21 Apr 2023, 01:30
The Next Spread!
The Before and After:
Tight Deadline! New Book Project. Feedback Much Appreciated!
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The first chicken scratch to the final render:
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@Elizabeth-Rose So, i wondered why you would go for the white space now on the first left page.
I would just make the space a bit lighter if you want, but the white....it seems just so so brigt for the left page.
What was your thoughts here?
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@Elizabeth-Rose That open gate makes a huge difference!
Ooh, you're trusting me with dialogue suggestions? I'm honoured! But I will not be offended if you ignore them completely.
How about:
"Would you like to start a garden of your own this year?"
"Oh, yes! I'd love to!"
or
"This year, what do you think about starting a garden of your own?"
"I would love that!"
There are many possibilities, but each character probably has their own voice in your head, so it will depend on that really. For example, something like "Darling, you've become such a good little gardener. Do you think you could handle the garden yourself this year?" maybe sounds a bit like the mother doesn't have full faith in her.
(I'm just rambling now, sorry!)
By the way, I love that notebook on the left page of your latest post.
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Yey, More feedback!
@von_Nimmermehr Thanks for your thoughts here, and that’s a good question indeed. My thoughts are mostly about legibility. I played around with it for a while and settled on the cleanses of the white space. I feel like it adds movement and diversity from the previous spread and consistency throughout the book. Several other pages/spreads have that half page illustration style (Part illustration and part white page). Perhaps it looks funny cause it’s hard to see where the actual page ends and the website background begins in the photo above.
Does this help? Thoughts?
@Robyn-Hepburn Yey! I can’t thank you enough for helping me fix that! It’s cracks me up every time I make a book. Some pages/spreads get changed and fixed multiple times while other pages/spreads seemingly are created just right and don’t need hardly any tending too.
And yes, I trust you with dialogue! If anything, its a great spring-board to hear what your thoughts and suggestions are. And those are great! I’ll play around with the dialogue some more! -
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The Next Spread!
The Before and After:
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And The next spread:
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I beta reader had an idea for the font. He really liked the look of the pencil traced font. Anybody have thoughts on that?
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@Elizabeth-Rose I like the font! Matches with the atmosphere of the book
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@Elizabeth-Rose Yes! That is perfect. It fits in with the feeling of the whole book and the dialogue's text too.
P.S. I love the lighting!
P.P.S Should the goat be saying "bahaha?" It sounds more like laughter to me.
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@MiaNova Yeah, I’m really liking it too. I’ll have to turn it into an actual font in my font program. Another thing to add to the list!
@Robyn-Hepburn Another vote for the pencil font!
P.S. Thanks!
P.P.S. I know, it kinda does lol. I probably should fix that. XDThe next pages! (Before & After) Any thoughts on these?
(The font on the rendered spread is the favorite serif font from above. I still like it. Maybe I could try to do a pencil version of that and see how it looks?)
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Before and after.
The before sketch here, I actually turned into two spreads in the final draft. That’s why this before sketch is paired with another final render above too.
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Any goat lovers out there? I’m sure you can relate to this one!
This spread wasn’t in the original storyline. It was added about halfway through the storyline work. My editors all agreed I needed to really push more of the highs and lows in the story. Hence the scene below. (Gotta love Nigerian Dwarfs!)
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@Elizabeth-Rose
The evil-goat-laugh! -
@Elizabeth-Rose haha it makes me think of my brother's goats. Evil cute creatures. Preferably escape just before he has to go to work. Haha. I really loved that pencil traced font!! And it's so nice seeing the book develop bit by bit.
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Next spread! Only got 3.5 hours sleep last night. I’m trying to finish up and submit this book by the end of today so it can be released on Mother’s Day. I’m going to need lots of homemade cappuccinos! Just got the Title page and the final spread to finish the drawing plus the coloring and another spread that’s done to color. I think it’s doable! Wish me Luck! (Or better yet, pray for me)
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@Elizabeth-Rose Wow! Adrenaline and caffeine can be a dangerous combination.
I really hope you manage to get it submitted - I'll be praying for energy and persistence. It's really beautiful and I love seeing how it's been developing! 
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I’m alive!
Thanks all for the prayers, they came through!
I ended up submitting the finished storybook on my buffer day, the day after my self-imposed deadline. Talk about cutting it close.
I had planned to stay up late and get it done before the buffer day, but lack of sleep always seem to hit me on the second day and I kept nodding off now matter how hard I tried. I even ate a bunch of dark chocolate.
But thank goodness my buffer day was a Thursday so the approval came back the next day and I was able to purchase my author copies!
Also I’m excited to announce my book tour dates! It’s gonna be short and sweet.
The grand total of illustration hours the final week from Sunday to Thursday was 31 hours. And on top of that 5–6 hours for my day job and farm chores. No wonder I didn’t get any sleep.
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@Elizabeth-Rose Amazing! Many, many, many well dones! It looks beautiful!
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@Elizabeth-Rose Looks wonderful! A perfect May book - my family is trying to keep our chickens out of the garden as we speak.
Seeing your whole process is great, and the final illustrations look wonderful - my daughters would be all over it!