Laying out children's picture book images in Adobe inDesign

I’m finished, almost, with the “art” part of putting this children’s book together. I say almost because I found another image that I didn’t color. When I laid out all of the pictures in inDesign, I couldn’t find the painted version of Buddy Butterfly taking responsibility for the chimney fiasco. You can the the black and white picture in the screenshot below.

Actually, I know that I painted this picture, but I can’t find it on my desktop computer. It’s possible that I colored it on the iPad and never saved it to iCloud. My workflow sucks, but it will suck less on the next book, I promise myself.

inDesign screenshot

Check out the tree stump thighs on Buddy Butterfly

Here’s that picture I was working on yesterday, the picture where I learned how to draw bicycle spokes. Ironically, I used to build my own road racing bicycles, which involves building bicycle wheels from scratch and putting spokes into all the right spots.

Buddy looks like he spends a lot of time on his bike.

Al Fresco Sketching with my Sunday Art Club

This sketch took about 45 minutes. I spent most of the time on the flagstones at the bottom of the picture. When I think about these sketches I wonder what they would look like if I could bring myself to take the time to get the values right, especially getting the darks darker. The fact is, after spending 45 minutes on this picture, I was mentally exhausted, which, in my mind, translates to “finished!” I’m aware that I’m an impatient artist when I’m learning something hard. Sketching, for me, is hard work.

I’m working on making every stroke be a mindful stroke. Let’s just say that I’m at the beginning of my journey.

I intentionally don’t remove the three dandelion plants growing in the pathway. They give the place a lived in look.

Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in

I spoke too soon. I announced that I had finished painting all of the images in my book, but today I found one more picture that I just might want to use. Maybe I will and maybe I won’t. It could be that I’m just attached to this picture because I spent so much time figuring out how to draw bicycle spokes.

I got half way through painting and realized that today, Sunday, is al fresco drawing day. I dropped everything, got my pencil and sketch pad and spent an hour sketching the flagstone walkway in my backyard. I call it the Cat Walk because it’s a major thoroughfare for the neighborhood cats. In the end I didn’t complete my painting. What you see below is a work in progress.

The last picture in my children's picture book

At least, I think it’s my last picture. Tomorrow I’ll be moving over to inDesign to import all of the pictures into the 32-page book template and position them with the text. I’m heaving a generous sigh of relief at completing this part of the project, and I’m looking forward to taking the next step toward getting this book published. Yea!

One of those days when things get off track in so many ways

With a new project at work and some software problems in the art studio, there was no art made today. Nothing.

My new project at my square job took longer than I thought it would. I’m really not surprised at that. I usually give a cockeyed optimistic estimation of how long something will take to complete. Then I double it because I know that I always underestimate the situation. And then the job always takes longer than my doubled estimate. Is quadrupling next?

The other problem came out of the blue. My wife’s Wacom tablet stopped working when she unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in. The stylus stopped working. We know the tablet’s good — I plugged it into my computer and it worked fine. We reinstalled the tablet drivers — several times. We installed the older version of the driver. Nothing. We’re at this moment using the hated Time Machine backup program to restore the Library folder that might not be screwed up. If that doesn’t work we’ll wipe the disk and reinstall the OS from scratch. That will take another 4 hours. Over the last year I’ve had nothing but problems with my Apple devices. My new iMac has been screwy and weird from Day One. My next computer will be running Windows.

Picture #9, The Tree House painted

A quick post today. I colored picture #9, the tree house, today. I used Procreate. The tree house looked a little empty so I added a lamp, a sofa, and a “Home Sweet Home” poster. There a lots of colors in this picture. Maybe too many.

Momma Jay Knocks on Bernie the Buddhist Dachshund's Door

I’m drawing close to the end of painting all of the images for the book. However, I’m not certain that I have completed all of the paintings. I suspect that I’ve missed some of the images that were part of the storyboard. To make sure I’m on the right path, my next step, tomorrow, is to insert all of the completed images into the inDesign template to see what’s missing.

As I’m writing this, I realize that one my lack of organization has slowed down my progress immensely. Sometimes I feel that I’m just rushing ahead, pedal to the metal, without knowing which direction I’m going. Inevitably I’ll have to backtrack to get back on the right path. Throughout this project, I’ve gotten off track dozens of times and I’ve had to correct myself dozens of times. Fortunately, I realize that it’s normal to lose focus. It’s also normal to make corrections. Getting distracted and noticing that you’re distracted is just part of any long term project. I don’t beat myself up about flying off into the wild blue yonder.

Finished the Magic Moustache Bus

It’s been a long day. I started the day with my one-hour Tuesday walk. This walk gets me out of the house and exposes me to civilization. One of the advantages of the walk is that is helps keep my blood glucose levels under control. After lunch I did an hour of cardio on the elliptical workout machine. Cardio, for me at least, can normalize my BG (blood glucose). For example, yesterday, an hour after lunch, my BG was 180+. I did an hour of cardio and my BG was reduced to 75. Today was pretty much the same: 128 BG two hours after lunch, reduced to 88 with an hour of cardio. I realize that I simply have to do an hour of cardio every day. I’m not happy about it, but I’ll do it anyway.

Sometimes art takes a back seat to health, and that hour of cardio will confiscate some of my art time. Even so, art is still on the bus. Speaking of buses, here’s the finalized Magic Moustache Bus image. My inspiration for the Magic Moustache bus is the fabulous Green Tortoise Adventure bus. Back in the day (the late 70’s) this Green Tortoise Bus was a common sight in the Bay Area. I never rode the Green Tortoise, but several of my friends took the Tortoise all the way to Mexico.

Painting the Magic Moustache Bus

Today I completed the re-inking of the Magic Moustache Bus, also known as picture #3, and started painting it. But, the more I looked at the line work, I realized that I wanted to touch it up here and there. I ended up spending another hour going over work I did yesterday, and probably removed some of the charm by straightening some endearing wobbly lines. I’d better get this picture finished before it becomes a mental roadblock.

I finally have the color palette memorized for all of the major characters: the Jay family, Buddy Butterfly, and the two mouse stowaways. It’s taken 5 months. I wonder if other artists have a problem sticking to their color palettes?

This is a preview of picture #3 in Kindle Create. Of course, the painting is incomplete.