Yet another lost picture re-inked and re-painted

The great thing about collecting all of the images and text into inDesign is that I can see which pictures are missing. When I say “missing”, I mean I can’t find them anywhere on my computer even though I processed them and posted them to this blog. I know that the did exist at one unknown time in the past.

The last time I checked there are about 1.2 million files in my home directory. I have half a dozen folders with images for this project. I have no clue what the image file is named. I’ve learned that it’s actually faster to re-do the picture than to look for it. The upside is that I believe that I’ve improved the picture. It should be improved — this is the third time I’ve repainted it. Now I have to put the picture somewhere that I can find it.

Picture #32 (the long lost uncle) Re-inking Completed

Today I looked at the rough sketch I drew yesterday of Johnny Jay, the long lost uncle of Jimmy Jay, and thought the picture look stiff. I redrew Bernie the Buddhist Dachshund to give him a little more of a line of action, bending towards Uncle Johnny. I used Procreate on my old 9.5-inch ipad for this.

I still haven’t found a way to export PSD files without using wi-fi. Apple has made it impossible. When I realize that my content is trapped inside of Apple’s lovely prison, I recall a quote of Richard Stallman, “Apple has the tightest digital handcuffs in history.” Amen to that, Richard. Amen.

Picture #29, Momma Jay is Scolding Jimmy

Momma Jay is scolding Jimmy because she thinks he broke here commandment against playing around the chimney. She’s warned the kids that the chimney swallowed her brother the previous year and he was never seen again and she doesn’t want that to happen to them. The problem is that she doesn’t realize the Jimmy didn’t intentionally break her rule. He was only trying to rescue his friend who had just fallen down the chimney.

I haven’t seen many modern children’s books where the hero is scolded by his parents, but I do recall that in the tale Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack was called an idiot for trading a cow for some magic beans. In that case it turned out that the adults were the idiots, not Jack. We’ll have to wait to see how Jimmy Jay’s story turns out.

This is image #29, and I still have about 5 more pictures to re-ink. My new dilemma is that I want to keep the book to the standard for children’s books, 32 pages, and I’m going to have about 38. Some of the images will not make it into the book.

Picture #28, Momma Jay Knocks on Bernie's Door

I have only a few more pictures to re-ink and then I’ll move on to painting. My publication date is May 15, but I won’t be ready. I’ll push back the deadline a couple of weeks. Fortunately, in late May and early June I’ll time off my day job to work on the book, complete it, and then start working on the next book. I’ve got a plot in mind that involves Jimmy Jay, Buddy Butterfly, and a trip to Mexico!

After doing quite a few iPad drawings over the last 5 months, I’ve learned that I really don’t sync with digital drawing. It’s not me. I fiddle with everything endlessly and my drawings end up looking “digital.” I’m doing all of the drawings for the next book using traditional media, pen and ink all the way. I’ll still do the coloring digitally, but once I’m more comfortable with watercolor, I’ll do all of the painting using watercolor. All of these decisions mean I’d better write “practice painting with watercolor” on my to-do list.

In this picture Momma Jay is asking Bernie the Buddhist Dachshund, the owner of the house, if he’s seen her son. She’s in for several big surprises!

Picture #27, A Helping Hand Rescues Jimmy and Buddy

The helping hand belongs to Bernie the Buddhist Dachshund. What a kind soul he is!

I’ve stopped putting Amazon affiliate links into the posts. I personally don’t mind seeing affiliate links in posts, and sometimes I actually follow the link to make sure one of my favorite bloggers gets a few dollars for his efforts. My reason for leaving out affiliate links is that I’m really pushed for time these days and I’d rather spend my extra few minutes tweaking my posts. I especially need to spend more time proofreading them.

My problem with proofreading is that I hate to reread my writing. Rereading is painful drudgery. Most of the time, when I type the last word of a post, instead of rereading what I’ve just typed, I say to hell with it and push “Save & Publish” button. The consequence is that every post has typos and missing words. Fortunately, my partner reads my posts and gives me a post-it with a list of my careless errors and oversights. If there are no errors in this post, it’s because she took the time to make sure I don’t embarrass myself excessively.

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.

#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.