This week has been a long and tiring one for me; but despite this I still managed to make progress on my book project!
Today I also want to talk more specifically about how I’m actually making this book, not just the illustrations, and what I’ve learned so far. Maybe you’ve been wondering how those things are made!
But before we move on, just a little reminder that the next winner for the print will be decided in two weeks!
I've already ordered a bunch of boxes to the dimensions that I need to ship the future prizes, and I'll probably need to order more prints in the near future. It's a lot of investment, but I'm having fun!
I hope the previous package is safely on its way across the ocean ⛵📦
When life gets in the way
I'm continuing my illustrated book project about a little girl trying to get people to survey people for her school project; the goal is to finish all sketches for the book before the end of the month.
But as I've been alluding to in the intro, this week has been really rough for me. I had a stressful time at work (lots of pressure, new challenges and deadline), and some medical examination; thankfully it's all came fine in the end!
This was a challenging time for drawing, I'm not gonna lie.
Drawing construction vehicle is kinda fun actually!
But despite this, I've stumbled upon a technique that worked for me to progress even during this challenging period. And this even tho I haven't really drawn for half of the week (I also took some time to rest you know!).
This week, instead of going through the illustrations sketches one by one, I instead opted to make a little bit progress on the whole 3, getting them to a almost finished sketch before going to the next one, but without completing them.
I was working on the easiest part, the less detailed sketch, and left the last and longest step for later.
This has proven very effective, as during this weekend I was able to go and finish them very easily and in quick succession!
I was really prepared to come at you this week apologizing for not meeting my self-imposed quota, but instead I found a way to make it easier on myself! :)
So from now on I'll continue this way: Focus on low effort, easy progress during the work week, where I have low energy and short stretch of time available, and use the longest work session of the weekend for the tasks that requires more focus, like drawing the last bits of details.
If you also have a hobby that matters a lot to you but also a day job, this might be a good inspiration for you!
But maybe you already found your rhythm to keep a balance between all of this? Please let me know, I'm always looking for better ways to make my work more balanced and enjoyable.
You've seen throughout this discussion the progress of the week btw! Susie is exploring this construction site and getting in trouble, so that means that we approaching the end of the book!
Around 3-4 sketches left to do, which is doable! I'm happy to see this little project moving forward.
How I actually make a book
Speaking of, I wanted to show you this week what I’m using to create this book; not only the illustration.
I’ve never done this before, to be completely clear, but I’ve learned a few things already and I wanted to share with you the behind the scene.
How to put a book together
First off, the software I’m using so far for the mise en page is call Affinity Publisher. You might have heard of them, they are a pretty solid alternative to Adobe product and only require one time payment.
I’m actually using the free trial of Publisher, which is 6 months long, well enough to see this book come to fruition. We will see then if its special features are worth it for me, who is just dabbling into making a book.
"Susie and the Witch" is the work in progress title for now :)
One thing this software is useful for is to manage all the pages and double spread, and being able to adjust and visualize it more easily. But my book isn’t that long (less than 30 pages), so I could have done it by hand!
One thing to keep in mind when doing a book or anything printed, is to be aware of margins and safe zones. Basically, after printing the pages are cut, which can make the details at the border disappear.
You can see here the margin displayed! But I could still get some surprises once printed
And this cutting can vary from print to print, so you have to be careful not to put something important next to the edges!
This bite me already with my illustrations, that’s why now for the one I’m ordering I make sure to always have a white frame; not only this makes it more aesthetic, but it also allows it to be printed and even framed without loosing details.
I’ve heard from comic book creator that margins can get really tricky once you are making double-spread, two pages illustrations, because there you need to take into account how the book is gonna be put together if you want the two pages to connect well. Thankfully, I decided not to dive into it for my first book.
How I’m actually gonna distribute and print it
Thanks to my experience ordering prints from a supplier, I could contact a printer directly and produce a first batch of books to distribute; But this would be quite an expense upfront.
While I’m not afraid of putting money into my art now, for a book it’s another story.
One thing to know about production is that the more you order the cheaper it gets, and it’s sadly true the other way around. From a traditional printer, a limited print of a books can cost a lot of money, on top of the upfront cost of the proofs (an unique copy that will allows you to spot potential mistakes) and the revisions.
But I still really want to hold a physical copy of what I've made, so I found another solution:
As this is my first trial at making a book and that I don’t want too much pressure on it (I’m doing this for fun right now! That’s not my job), I plan to instead put it on Amazon with their program Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
They used to have a waaay uglier website
In case you didn’t know, this allows you to publish a book on Amazon that will be distributed there, but a copy is only printed if someone actually orders the book. They put a lot of effort into printing single copies very cheap, so to me it allows for less risk and easier distribution (and it's less wasteful).
There are other printing services like this, but I’ll focus on this one for now as it’s the one with the most resources to learn and clear guideline for margins and formats. We will see how it goes!
Needless to say we are not there yet, and I’ll give you the PDF anyway before it even hits the store. I just wanted to share some of my thought process for now!
Before you go!
Sorry for my rambling, I hope it was interesting for some of you :D
To end this issue I just wanted to show you some fall colors from Krakow, the city I'm living in 🍂 It's really beautiful these days!
Thank you for reading ! See you next week when we will almost be done with the illustrations for the book :)
