As I was preparing all my products for my Etsy and online shops, the photography was the most stressful part due to how mind-numbingly ignorant I am about the whole process. I bought a light tent (after going through 3 or 4 made of cardboard and tissue paper), read a bunch of forums, and finally began feverishly photographing all my items.  I was never remotely happy with the photographs of any of my flat products…especially the bookmarks. As you can see, they are washed out, full of glare, and in an odd angle. In fact, every time I looked at them I felt a bit nauseous.

Today I realized how silly I had been! With a large-format, super neat scanner sitting right there in the corner, why on earth was I messing around with white balance and tents?

So in about two minutes, I scanned all of my bookmarks, where they came out perfect with no tweaking at all. Hooray!

Old Photo

New Scan

Inking watercolor illustrations has always been a frustrating experience for me, since I use textured paper and the pens invariably get stuck in every nook and cranny or else wobble over all the bumpy bits, making it look like I was drawing while hopped up on Pixy Stix… or worse (Jumbo Pixy Stix). One of my amazing professors at SCAD had talked to us about printing line art onto his pieces, then coloring on top of them, so I decided to see if it would work for watercolors by printing directly onto my Arches watercolor paper with my Epson R2880′s K3 inkset.

The results were perfect! Other than the fact that I printed the line art at an awful DPI, it looked just like the original and did not react to the water in any way. I don’t think this method would work with your average printer. You need one that can:

1. Handle thick, textured watercolor paper and
2. Print with archival, waterproof ink.

The Epson R2880 and the K3 inks fit the bill! Here’s the sample–

I chose some line art with large black areas as well as texture and open areas, to see how the paint interacted with each. Then I put on some color, and scrubbed certain areas to see if the ink came off. No problems! Now you can potentially ink pieces on deliciously smooth Bristol board, and transfer it to the watercolor paper without hyperventilating. And even better, you can draw it in black and color the lines digitally without having to sell your cat to buy every color and width of micron pen!  NEAT.

Try it out!

I wrote a post a while ago about using Lulu to create a children’s book dummy. I was really pleased with the quality and affordability of my dummy book, so I’ve gone to Lulu for another project.

Chronicle Books is my favorite independent book publisher, and the third Monday of each month they are open for full portfolio reviews. I’ve been meaning to apply for months now, but I didn’t want to send in the usual Itoya black portfolio with letter-sized printouts. I love Itoya– just wanted a change, y’know? I decided to use Lulu.com again with the same options I chose for my dummy book. I set up this portfolio layout in InDesign, and ordered the book last week. It arrived pretty quickly!

I’m really happy with the quality of my new printed portfolio, and I’ll have no qualms about sending it in to Chronicle. I only wish I could swap out images when I have updates without ordering a whole new book!

If you’re interested in making your own portfolio book at Lulu, for reference I chose the paperback perfect-bound option in an 8.5″ square. I think the glue of perfect-binding looks a lot nicer than the stapled books. (And it costs the same.) You have to have at least 32 pages for perfect binding, but I found that using mostly one image per spread (16-20 illustrations) made the book flow nicely and not appear cluttered.

P.S. My printer arrived as scheduled and is AMAZING! I’ve been testing it out and will write more about it soon. Hooray!

I’ve been working on some new notecard designs which I thought I’d post– some new fruit bats and adorable snails. I like to take a break from painting to work digitally sometimes, as I feel I can focus more on the lines and characters without having the watercolors overtake things. I’m also working on painting The Deer and the Snail. Hooray!

Where have I been? MOVING. It was hectic and awful, but it’s now all over and I am safely in Miami, Florida.

My blog updates have been woefully lacking, not just from the move but also because all the work I have been doing has been your basic logos and things– nothing too exciting! I do have a few sketches to show now, however. Heck, I’ll even show some of the less glamorous stuff I’ve been doing.

I’m working on a painting for a woman in Canada, for a baby’s room. It’s based on a Filipino folktale called “The Deer and the Snail.” It’s pretty much the Rabbit and the Tortoise… but with, you know, a deer and the snail. Snails are freaking awesome, so this will be a lot of fun.

Next up is another foray into international illustration. WTS Productions in Britain needed an update to their poster for “Father Christmas and the Magic Fir Cone.” A girl and the forest creatures discover a magical fir cone, but a nasty black cat and Baba Yaga want to steal it for themselves. Oh no!! I believe the story is based on a Russian folktale.

Like I said, I’ve also been doing a lot of pretty simple, quick jobs for people. This is the kind of bread and butter work I’ve been doing to practice various skills and just keep making money as I seek out the big jobs.

Mascot Design of girls with lollipops. This is my attempt at, um, “sassy.”

Green Goddess Logo, which is still in progress as the client is out-of-state.

Golden Beet Yoga Logo Design

Tattoo design – Client wanted a Meeple (from Carcassonne) riding a catfish in the style of those Koi tattoos you see all over the place. This was ridiculous and fun, and a good way to brush up on my Photoshop skills.

This was a really small painting for a client who wanted to “look toward the future” after some life issues. She wanted absolutely nothing weird in it, so it might not resemble my usual work.

I’ve been working with the ladies at Art Beast, a nonprofit children’s center for homeless kids. They needed a mascot/logo for their organization, and it was a lot of fun working with them to create the perfect beast.

