book I’m reading is “Black Man”. Longest book I’ve read in quite some years. Over sized paper back with tiny type. So I feel like it would be a much longer trade paperback than the page count it currently has. I’m two fifths of the way in. Lots of action, lots of science fictiony hand waving tech jabber, and lots of mystery/suspense. For some reason I thought I had read this when I kept seeing it on the shelf, but it’s not ringing any bells no matter how far I get into it. Which is great. I hate when I forget I’ve read something before. Invest all that time to read it, and then PING! oh! I know how this ends, oh I’ve read this before! Damn it! On to the next book.

I haven’t put any time into sculpting yet this year. I know I will at some point. Just not right this minute. I haven’t put much thought into finishing up the illustrations for my childrens book either, come to think of it. I really should get that stuff squared away. Not that my writing career will ever go much beyond this space, and self publishing. Sometimes I just gotta get a story out of my head. Doesn’t have to mean anything more than that. I share it, if anyone besides me reads it, or enjoys it, all the better. Hope I made you smile, or wince, or chuckle, or cringe. Better than straight up apathy. You know what I think? I think that many of you out there have a story you want to tell. I think you should put pen to paper and get it out. Just let it fall out of you. Don’t worry about style, voice, the hook, or any of that. That’s for the editing stage. Right now, go jot down some points, and just plop it out on the page. The good, the bad & and the ugly. You’ll feel better when you do. Way easier to tweak and refine what you have in your hands than wish you wrote the perfect thing in one go. But what do I know. I’m just some dude talking on the internet to the three folks that read me off and on. Hey guys! Hope you are well. Ciao Bella!

Don’t we all just take code word classified documents home from work for no reason? No? Oh well, just your pal then.

August 12, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

One can only imagine how much information could be contained within twenty seven (27) bankers boxes of paper work, file folders and manilla envelopes. That’s too much cheese for one Cheddar coloured man to horde. Going to attract rats, and moles, and all manner of other pests into their midst. Not worth the effort. Should have left it all alone.

Had a few work related e-mails and some personal text messages come in before 8:00am so now I’m wide awake watching CNN discuss DJT and the subpoenaed classified boxes. Oh lordy. Can we get a break from TFG. All I want to see of him is an arrest, a over arching criminal trial series that covers many of his criminal activities, and finally a sentencing. That’s it.

Did a tiny amount of wood working yesterday, nothing major. Refinishing an old bench that has sat in the elements for several years. If I could have taken it back to my shop I could have done more to it, but sanding it in place wasn’t too bad.

You know what I’m really starting to miss, playing my guitar. I’m looking forward to having a lengthy jam session with my trusty Gibson Studio and my portable speaker. That and tapping out some tunes on my electric keyboard. Music really is a vital part of what relaxes and recharges me. Back before I had kids I used to cart all of my gear up north and play on the dock. It wasn’t much but it was a whole lot of fun.

Looking forward to playing some golf on Sunday with one of my brothers and his eldest son. I have to imagine that his daughter doesn’t care much for golf, she’s into ballet, and quite talented from what I’ve seen. (Which isn’t much unfortunately, given Covid). I’d have to ask. Wish I had brought my own clubs with me. But I left them elsewhere. That’ll be the fourth round in twelve years, woow! Look at me, developing a golf habit. Ha. I had hoped to go to the driving range, and play several rounds of golf this summer, but I’ll take two rounds of nine (9) holes. Better than zero rounds of eighteen! I’m more of a nine iron, pitching wedge and putter type of golfer. I’m either right down the middle, or twenty seven strokes to the hole. Not much inbetween. I tend towards mini putt and the driving range more so than actual golf. Probably why my game is so streaky. I can get a good run of long straight balls, then fall apart. So we’ll see how Sunday morning turns out.

I’m closing in on 250 days soon. I may even take this to a whole year if I can! I wonder if I should dig up my children’s book this fall and try to finish that up. Would be great to get such a big project finally finished. I started it when my eldest was like three years old, and now we’re getting close to eight, so, you know. Get on that shit my man! Then I’ll post the pdf’s for all three books on here and see if anyone at all reads them. Not that that really matters to me, I’ll just be happy that I had an idea and brought it to life, story and artwork and all. Nice!

Phew! That was a mad scramble…

May 21, 2022May 21, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

But now it’s time for something a little different. I’ve been tasked with building two new replacement newel posts for my FIL. The current ones have rotten over the two decades since they were installed, so I’m hoping that the two new Cedar ones I’m making as replacements hold up just as long or longer. I will prime them in thick white oil based exterior paint, so I hope that helps.

My conundrum is that I have two slightly different pieces of trim, enough to do one newel post cap each. Do I do them in similar but not the same trim (which I have on hand, and is therefore free) or do I go buy a full length so they both match, but it’ll cost me money to do so. Hmm. The problem with being cheap/frugal is you gotta be ok with things being eclectic, or slightly off and not at all matchy-matchy. It’s for an exterior entrance that nobody ever uses, so I think I can get away with it. The Cedar I bought for a Christmas gift for my BIL where in I didn’t need all 8 lengths, just seven of them to complete my signage gifts. So the cost was sunk in another project. I think I have answered my own question.

