Populating the Cover Image with All of the Characters in the Book

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Rather than restrict the cover image to simply Jimmy jumping down the chimney, I’m going to make the cover a group picture that shows all of the characters. That will be Jimmy Jay, Jenna Jay (his sister), the two hitchhiker mice (I don’t know their names yet, but I think they’re definitely hobos), Momma Jay, Bernie the Buddhist Dachshund, and Uncle Johnny. Even though Buddy Butterfly has fallen down the chimney and is out of sight, I’ll have him popping up through a hole in the page saying something like, “What about me?!” It will be cute, I promise.

The other question I’ve been thinking about is the age range for the book. With children’s books you have to declare the ages the book is appropriate for. I think the ages 8 and up sounds right.

Here are the two hitchhiker mice. I wonder what their story is?

It was a good day...none of my friends got killed

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I’m channeling Ice Cube today. I’ve been listening to 90’s hip-hop for the last two days. I hated it at the time. Now I really do get it. I love it. It just took me 25 years to get with it.

I spent the day at work focused like a demon on getting my new project off the ground. I’m going to release it in two weeks. It’s Bread and Butter time, folks, and I’m in survival mode until I see it take off on its own power.

For some weird reason, when I sat down to draw today, all I could think about was what future iPhones are going to look like.


Adding Detail to My Cover Image

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Today I started working with calm intention on my children’s book cover image. After weeks of floundering, I now feel that I can complete this drawing. I’ve passed the point no return — I might as well just plow ahead and accept the end result. However it turns out will be okay.

My usual pattern is to hate the image I’m working on, and then appreciate it when I return to it later. In this case, I’m going to trust my process and call on my inner Art Soldier to fend off the waves of disapproval that my thinking mind keeps pouring out.

The Art Soldier Marches on with Another Cover Image Sketch

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I’m borrowing the term “art soldier” from Kate Bingaman-Burt. I’m forcing myself to march on even though I feel that I’m knee deep in mud and my legs are weary. Art is War? So be it. Down here in Southern Oregon the war is intensifying as it draws closer to the end. An inch a day is more than a humorous way to describe my progress— and inch a day has become a miracle.

My latest inch…

Keeping an Online Journal of an Art Project is a Humbling Experience

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Today my partner gave me some straight advice. She said, “I cringe when I read your posts — there are typos and grammatical errors in every one. I read your last three posts and found careless errors in all of them. I was afraid to read any more! I know you want to share what you’re doing, but you’ve gotta do better. Those errors are a real turn-off. Try reading your posts aloud before you push the publish button. There’s no way you’ll wittingly make those posts public if you’d just take the time to read them out loud.”

That hit me hard. She’s my biggest supporter and she’s cringing. And I know she’s right. Today I went back through the last two week’s posts and found typos and grammar errors in every post. I know that I get sloppy and lazy when I’m rushed, but I’ve got to get the writing right. After all, I’m a writer.

So, today I spent my time proofreading my sloppy work. It’s painful and embarrassing to think that I’ve been putting out shitty writing for months. Wow!

So, no picture today…just a post with no typos or grammar errors. That’s my daily inch.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge -- A Common Object Painted in Gouache

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This week the Al Fresco Art Club continued on the path of learning how to paint with gouache. I chose to paint my kitchen timer. I tried some of the new brushes I bought yesterday, in particular a size 2 flat. I love flat brushes and use them whenever possible, even when I should be using a pointy round brush for details.

Here’s my kitchen timer.

Chore Day Oct 5, 2019 -- Cooking for the Week, Going to the Art Store, and Brainstorming

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Every Saturday I cook up food for the week, usually making some bean and sweet potato burgers for my canine amigos (with all the nutrients required by canines), and some delicious goodies for myself, such as rice and beans flavored with lots of powerful spices.

The big event of the day was a trip to B&N in Medford, where I bought the latest issue of Ad Busters which asks, Can artists save the world with a Brutalist new aesthetic? That’s a question well worth investigating, I say. To prepare myself for the future, I went to Art Central I bought a big Fabriano notebook for my gouache paintings, a Kunst und Papier watercolor tablet, and four small Princeton brushes for my gouache painting. They have with eye-pleasing cerulean-colored handles.

And I did some uncritical brainstorming on the iPad — I’m trying to figure out how to do the cover image of Jimmy Jay jumping down a chimney. This is my third effort. I think I’m loosening up a little with each attempt.

Cover Image Revised...Again

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Looking at yesterday’s sketch got me to thinking that there’s no way that Jimmy Jay’s going to jump down that chimney without injuring himself. He needs a better line of action, a nice line that makes him look like he’s diving rather than looking like he’s going to plow headfirst into a brick wall. So, I thought I’d better try again. Here’s my second attempt. I think the second attempt is telling me that I’d better make a third attempt.

Drawing a diver from imagination is harder than I imagined it would be. Perhaps some reference photos of divers would help.

8000x4000px Cover Image for Children's Picture Book

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Since my children’s picture book will be printed as an 8x8-inch square, I need an image that is two 8-inch squares side by side, with a bit of extra space for the bleed and for the spine. I decided to create an 8000x4000px image. Procreate will allow 12 layers for an image that size. I could have made a smaller image — say 6000x3000px — but I want to make sure that I have lots of headroom pixels to play with. With an 8000x4000-pixel image, I could conceivably go up to 26-inches square — that would be a hella big children’s book. However, for my purposes, having the extra resolution means that I won’t have to redraw this image to increase the resolution.

I started roughing out the image today. I used the camera in my iPad to take a picture of the thumbnail, then I the photo into Procreate. Once there, I scaled it up to fit the 8000x4000 image. I’ll have to figure out how to fit the title text on the page, that’s for sure.

Speaking of ISBN Numbers

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In the United States, there’s only one place to buy ISBN numbers: Bowkers. Bowkers has an unquestioned monopoloy on these numbers. It costs pennies to generate an ISBN number but the least expensive price for a single ISBN number is $125. I do realize that there’s some infrastructure around the ISBN system that will raise the cost above mere pennies, but $125 for a single computer-generated number lays a punitive burden on self-publishers who are not likely to never need hundreds or thousands of numbers. I’m speaking as a self-publisher.

My question is why are there no other options for buying ISBN numbers? Here’s the Bowker price list to mull over.

isbn_price_list.png Bowkers fees for ISBN numbers