Picture #23, Completed, WIth Background

Dang, I’ve been drawing hands a lot. Hands are insanely hard, but I’m getting better at them, so long as they’re cartoon hands with four fingers. This picture bleeds into the page on all four sides. I have two options: I can complete the missing forms, such as adding the top of the tree, or I can simply paint into the missing lines and let the imagination complete the drawing.

Enough forward thinking! I don’t want to spend energy thinking about future chaos. I’ll deal with it when I get there.

Picture #23, Momma Jay Shouts a Warning

This picture, #23, actually goes before #22, in which Jimmy jumps down the chimney. In this picture Momma Jay doesn’t know that Buddy has fallen down the chimney and that Jimmy is going to rescue him. She thinks that Jimmy is up there by himself, disobeying her commandment.

Speaking of Jays, there’s a real life parallel going on in our yard. A pair of Steller’s Jays have built a nest about halfway up our Sequoia tree. Yes, we have a sequoia tree, or rather, the sequoia tree has us. It drops a ton of spiny needles every year and nothing grows in its shade, plus it tilts at a 15-degree angle over the neighbor’s property. It is, however, bird friendly.

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I’m hoping that none of our feathered friends falls down our chimney this year.

I don’t know if our sequoia jays are the same jays that were building a nest in the Oregon Berry bush in front of the house. Whoever they are, they’re very amusing and noisy. I’m considering getting them a feeder, but it will have to be something that the neighborhood thuggish squirrels can’t pillage.

I’m about half done with this picture. I’m going to add a background tomorrow.

Picture #22, Jimmy Jumps Down the Chimney

On Sunday we tried to watch “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, which has a 4+ start rating on Amazon. It was a boring mess, and cowardly. I say “cowardly” because the writers gave the 50-year old Michelangelo a girlfriend, even though he was gay. That’s the Hollywood of my parent’s generation, turning a blind eye, heads in the sand. I hated the movie so much that I actually took the time to write a 1-start review.

Back to my children’s book. This picture shows Jimmy disappearing down the chimney as he goes to rescue his crazy friend. Now that I’m at this point in re-inking the illustrations, I realize that I need another picture before this one, a picture of Momma Jay shouting to Jimmy, telling him to get away from the bird-eating chimney. So it goes. I’ll put that picture on tomorrow’s TODO list.

Picture #21, Jimmy Hears a Cry for Help

Everyday I’m another picture closer to starting to paint. I’ve finished 21 re-inkings and have about 12 to go. I’m getting excited about laying down some color. I’ve noticed that I tend to get cocky when I’m excited and enthusiastic. It’s at those times that I overestimate my skills and underestimate how long a job will take. Since I started working on being a little more mindful about my wild thought, I now have a sensible voice in my head that says, “Steady there, fellow. Don’t get cocky! Take it one day at a time, one painting at a time.”

After many decades of self-sabotage, it’s good to hear a helpful voice coming from inside of me.

Picture #20, Jimmy Trying to Rescue His Daredevil Friend

I’m posting this from my iPad. I’ll keep it short because typing on this thing sucks. It’s okay for re-inking in Procreate and surfing the Web, but it’s a lame typing tool. Over, and out.

Image #18 Redux

This picture, which I call #18, needed fixing. Buddy’s wing was blocking his gleeful smile. Every time I looked at the picture I knew it needed more work, but I also felt that I couldn’t go back to it without falling behind schedule. Then I got to thinking that this picture would just keep bugging me until I fixed it. So, instead of moving on to image #20, I re-opened #18 in Procreate. I moved Buddy’s head, made him a little smaller, shifted him to the left to improve the composition, and in doing all of these things, overcame my frustration. By going back a couple of steps, I moved forward an inch.

Image #19, Buddy Showing A Less Appealing Side of His Personality

Yes, Buddy is a jerk sometimes. I really need him in this story because all of the other characters are sweethearts. Though, I’m not so sure about those two mice. I believe that some children’s stories need a foil to work against the grain of goodness. Jimmy Jay is a really good kid, and Buddy Butterfly is a little rebellious. Compared to Jimmy, he’s an outlaw. But that’s his charm. I put a little thought into drawing his mouth. I love hatching, probably too much.

Speaking of hatching, my copy of The Complete Etchings of Rembrandt arrived today. I bought it used for cheap. I was pleased that the book was in perfect condition, and the extra poster inserts were included. All of the reproductions are full-size, some of them are smaller than the palm of my hand. They’re amazingly detailed.

Image #18, Buddy Butterfly Doing the Unthinkable

The “unthinkable” act that Buddy is obviously relishing is disobeying Momma Jay’s first commandment: stay away from the murderous chimney! Buddy has a big problem with authority. We’ll see where that attitude gets him!

I made some changes from the previous version of this picture, mostly with Buddy’s wings. I’ve been struggling with his wings since the first time I drew him. I made him smaller, fixed his wings, and moved him to the left of the chimney. Now that I’m looking at this picture a little more objectively, I see that his wing is covering too much of his face. I have to move his head a little to the left to show his rascally grin. I considered fixing his face in Photoshop as I was creating this JPEG, but damn, it’s so much easier and faster in Procreate!

#17, Jimmy Apologizing for Being a Respectful Son

With this image, I’m about half done with re-inking all of the images for my children’s picture book. Sometimes I don’t change anything, and sometimes I have to move arms and legs around. Mostly I’m just tracing. I may have mentioned that I’m using a built-in Procreate brush called the “monoline inker.” It’s doesn’t have much character, but it does produce a consistent line.

#16 Re-inked Buddy Pursuading Jimmy to Break Some Rules

Exciting times… I got a new keyboard that feels great. It’s a Unicomp Compact M with buckling spring switches. It’s a really solid piece of gear.

So why do I need a new keyboard? I need one because I’m going back into the fiction scene after a break of 10 years. The prospect of self-publishing a children’s book has helped my sensitive ego recover from having my fiction rejected hundreds of times by agents, editors, publishers, my friends, and even myself. Now I’m inspired to self-publish the books that agents and publishers trashed. I’ll write more about that when the time comes, but for now, let’s get back to Jimmy Jay and his adventures.

This picture shows an outlandishly gigantic butterfly talking his bored friend into having a forbidden adventure.