This is a test of a slightly-different drawing technique.
Usually, I sketch in pencil, draw over it in black marker or ink, then scan that and clean it up in Photoshop. Afterwards, I add colour in Photoshop. This is how I did the rabbit background picture, and the four-page intro to Scaffoldworld.
It’s also a good way to make even quite a rough sketch presentable (this Toasterman sketch, for example).
However, for Little Lost Part, I want to do something different.
Continue readingMy sister and brother-in-law sent me the following birthday card:
Thanks, Anne and Herb!
This is my first attempt at laying out the cover for The Lonely Little Fridge. The artwork is india ink over pencil sketches on paper.
Because the artwork was largeish (2 panels 8.5 inches square, plus a 0.25-inch spine between), I scanned it in five pieces using VueScan. Then I opened all the pieces in Photoshop and assembled them into one image there. Because the linework is so sparse, Photoshop’s auto-align function didn’t have enough to work with, so I aligned by hand and used the auto-blend function to smooth things out. Then I used Levels to expand the dynamic range, smashing light greys toward white and dark greys toward black.
IngramSpark provides templates for each size and type of cover they offer. This cover will be case-bound, with a page trim size of 8.5 inches square. One of the templates is an InDesign file, so I built the cover on it, inserting the artwork and text on layers between the ISBN layer and the layer with guides and printed info.
Once I get the artwork coloured (via Viviva watercolours), I will scan it again and do this all over again!
The Lonely Little Fridge is going to be a hardcover and a fixed-format ebook.
Amazon print-on-demand does not print hardcovers, so I set up an account at IngramSpark (https://www.ingramspark.com/), the publishing platform, who does print hardcovers. They also handle distribution worldwide; bookstores order from them.
In order to print with them, we have to provides all sorts of information, in addition to the actual book files.
Continue readingI am hoping to get my books translated into as many languages as possible.
I’m starting with the smaller ones, with The Lonely Little Fridge to be specific. The actual word count of The Lonely Little Fridge is only around 700, so it should be relatively easy and inexpensive to have it translated.
I’m going to translate it into Esperanto and hopefully have someone else check it. I would very much like it to be translated into French.
I’d also like it to be translated into Indigenous languages, such as Inuktitut (with the syllabic writing). or Kanien’kéha (known to English-speakers as Mohawk) or Anishinaabemowin (known to English-speakers as Ojibwe).
I ordered some promotional postcards from Package Plus in Peterborough. They came on Monday, and they look really good!
Last week I handed off a draft of The Lonely Little Fridge to Jackie for her to look over while I plunge into the artwork…
This gallery contains 3 photos.
This is a drawing I did recently of an idea I had when I was in Cara Coulson‘s children’s literature class at Durham College: “The Lonely Little Fridge”. Versions in English, Esperanto, and very bad French…