Working on my book and wondering if I should start over with thumbnails

[MOO]

I have pretty much laid out my book and even done a rough dummy with large pages. I tend to work bigger and then outline in pencil and do lots of erasing and redrawing as I go. It gets pretty messy sometimes but it seems to help me when I use bigger paper. I am just getting back in the saddle with my work on my project again. I am not yet a diigtal artist and may never be, so I do everything the long way. Sometimes I have to totally redo things because I got ahead of myself and added color, etc. before the compostion was good. I have 46 pages (not including front material) on the book dummy I have been working on. I self published my last book so, I can choose to do any multiples of 8 for my book I guess. I either have to cut or add images to make this standard size.........so much to think about.

I guess I am really just venting or releasing my thoughts on here. I think I need to go back to thumbnails. At least I am getting practice in drawing the characters. Thanks for listening.

[dvandegriend]

All i know is I laid out all 200 pages of my graphic novel with thumbnails first and it has been the best decision. As I'm going through and drawing the full size pages, I rarely have to think about it because I did all the layout thinking beforehand. It is making the art side of it just that more fun!

[Sarah LuAnn]

I don't think thumbnails have ever made one of my images worse. Yes, I am guilty of proceeding without thumb-nailing first, but the more I work, the more essential I realize they are, and the less likely I am to skip that step. Its frustrating to have to backtrack, though!

[eleArts]

You definitely don't need to be a digital artist to create good art. Digital art is just a trend, so no worries. I'm a digital artist, but most of the time I prefer to draw, design and color with traditional mediums. Also when I was in art school, we were taught to create in the traditional way first before we even use a computer. It's really the process that matters, and SVS does a great job teaching those steps like thumbnails. It all comes down to what you want for your book and your artistic craft in general.

I'd sure like to see your dummy book and other illustrations! I too live in San Jose, CA, maybe we could meetup sometime.

[MOO]

@eleArts Oh! That would be cool, Elena. I live in the Cambrian Park area. How about you? It would be fun to meet up with a local

[MOO]

@Sarah-LuAnn You know, I did thumbnails but I had a hard time getting the feel for the composition, then I did them a little bigger and tried to stay the course but I feel like now that they are big I am not sure. The last book I did I layed them out on the floor and stood on a chair to look at them and then would see what needed to be done I actually was thinking of making a large canvas with clear pockets that I could hang from my window curtain rod and stand back to get a full view...I still might do that. I think it's the same idea..just big

[MOO]

@dvandegriend Wow! That's a lot of pages to thumbnail! A graphic novel really seems like it takes a lot of skill.

[eleArts]

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen Yes, I know where that is! I live in the Evergreen Area.

[MOO]

@eleArts Okay, that's not so far away If you don't mind meeting up with an old lady, ha! I think it would be fun to meet and see each other's art. I still have a lot to learn though so don't expect too much Of course, I'm not all bad either...I would love your input. I'm trying to get more focused on both writing and illustrating. I just joined a writing critique group on Monday nights....I have never done one but ,It will be a good eperience. There are three other writers of PB and the are not illustrators so it is good to hear what they have to say about things. I've been watching the writing picture books class and learning a lot there too. Haven't done the homework but listen as I work.