My process to creating a book

As I complete the final stages of book number 5, Gracie’s Glasses, I thought I would share a little information about the steps I take to create a book.    

The first step, obviously, is coming up with an idea.  Once I have a subject for my story, I develop some characters and search for a quote that will go along with the storyline.   In the case of Gracie’s Glasses, I used my grand-dog and grand-cat as characters for this story, Gracie, and Lucy.

Writing the story isn’t usually too difficult.  It seems like once I get the first line or two going, the story just flows into my head.  The hardest part of this portion of the process is making my story rhyme.  

Once the story has been written I begin the illustrations.  This is the portion of the process that seems daunting when I start.  Wow, 35-40+ pages of illustrations to come up with! Where do I begin?

I do all my work in PowerPoint.  I know, that seems odd, right?  This was the most cost effective tool I found for formatting my books.  The first step here is to divide out my pages, which sentences will make the best page breaks and places for illustrations.  I format all my text to the correct font and size.  And now I have the beginnings of my book. A clean slate for my illustrations.  

Now it is time to start my sketches. I really love, love, LOVE to create my characters. It is a little intimidating at first.  But so much fun to come up with the drawings.  I just sketch these out on plain white paper, in pencil. All of my pages are not illustrated as a whole picture.  I draw each item/character on the page, individually.  Here we have a sketch of Lucy, looking all juicy after the fish bowl fell.

After my sketches for the page are complete, I scan each of these pencil drawings into my computer and place on the page in my Powerpoint document.  This way I can ensure the drawings will fit together.  I move them around to make sure they will fit appropriately on the page.  Below is an example page with the individual drawings placed on the page.

Now that I have the sketches outlined on the page, I am ready to start coloring.  I trace each of my sketches onto my illustration paper and begin to color!  I use Prismacolor brush tip markers to finalize these illustrations.  Sometimes I have to color a drawing several times before I get it right.  Maybe, I didn’t like the color I chose or the way I did the eye’s or nose or perhaps I just plain messed up!  Here is Lucy, all juicy, once again, the colored version! 

Once I have completed the illustrations, I scan each of them into my computer, just as I did the sketches.  I then import them to a page and line them up, just as I did the sketches. 

All of my drawings are outlined in a black marker. 
There are two reasons for this, one is, I think they look sharper.  The second reason, it gives a guideline for me to remove the background in PowerPoint.  If I were to just bring the drawing in scanned, it will show the entire scan area, not just the drawing.  By removing the background, the black lines help lasso the area to keep. See below an example of the drawing of Lucy, all juicy, when first scanned into the document.  I don't want all that white area. 


Below, is a visual of how this is done.

The white background of the scanned image, no good!

By formatting the image to remove the background and mark areas to keep and delete (in purple),

the image shows correctly on the page.

I import all the illustrated drawings to the page, remove the background, move to the correct spot on the pages and now, ta da, I have a finished page!!

As you can see, the pictures overlap the sides of the actual page in my PowerPoint document.  The images bleed off the side of the page, but only the portion of the image is visible in the final product.  

Here is what the final pages look like for this example.

Some of my pages bleed from one page to the next.  
Here is an example of this. 
(uh-oh, this gives away how the fish bowl fell!)

And that my friends, is the process I take to complete a book. 
Look for Gracie's Glasses on Amazon.com very soon!!

Gracie's Glasses - Interesting Facts

As I work on next book, Gracie's Glasses, I wanted to share a few interesting facts about this book.

Here are eight fun facts about Gracie's Glasses:

1.  The characters in the story are a cat named Gracie and a dog named Lucy.  Gracie and Lucy are the actual names of my daughter and soon to be son in law's pet cat and dog. They are my grand-dog and grand-cat!

2. Gracie and Lucy are both rescue animals.  Cool, right?

3. Gracie was adopted a few years prior to Lucy.  It took Gracie a while to warm up to her new roommate, finding alternative ways to maneuver around the apartment. This is why I made Gracie the character that wants to blame everything on Lucy.

4.  I tried to draw them as close as I could to their likeness. What do you think?

5. The message in the story came to me from a facebook post I saw one day.  It just made me think a little harder about how we all walk around with our own view of life. Sometimes a little oblivious to those around us.  Gracie learns this lesson from a pair of glasses Lucy has her try on.

6.  I am using 4 different shades of gray marker to draw Gracie.  I believe I am running out of ink in my Cool Gray 10% marker. Oh No!

7.  I blame the Washington Capitals for the hold-up in the completion of the book.  I am a huge hockey fan and it is really hard to watch such a fast paced game and draw at the same time.

8. I plan on having a spring launch of the book.  I am really excited about this book and am having a lot of fun working on it!  

Bonus: Here is a drawing from the book for your viewing pleasure.

Book Covers - 2nd Editions

I have noticed, when I have my books in tow for sale, two of my books typically catch the eye of potential purchasers more than others. They tend to select these two books more often after only viewing the cover.

Here are my 4 book covers, which ones appeal to you the most? 

Which ones would you choose at first glance?

What I found, was the chosen two, tended to be The Answer Box and Hanna's New Skill. These two have very simple drawings of the main characters.  This got me thinking, perhaps the other two covers should have similar qualities.

Maybe, the following would be a better cover for The Colorless Forest? 

What do you think? 

Do you like the original Cover on the Left or something new, on the right?

Or, how about the following idea for, Allyssa's Magical Spyglass?  

Which is better, the busier original version or the simpler version? 

I believe, there may be a 2nd edition in the works for at least one of the above books.