Reviewing the first 61 pages of my children's picture book

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Initial style, Jan 2021

Current style, one year later — Jan 2022

I started writing book 3 on January 25, 2021. It’s not January 23, 2022 and I’m two-thirds finished. My thought, back in 2021, was that I could finish the book in three months. At the time I didn’t have a work contract and I believed I was capable of producing one page every two days so long as I didn’t have the distraction of a full-time job. As it turned out, I was called back to work part-time. With a small workload I was able to finish two pages a week. I had this schedule for two months, and then my workload doubled, and my art output was limited to about one page every two weeks.

Time passed. Without realizing it, my drawing style changed imperceptibly over the last year. Today I reviews the 60 pages I’ve completed, and I see chaos. My book doesn’t is cognitively confusing because it doesn’t have a consistent style. At this point I don’t have the time or energy to redraw my latest images so that they conform to the original style I planned to use. So, I’m just going to plug away and finish the book.

When will the book be finished? This year I’ll be working full time again, and that means I’ll be lucky to complete one page a week. I have about 15 more pages to complete, and I may have to add more pages. I’m looking at finishing the book in four months … if all goes well. If I my time is consumed by work, I’ll fall back to one inch a day.

Page 54 Do-over

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Version one on the left, and version two on the right. I know these are totally different styles, but what can I do? I started this book about a year ago…and I’ve changed. I’m going to keep changing and I learn more about drawing and painting, light and color, value and composition. Perhaps the day will come when I can start a book and finish it before my style evolves.

It's too late to save Buddy Butterfly

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In are burst of activity I edited two images and reformatted them in inDesign. The pictures are okay, but I noticed some new problems. In one picture I drew the clouds by hand; in the other I used a digital cloud brush. When I saw this inconsistency I started to think about how the reader might be distracted by the change in styles — I am and I’m the artist! I then considered going through all of the pictures and standardizing the way the clouds are painted. That’s a scary thought because there are lots of clouds. Then I began to think, if I try to make this book perfect, I’ll never finish it. I’ve been working for 8 months for a 3-month project. Every revision sets me back, and the publish date is being pushed further into the future.

I’m going to have to let the cloud problem fade into the background. In the next book all of the clouds will be drawn in the same style.

Clouds painted with a digital brush.

Clouds drawn by hand.