The Perfect Children's Book

I made some color corrections and fixed some spelling error and voila!

I have the perfect Children's book ( in my opinion ;) I am loving how my book 

BUGS, INSECTS, & ANIMALS IN THE BACKYARD

I love, love, love how this book turned out. I am so inspired I am now changing the artwork in my other children's books. This style reminds me as I have said before, it reminds me of The Hungry Little Caterpillar by Eric Carle

                                         A much-loved Author and much-loved series of books.

 I would call this book a success if my book were loved by just one child. Creating and writing brings me so much joy. For all my books I use a digital process starting in the procreate app. on my iPad, then I move the files to my PC and use the free online program Krita to convert from RGB to CMYK, then I use Canva to add the words (it's just easier in Canva) I also make the front and back covers in Canva with my own art, and then I download the pdf files for KDP and once reviewed and approved it's ready for print. I order my Authors copy to proof and if perfect I post for sale. If errors, then I go back into the original files and fix the errors until I get it right.

#self-pulishing # Author # Illustrator # KDP Select # Author Central # write a children's book # children's picture books

Changing RGB Color Profile To CMYK for Print for a children's picture book

Here is a fun showing of how I change the RGB color profile of my children's book to the CMYK printable color profile

"Bugs, Insects, & Animals in The Backyard"

I am working on the page about bees and getting the yellow/gold to look write is a bit of an effort. Even after completing this video, I still had to do some color correcting and return for another round of adjusting. But that is how it goes and if you want your book to look perfect for your reader you will do many more until you are happy with how it looks. Each page of a colorful illustration needs to be scrutinized when going from digital to print. I will add that art applications have gotten much better than way back in 2006 when I first started writing and illustrating children's picture books, I used traditional watercolor and pastels on art paper and transferring that to digital form was impossible for me at that time, which is why those books are not in print...

After I am happy with the illustrations and have converted each page into a CMYK Jpeg file I import the pages into an online program called Canva just for the ease of the program which I am a paying member. I do not know of a free program, though Canva has a free option with limitations... I am not here to promote anything just sharing what works for me and hopefully inspire you along the way.

The program I use is called Krita and it is free open source, of course you can give a donation to the developers if you like. The program competes well with Adobe Photoshop

HAPPY CREATING!

#picturebookillustration, #childrensbooks, # RGB to CMYK, #self-publish, #krita, #canva, #digital art, #illustration, #KDP, #author, #illustrator, #artist

 

Drawing digitally is fun when the subject are Seals

 

Honing your art skills is fun when you choose to practice with cute, adorable seals! Here is a video showing how I draw and paint these cute seals. Some say painting, some say drawing or sketching, and some even say coloring. Whatever your choice, just keep practicing with whatever tools you prefer, and I can promise it will be fun. I use my iPad and the procreate app. really just for the ease, mobility, and lack of needing to wait for paint to dry. Being too impatient, I will eventually have time (I hope, when I retire) to await drying pain. But for now, I indulge in the digital space of an application that virtually mimics real paint be it watercolor, acrylic, oil or other artful substance. I hope you get the art bug and try your hand at creating and drawing, I think everyone needs an outlet to relax and shake off the stressors of life. You can do as you please in a digital art application, there is no fear of wasting precious paint or paper. Just delete and start again!

HAPPY CREATING!

Harbor Seal Animal Facts | Phoca vitulina - A-Z Animals (a-z-animals.com)

Grey Seal Pups - Shetland Nature Diary | Shetland.org

Afro-Australian Fur Seal – Pinniped

#seals #oceananimals #digitalart #digitalsketching #drawingseals

Making my novel book cover Jimmy Jha

My very first novel book cover, designed by me. A novel written by me.

I am currently working on the last half of my novel, then I will start a first draft edit. I feel so close to the finish line. Seeing the book cover and releasing this to the world definitely motivates me to complete this novel. 

I had to design and create my own cover; I could not allow someone else's vision on my book. Not yet, at least for now. Since it is my first novel I feel very much, a helicopter mom. I will coddle and nurture my baby until I feel ready to let go. And then it will be ready for the world.

The cover is showing the two main characters each with their own journey, and some colorful creatures within the story. There are some hard lessons, grief and loss, love, anger, growth and compassion. Through it all people learn to rise above, discovering what is most important in life...

Did I mention the pirates? No? How about the Skywalkers?

This is a novel about overcoming adversity, self-discovery and finding purpose in life. Crossing oceans and learning new ways from new friends.

Let me know if you would like to be a part of the first readers club?

Leave me a comment either here or in my video comment section, link is below to the video same as above.

