New Picture Book Brewing - the writing and illustration process

 New Picture Book Brewing

In order not to give too much away, I’m calling my characters A, B and C. They’re not your usual characters and came about by turning a story on its head and looking at it from a different angle – do I have your interest? I hope so, because I’m very excited about this story. As in many picture books it’s written to entertain the adult reader as well as the child it’s being read to, because that is the joy of a good picture book, to entertain multiple age groups.

So what is the hold up with this book? Well as the characters are quite unusual, they’re also putting up some opposition when trying to get the right look for them, and as for characters 1 and 2, they’re proving even harder to pin down into an illustration. Character 3 is a lot easier to draw, and 3 is all ready, and getting impatient with the rest of the cast of the book.

So how are they progressing? There are sketches, many, many sketches, and some of them might even go for a walk through the paint box, next they’ll have a lie down in the scanner, well they would, if the scanner was working… once scanned they can be formatted together with the text to work their magic, words and pictures in perfect harmony, creating a picture book.

So off I tootle to get on with the illustrations.

Meanwhile, there’s a book sale going on in my bookshop, so please pop along for a browse.

 

 

Hi, welcome to my blog, which goes back for quite a few years now, through all the trials and tribulations of creating my books and self publishing. I've overcome many hurdles to get to this point, but the biggest hurdle of all seems to be online sales, so if you're reading this, maybe you'd like to follow the link in the picture above, right into my online bookshop, where there's a sale on right now. Have a rummage around and meet the books, all lined up and ready to be personally signed and sent out to new homes. 

Bringing the personal touch of a book signing to a wider audience. You'll find me behind the counter, working on the next book, which is taking shape in fits and starts. I'm working on the illustrations, still in half a mind to send it out to a few more agents before self publishing, just because it would be nice to share some of the process of getting books into the hands of readers.

Picturebook Brewing

 There’s a picturebook brewing, the words have assembled, shuffled and assembled again – several times. The pictures are gathering, filling more and more sketch books. Paint has been introduced, and splashed about. 

The scanner has been… well that is where the process has ground to a halt. The scanner was plugged into the laptop, nothing happened. Different cables were tried, troubleshooting tried and failed. Things were turned off and turned on again…

Anyway, while technology is sitting there idle, I’m getting on with the illustrations, so that once the scanner is fixed, or replaced, I will have artwork to scan.

Every book throws up some problems along the way, but the ten books already in my online bookshop are testament to the fact that it can and will be done.  

Double birthday celebrations!

 

Happy Birthday Belle and your book

This week it’s double birthday celebrations!

Not only is it a book birthday, Belle ex Racehorse …just horsing around is 7 years old, it’s also the 21^st birthday of the book’s leading lady! And what did Belle do on her 21^st birthday? She had a lovely day grazing her field and horsing around in the sunshine, then back to her stable for her tea, hay nets and a stud muffin birthday cake. She shared a bit of cake with a stable friend, and dropped some on the dog, but he didn’t mind.

Many Happy Returns of the Day to a very special lady.