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.
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.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 
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