Making my novel book cover Jimmy Jha (youtube.com)

Once the novel is complete, I will notify you how and where you can get the book for free, in eBook format. I have to learn how to start a free book promotion on Amazon.

Children’s Picture Book Illustrating - a bear and alligator

How many times have you created an artful piece only to grow and improve your process, then cringe at past works? 

I do that more often than I want to admit. But that is one of the Malay benefits there are to creating digitally. And in the video above I show you exactly how I change and add new elements or characters or items, if you will to my picture book page. You can see how easy it is to move an element or character around on the page to change the composition or design. This works for whatever kind of design you are creating for. In fact when designers are creating for repeating patters. This is how they move around elements, adding and changing as they work. I do enjoy this process. 

My preferred tools are minimal. I use my iPad, the Procreate app.,  and in the app itself I use the number 6 pencil brush which comes in the app. And really often that is all I use. Sometime I will use different brush tools that come free in the Procreate app. But here you see, not much else is required.

If you do not have these tools, no problem, there are many similar apps, both free and for a small fee you can even use on most cell phones. Don’t have access to any digital tools? No worries, grab a pencil, paper, crayons or whatever you got and create the elements pretty much in the same way only you got to be a bit more careful and detailed as erasing can be difficult. Also when doing a traditional element/ art piece it is best to decide on element placement first, do several mock ups or design sketches, nothing to detailed. Just a quick sketch to see how you want your page to look before you start to paint or color in your design. and that is all it takes. If you are doing everything for your book by traditional method, which is how I started. Might I suggest keep in mind where your words will go and stay at least 1 inch away from all edges just to be safe. When you have all the book pages completed, you can staple or glue them together and you have a book! I would love to see your work, link to me here or on you tube etc. Ask me anything and I will do my best to respond timely.

Happy Creating

 

Finding Your Art Style Takes Practice

Click the photo to watch my video

 I know first hand what it feels like to work on something for hours and hours, pouring your creative mind into every move you make. All the while saying to yourself this is going to be wonderful. A fervor you quite enjoy. Only to feel so blinded by your dislike of the finished work. What happened, you wonder?

Nothing happened, you are like so many Artists and Creatives. I feel your pain. Literally, that is where I stood and still do sometimes. Though as of only recent ( and I am 59 today my birthday!) I rejoice in discovering exactly what my art style is and what it looks like. So do not be discouraged, be patient. Take a look at those you admire for encouragement. See if you get some inspiration to keep going. I found a few Artists I enjoy and I discovered the ones I truly followed did not even make art like mine. So I thought to myself I love these Artists for slapping down paint and messing things up with their hands and or a cloth. What I discovered is their not messing their artwork up at all. Each stroke is precise and planned though it looks like somewhat of a big mess at times. It eventually becomes a masterpiece of color, shadows, and what sometimes only resembles a person, flower, or animal. That is when I realized my art is to stiff, too exact. Like I'm trying to copy a picture. But I prefer a picture to be a picture and my artwork to be My interpretation of what I see. For me that is where I believe an Artist really shines. Don't think for one minute I do not also love Artist who paint realism. I love them the same. I have a great respect for Artists of many genres. Being creative requires great skill and passion at all levels. 

    I'm saying hive yourself some breathing room. Stop being so critical of yourself. allow your mistakes to shine through. You will discover yourself along the way. I personally loved my art in my children's books initially and gathered praise from family and friends. Even with those praises, I guess it is the imposter syndrome which I didn't fully understand I was feeling until now. Feeling like I truly get it. I get art, my art. I feel it, what I want to create, I see it in my mind and that is exciting. so for you who are not quite where you want to be. Here is some things that worked for me.

Keep creating, drawing, painting, writing or what ever it is you do. Keep doing it and don't throw anything away. You will look back at your work and discovered it isn't as bad as you though it was.

The more you try and do, the better you will get at it. It's true "practice makes perfect" perfection is in the eye of the beholder so remember yours is the most critical. Be kind to yourself.

Love your mistakes and know it is necessary to make mistakes in your style discovery.

As a creative there really are no mistakes, it's all a journey. Like when you hear "one persons junk is another persons treasure". So it goes in art and creativity you will discover many lovers of your art and many not interested in your craft. Either way, if you love it that is all that matters and you will find a tribe of people who will support your work and value your time and effort. Keep on doing and creating, never stop! The world needs you!

    You thought there would be a magic answer to find your art style. Nope just practice and try different things. That is the magic. Try pencils, maybe you like it, maybe you don't. Try painting, maybe you like it maybe you don't. That is how you will learn what interests you and when you find what you enjoy. Practice doing it every which way you can. 