My wrist is aflame from yesterdays mad rush of 182 images, with an additional 74 this morning. I am done on my end, awaiting review and any change orders or additional requests. Glad for the work. It made Friday fly by without any fuss. Our holiday plans changed on us by way of “The ‘Vid” so we are searching for a way to remedy that in the near future. Oh well.

Still no new progress on my childrens book. I might shelve it for the time being. Mind you, I still have five more weeks of school days in which to pick it back up before schools out for summer and my minions are home full time for 9 weeks. Then I will get very little done by way of hobbies. But I will accomplish paid work, don’t you worry about that. I think I have one or two reports coming for the summer and one more for the fall. Not terrible, not great. I hope for more than that. Or some extra can labels, t-shirts & apparel, retail signage, catalogue work or build from the ground up branding/packaging work in the alcoholic beverage space.

Though, maybe I should stop chasing the nostalgia of my alcoholic beverage packaging days. Rose coloured glasses and all that jazz. I once had the opportunity to build, from scratch a proprietary glass bottle, and it was looking amazing, but the job was put on hold during a personnel issue inside the brewery/distillery and I never got to see the design go to market. We had built a series of eight flavoured cans too for a Mimosa project, well ahead of the curve, but that got stopped too. Much to my chagrin. It was good work on my part, and that of the brand team. I was very upset to see it go nowhere.

Building the book itself.

April 27, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I’m happy with what’s been written, and I think I’m good with the page break out for the illustrations. I have two started ( which I’m not terribly happy with at the moment), but I’ve just gone ahead and laid out the page furniture, and the body copy, title pages and what not. So progress is being made on that front.

I am still wrestling with the need to hand draw my book versus doing it as vector based artwork in illustrator, or painting background in Photoshop. I know some tricks that can look good on close inspection, but are kind of a cheat.

Hope you are all well, and following through on your bucket list items.

One fine day… Saturday.

April 23, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Another week in the can, with a few brand spanking new physical wood projects to show for it. Fantastic! I love when things come together. Now if I could just focus that drive into my children’s book, I’d be all set to go. I’m trying to have fun with drawing again, and I have a lot to do, so it could take some time. I’m resisting going to the computer first, because I always wanted to illustrate a book by hand, and what better thing to do that with, than my own? Right?. So I will keep trying. It’s not like I have a publisher or editor waiting for my work, it being a hobby and all, so I should try to keep it light. But on the other hand it means something to me, so I want to put a lot of effort into it. Tough balancing act.

I managed to get a fair chunk further on my old fisherman bust sculpture, which is great news. Nothing boosts morale like some solid wins under the belt. Been a tad out of practice with sculpting lately as well. Have to build up my finger sensitivity and 3d spacial awareness. Takes a different kind of thinking to build out primary shapes and build a life like form. Hard to describe it, except you know very easily when it’s wrong. Lots of adding, subtracting, and pushing clay around to get the volume and shapes correct. Playing around with it in my palm until I’m happy with it. Same goes for drawings too. Could be a bit of a wait until I get it all where I want it to be. Should be all the better for it.

I originally wanted to edge the drive way and front lawn along the curb, but it is to rain for ten hours today, so that’ll be a tomorrow thing. Though we have a children’s birthday party to attend (masked, obviously). Which will eat up my morning. But if the suns out after lunch I can get some minor lawn care done. Perhaps tackle the lawn mower maintenance too. Who knows!

Things I’ve built recently. A 4ft long bench, a smaller 2ft Cedar toy box, an Ash cutting board plank, a 3ft Pine toy box, and a Walnut tray with floating inset plywood panel. It was a productive week in the shop. None of it is heirloom quality mind you. No fancy joinery. Just butt joints, miters and glue and Pin/Brad nails. Quick and easy. Plus various grits of sandpaper. I also busted out the palm router to round over edges, and my plunge router to add details to the large Pine toy box that now lives behind a couch under a windowsill.

Ugly bench made from scrap pressure treated wood.

So that was my week. With any luck in the next few weeks we will see the weather start to get warmer, and then the kids and I will start to walk to and from school every day. It really helps to tone down the hyperactivity when they have to walk everywhere. We do have to be prepared to leave 15 minutes earlier than normal, but if we don’t need boots, snowpants, scarves, hats, gloves, neck rings and toques, maybe we can manage it? Maybe?!?

Here we go.

April 21, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I have my third draft of the children’s book written up, and I have my page breakdown for images that correspond to the story. Looks like 16 internal pages. Like I said before, it’ll be a short one. Now I just need to start my sketches and drawings, for real. Woah Betty, that makes me nervous. Been a fair few years since I’ve done any drawing by hand. Could be a bust! Let’s press on and see what we see today. Gotta give it the day, at least.

Third draft with page break out, and some notes to myself, in case I get distracted and put this away for another couple of months – again.

I have the paper and pencils on hand. I have ink and brushes in case I go that route. I have pens and markers in case I go another way. Plus I most likely will can the artwork, and add colour in Photoshop. Stay tuned.

