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Tag: illustrations

Looks as though the plan is working.

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Every single day, for an undetermined amount of time I put some work into my childrens book, and thus far it seems to be paying off. I have the whole layout done. The type is set in place, the cover & Title design is done, and I have started to produce artwork for the internal pages.

This is way more work than just writing stuff. I knew it would be, but sweet cheese. I still have a lot to do. The bonus is, that I am making headway after more than a year of putting it off. Much like my short story series I don’t believe this will bring me any sort of fame or fortune. I just wanted to do it, so I am. In my own way. No need to be hood at it, just trying things out, striking items off of the bucket list. It’s actually fairly rewarding in an internalized, intrinsic way. Good enough for me.

My thinking for the books interior pages is this, I will build out all of the colorful backgrounds first, as I’m enjoying the painting process in Photoshop right now. Though I wish my tablet was still supported, but it crashes everything when I plug it in, so mouse painting it is for now. Then I’ll have to settle on the design for my two lead characters, and some peripheral materials. But that’s a decision for future me to wrangle with, not present time me.

Slowly filling in the background of the illustrations. Some I like & will keep, while others are a starting point to be improved upon.

Still working out every single day. I used one skip it day, when my back was really jammed up, so I’ll take that 24 hours of no weights, or body weight exercises as a small win. As I came right back too it, instead of three months from now. I might even ride my bike today. Or I’ll shape up the hedge rows in the yard. Or continue to line the curbs. Cutting away all of the over hanging mess along the far side of the property.

Trying to stay busy, and focused on getting things done around here while I can. More outdoor birthday parties coming up, so saving things for the weekend weather gets harder to do, when I loose prime sunny working hours. No matter. All good here. Stay strong, we’re all ready at Thursday! Yay!

Building the book itself.

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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.

Story with page breakdown.
Laid out text & furniture on all pages.

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

One fine day… Saturday.

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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.
Small Cedar toy bin.
2ft long Ash cutting board with grain highlighted by a propane torch flame.
Large 3ft Pine toy box.
Smaller Walnut 12×12 inch tray, with floating base panel, mitered corners, and blue felt lined bottom panel. I used Minwax on it that dried a bit milky. But ultra smooth.

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.

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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.

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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.

Ash solid wood cutting board – 2022.

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.