    The internet gives you many subject matter to consider and many samples to try. Not sure where to start? Think about what you like, for example if you like chocolate draw chocolate, if you like birds, paint a bird. That is how you start. Maybe you like abstract art, try closing your eyes and putting color down make circles, lines, dots etc. open your eyes and see what it looks like. Do a study on your creation imagining what you could make that piece into, a storm, a meadow, maybe add funky houses?

Or just keep going with more color and shapes until you are ready to stop. Put it aside and do another piece. Step away for a while and come back later to study it again. Keep this up and you will eventually find what you gravitate towards and then you can nurture that by continuing the process with your preferred subject and tools for creating. If your a Writer, you can use the same formula, write your poems', mysteries, love stories and more, write shorts or novels, just write! I do that too.

Starting Over - improving your art

 

Carl #1 Carl Meh

Carl # 2 Carl AWESOME!

You can spend hours on art and in the end be completely unhappy with the finished piece.

This happens to every Artist at some point or another, and of coarse to varying degrees. I will suggest first off, DO NOT DELETE OR THROW AWAY THAT ART! not yelling ; )

In other words don't do what I do... I am impulsive and hit delete way too much, a habit I have NOT tried to break. So I guess I am ok with this part of who I am. Maybe, then be ok with deleting or getting rid of old work : ] I say move forward and have no regret. Um, disclosure, I do have some regret, but I get over it quickly. I digress...

So back to Carl - here is the original piece

I painted Carl about 2 or 3 years ago, I tend to move on quickly to other things and file stuff away only to find them years later... and when I came across this wonderful ape, he looked like a Carl, and I wanted to make a sticker out of him and that started my digital journey with Carl and Procreate on my iPad.

Here is the video to the first attempt

I do enjoy both mediums, meaning digital and traditional. However the advantage of digital is the ease of it, you can grab your tool/s ( only 2, iPad and art program - 4, if you add a drink and comfy seat)

I took a picture of Carl, imported it into my iPad and there I started to completely repaint Carl digitally.

You can see with both of the videos the ease of fixing mistakes and changing colors, this would be much more difficult with traditional tools. 

Here is the re- do video

I had so much fun doing both pieces and I am in love with the finished Carl, I am ordering a sticker for my water bottle, ooh no, I need a new mouse pad! This is a tough call...

Anywho, I am still playing with digital tools, when I use traditional art tools like paints or pencils etc. and I make a mistake, I think " what a waste, I could have made this digitally and not wasted time or money." And there people is the best reason for me to continue digitally.

Although I will give you another very good reason I love digital art. I love the mobility of it, I work an 8 to 5 job with a commute, so not much down time. I take my tablet and a sketch pad to work and before I clock in I get an hour of sketching, drawing, painting or writing in. Either in the iPad or in a sketchbook or notebook. It is the only way I can get things done. If your like me, you understand how hard it is after a long day to apply yourself to your "side hustle" So for all you traditional Artists out there that are full time creatives and have carved out a nice niche for yourself, I salute you : ) Congratulations! I know you work hard. I hope to get there someday. 

I digress again! Did I mention I have a hyper mind... sorry

I am discovering since I have to be at my job most of my day, I need to learn how to get things done on my cell phone, I have tried to create artwork in the sketchbook pro app on my cell phone, but the small screen is just not my friend and creates more stress than it is worth. But I am learning there are other platforms I do enjoy using on my cell phone. Like Google Docs for writing, another mobile digital tool.

I want to get back to my dream of being on the road, traveling and creating, and sharing. So for me continuing on my digital journey is a must. Practicing my drawing, painting, and sketching, making errors and redoing everything is just another way to improve my creativity and develop my style. Which I do not have and maybe never will? Having a hyper brain causes me to change and shift at the drop of a nano breeze. Truly this IS my brain. I embrace the challenge, bring it on.

There is no fail in creativity, that is why it is called " creativity" Like " one mans trash is another mans treasure" or " beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

So I encourage you to create, you do not have any digital art tools you say? that's ok, start with the ole pencil and paper, practice, practice, practice. Digital art is wonderful but I still yearn to get my fingers dirty in a thick glob of paint!

All though I hate waiting for things to dry....

The just of all this comes down to what you hear from every Artist and all people. Just do it, write, draw, sketch, paint, whatever your medium, just do it.

OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER AGAIN.

I've seen some Artists keep an ugly art journal, that sounds lovely! I have thought about doing this too. But my brain is not capable of following any consistency and I have many many sketch pads and journals with some filled pages and many empty pages, and they are in various drawers and shelves... so, I actually have several ugly journals everywhere.

This is me. You do you.