Returning to my Children’s Book.

April 20, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Now that I most likely have all of Book Two completed, also known as 41 Chapters of The Ghost of the Dirty Starling, I may actually bother to rewrite my childrens story, and begin to illustrate it myself. Of course I might end up writing an epilogue to my interconnected space serial, which opens it up for more exploration, but we’ll see about that. I seem to need a break from it for now. That happened last time as well. I am astounded by authors who are able to create fresh new worlds and pump out glorious novel after glorious novel, year after year. My hat is off to you lot. That hurts my brain to think about. My childrens book is simple and short and features only two characters. I’ll need to come up with an appropriate look for them. One was based on our former dog, now he’s been dead for nearly a full calendar year. I hope that doesn’t make me weepy thinking about him. Hard to say.

The other major question is; do I bust out the pencils and ink, or draw it in illustrator? I could draw it up by hand, scan it and colour it in Photoshop. That would work pretty well for me. I think the simpler I keep it the more likely I am to follow through with it. Hell I wrote 50,000 extra words of a second novella rather than tackle it from December through April, so that might tell you how I feel about starting drawing/inking again.

I have a bust in the works in my office in Chavant soft. I hate the soft Clay’s. So sticky. Plus it deforms too easily as I handle the piece while I work it. Nothing like working hours on a nose or ear, to mash it the next day because you grabbed it with warm hands and forgot to watch out. I tend to use Hard wax/oil Clay’s to avoid just that scenario. Or I use Sculpey Firm and bake as I go, to avoid it too.

Today I build myself an Ash cutting board. I wanted to test out my 45 degree cutting jig, and see how the saw stacked up against 8/4 barn dried Ash. It burns, is what it does. My planer doesn’t care much for hard woods either. My new electric hand planer from Bosch was amazing though, so kudos to them on a find product. I also practiced my trim routing of round over edges. Cut in some 45 degree hand holds, and a through & through finger hole, about 2 inches in diameter. Then used my propane torch to burn the top surface and bring out the grain. Looks interesting. Sanded to 220 grit, and finished with a butcher block prep oil. Not great, but not awful. Works as a cutting surface.

About 24 inches long, 1.75 inches thick, and nearly 11 inches wide. Had a huge crack down one corner, which I cut off, as I don’t have epoxy to fill in the rather large gap. I chose to cut that corner off instead. It’s pretty heavy. I have it resting on a cookie drying rack as the oil penetrates the wood. Nice quick project.

After all this time

December 20, 2021January 9, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I didn’t do any work on my illustrated children’s book this year at all. Last year in Year One of the Covid-19 pandemic I took my rough notes and wrote the story out in full, and then also rewrote it two more times, along with a few character sketches, but then I’ve just left it sitting untouched. Mind you, I did then go and write a full book of short stories in its stead. Now however I feel like I should resurrect the project for 2022. Alas, in the few golden months I had since both of my kids were attending in person school I tackled home diy projects to improve or finish off rooms in the house, rather than devote myself to an illustrated childrens book. I haven’t drawn by hand in a very long time, and I haven’t painted in watercolours or acrylics in nearly the same amount of time. I think I’m nervous about the artwork being terrible, more so than the story not being entertaining. But wave #5 and the end of Year Two of the pandemic are nearly upon us all. Part of me is still chasing the high from actually writing a full book of interconnected short stories set mostly out in space, along with some non-fiction autobiographical stuff mixed in. Funny how a lot has happened while nothing has happened. A very strange feeling. I think what I’m missing is, I used to come and work/write every day from 12-2pm while my kids napped, and then the youngest gave up naps, and I had to resort to working at night and then I dropped off my writing habits because I was focused on the paid work for my day job, and my brain was a tad fried from several weeks where I wrote 5 or 6 thousand words over some very productive days, week after week. Not always that many, but I know my cognitive skills dipped on any day that I wrote more than 3,500 words at once. A fugue state, brain fog, brain fart, mom brain, synapse fatigue or what have you. Odd feeling, that. Oh yeah, and I devoted more time to wood working, and I scaled back my sculpting too this year. Perhaps a more rounded dabbling in all of my hobbies will make for a better choice next year. Glad I am alive and well enough to consciously make that decision.

Bedtime reading aloud for any littles out there.

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I certainly don’t fancy myself a voice talent, but for the times I am away and my youngest wants her bedtime story, I have recorded a read through of One fish two fish for safe keeping.

I apologize that you can hear me turning the pages of the book. Adds a touch of authenticity I think.

I usually bellow my voices, but I recorded late into the evening after my children had gone to sleep, so I’m a tad subdued. I love reading to my children, and I hope that comes through in the recording. I hope this brings even the tiniest spark of joy to your littles too. And yes, I did skip the Ish wish dish spread as it’s my least favourite one to do. When my eldest was little I used to read the whole lot, and the actual Cat in the Hat book in an Alan Rickman voice. I just can’t seem to do it now though. It certainly kept me engaged in the readings after doing it a hundred plus times. Take care out there. – M

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