Fixing and Correcting My Children's Book art- new art style + better tools

 

I know when you finally get the nerve up to follow through with your idea and put color down on paper. You might stand back and look proudly on that wonderful piece of art work. As you should, it takes courage to create, design, write, illustrate, draw etc. All creativity comes from a special place within each of us. Yes, we all have it. 

But if you look and think too long you might start to NOT like your work, we all do that too, we over critique ourselves right out of completing some of our works, or we just put it away and move onto something else. OK that is me. Not anymore though, I am done with feeling overwhelmed with all that is life, so much that has come my way. OK I'm veering off the artwork track, sorry. My thoughts get ahead of my.

Everybody gets side tracked with all the responsibilities in life, I completely understand. I can't even count the things I've started, stopped and never returned to over the years. 

Maybe your a little like me, get bored and long for something new?  I really like NEW challenges and am finding that my children's books are not giving me that, sure each page is different, but I am not very interested in drawing the same character and same clothing and keeping each page " aesthetically pleasing" or staying cohesive throughout the pages of the book. Originally I made every page a new character, each different colors, clothes, etc. Then when I saw all my page files together, that's when I realized it looked all over the place, my eyes were overwhelmed and that is when I understood the reasoning behind keeping the subjects, characters etc. looking the same throughout your books.

Yes, I get it.

My first children's book I created in 2014, each page I did in soft pastels, I sent the files of to a local printer, I had 16 books made. I no longer have them because I overthought my artwork and got rid of each one!

A hard lesson learned, as " bits of an Artist life"

https://www.sandihester.com/

https://youtu.be/t9QDahh51dQ

I just love to binge watch her videos!

Anywho, Sandi says, " do not get rid of your works, whether you like the way it turned out or not...

Sandi is right, the good, the bad, and the ugly is all part of your art history and you should keep all of it, even if for your eyes only. If you have room of coarse, part of why I no longer have my old artworks is because I often clean out clutter, no pack rat here. That is why I no longer have old artworks. It is my dream to retire on a beach somewhere and so I do not want to have to pack up too much stuff. That being said I do wish I still had some of those works....

No crying over it though, I am always creating, moving forward and onward it's what I do. So should you. There are too many other worries in the world to bog yourself down with lost works. 

You can create a little challenge for yourself and recreate some of your lost art, by memory, what fun that would be. I am looking forward to consistently sharing my videos and process with you. Though I still remain torn with my preferred work. Story telling is such fun, so is illustration, painting and designing. But the process of full color pages of children's books is so time consuming. 

And on top of it, I start my new job Monday, that's in 2 days!

So much for my semi retirement and new art career. ( insert smirk here)

I will just have to be diligent and keep working towards my goals, sharing positivity, joy and happiness with all of you. Because it's good for the world.

God Bless!

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

How To Write A Novel As A Pantser

 

In this video I show how I, a self-proclaimed panster write my novels.

Showing you how if you want to be a writer than really all you need to do is write.

You can use just a pen and paper, it doesn't have to be expensive or difficult. I use online tools though it isn't necessary to have online tools. In fact, all a panster really needs is paper and pencil.

I have tried many a time to be a plotter and failed miserably. I do best just writing, and fitting my stories together, like sticking a pattern together... I have an idea for a story and the plot plays out in my mind. It runs like reel clips in my head, at night, when driving, when I should be thinking about other things. That is how my brain works. A good story sticks in my head and I add to it with random thoughts that push themselves to the forefront of my conscious. I like the dramatic sound of that!

I share how I use tasks to sort of outline or at least get scenes down as a task, so I remember to put it in my story. Now that I have stepped out and looked at my process from a different angle. I like it, no more trying to be a plotter like so many I have tried to emulate because they appear to be so organized and know what they are doing. I know what I'm doing, and I know what I'm writing. And so will you, it just takes some time to feel like you do in your own skin. And I personally believe it will come after writing a good amount. Your stories will start to become clearer, and they will pop out in your mind. For me this is how it works.

Self Authored & Illustrated The Book Of Love

An introduction to The Book Of Love

Here is my self authored and illustrated children's book. It is call " The Book Of Love" I have been and still am working on my art style and finding my niche. I am very proud of this book, it took me a very long time to figure out how to get the colors corrected to CMYK for upload to the KDP/Amazon platform. I am still working out getting it down smoothly. Really it has more been an issue of time and effort. I recently " semi retired" which has given me more time to work on Writing and my art. I am building this blog up and working on several other books as well.

But this one is The Book Of Love and I do hope you enjoy the video and if interested you can purchase any of my books through Author Central and my other shop, the links are below.

Author Central :   shorturl.at/tK029

De La Life shop:  shorturl.at/rxyAP

Happy Creating & Reading!

Spread Joy & Happiness!

My Writer Author process

* Pro create for creating my illustrations after I sketch them out on pad or paper

* KRITA art program to review large scale and complete editing artwork

* Libre Office to format and put the JPEG files together

* Google Docs to format and put the pages together

(I use the above programs interchangeably)

* completed PDF interior and PDF cover file is then uploaded into KDP 

( Kindle Direct Publishing - formerly Createspace)

* a sample print is sometimes ordered, sometimes not

* start marketing via blogging, you tube introduction, post on a variety of social media outlets