The original sketches. They liked number two, so we went with it with some revisions (simplification, etc)

Some of the colors we contemplated (we ended up with a combination of these for the final one, though!)

We ended up going with this beast, but they also wanted a version with texturing, which spawned this guy….

Thank you John Foerster for the demo on texturing in Illustrator!

Phew! It was quite a process, but a lot of fun.

Though I have absolutely zero experience with vinyl toys, I couldn’t resist joining in when I heard the SCAD Illustration club was doing a Munny show. (Actually, I couldn’t resist when I heard that the Munnys were half off!) We are to paint a Munny and make a 12″ illustration to go along side it for a show.

The Munnys finally came in today and we had a super fun time trading the random accessories that came with them. I started out with a wrench, shuriken, beard, and lightning bolt… and ended up with a poop, another poop, another poop, and a teddy bear. Sweet!

I have no idea what to make, but have been trying to tell myself “No cats…no cats…no cats…no cats…!” How will I resist though, with three poops right there for a litter box? Hmmm..

Here he/she is in all his/her blank glory (and really awful lighting):

If you guys have any idea on what it should become feel free to comment!

Hooray for a sketch I am actually happy with! (And extreme pear-shaped bodies!) I said earlier that I wanted to do an editorial piece for my portfolio based on a magazine article I found. Well… I didn’t find a magazine article, but I think this piece could still make people think it might have been used in a magazine. (Society’s portrayal of women and the uh, double-standards of leg-shaving? Or something? Please?)

Anyway, I had originally drawn Medusa shaving for a Vector Illustration class skateboard design. But it sucked and I still liked the idea, so here goes try number two.

I’d like to paint a scene from each chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland… and I started kinda in the middle. (Couldn’t resist the Gryphon…)

“So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large eyes full of tears, but said nothing.

`This here young lady,’ said the Gryphon, `she wants for to know your history, she do.’

`I’ll tell it her,’ said the Mock Turtle in a deep, hollow tone: `sit down, both of you, and don’t speak a word till I’ve finished.’

So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to herself, `I don’t see how he can even finish, if he doesn’t begin.’ But she waited patiently.

`Once,’ said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, `I was a real Turtle.”

-Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

(Please note I am in no way “in league” Lulu… I just want to save my fellow artists some stress when it comes to picture book dummies!)

The Problem

In the children’s publishing world, it seems like one of the major stresses for an author/illustrator is putting together the sacred dummy book. The dummy book is what an editor looks through to see pacing, artistic skills, style, design– it’s no surprise that trying to make the perfect dummy could set anyone into a panic! So before I ever set my pencil to paper, I scoured the internet for ever scrap of information I could find on creating a dummy book.

I was surprised to discover that the most stressful part of dummy book creation seemed not to be the actual drawing and placement of perfect text and image, but the construction of the dummy book itself! The steps involved included gluing, cutting, sewing, folding, pagination, not to mention hours spent at places like Kinko’s trying to get everything printed properly. Making a picture book seemed to me to be a time-consuming and expensive ordeal, and when you factor in sending out multiple copies and the recent policy that some publishers don’t return any materials… I felt I would be doomed to a life of never-ending cutting and gluing.

The Solution

During a course I took on Book Illustration, we were required to print a copy of our book to turn in to class. Most of the class turned to Lulu.com, because it was a quick and inexpensive way to have a copy of a book printed.

Thus an idea formed in my head: Why not print dummy books using Lulu? I hadn’t seen this mentioned during the hours I spent scouring the internet, so I decided to ask the wonderfully helpful Blueboarders for their input. The response I received was to stay away from Lulu because publishers would then think my book was “Self-Published.” Considering Lulu’s web page title says “Lulu.com – Self Publishing – Free,” I can definitely understand that response. If a publisher thought the dummy was a published book, they certainly would not want to publish it themselves!

However, I think people misunderstand Lulu. Yes, its main purpose is to help authors self-publish their books, but that is not all it does. Buying an ISBN number and putting the book on Amazon is an option, but not a requirement. It is perfectly possible to print a copy just for yourself with nobody else but the Lulu printer ever seeing it. You can make it private so that it will never go into the marketplace and absolutely nobody will be given an option to buy or even look at it. People print personal photo albums on Lulu this way. It’s the same as if you took it to Kinko’s for printing, just easier. There’s no requirement to place their logo anywhere on the book either, so there is really no way for someone to look at your book and think it was published or even know where you printed it.

Another response I got is that a book printed by Lulu would look “too professional.” This is a really valid fear that again goes back to the book looking “published,” but I don’t think it needs to be a worry:

• First of all, since it is a dummy it will be comprised of black and white sketches. You’re just showing the editor your vision of the book, so there is no need for it to contain finished work. Any finished sample you have can be attached as a tearsheet for the editor to keep.
• Secondly, you don’t need to get fancy with the binding. Yes, the “Perfect” binding does look extremely professional, but there is an option to staple bind the book like a comic, which looks good without looking “published.”

So you’ll have a nicely made black and white (with a color cover if you’d like, since this is included in Lulu’s price) staple-bound dummy with nothing but your lovely sketches in it.

The Kicker

Besides the time-consuming aspects of making your dummy by hand, one extremely good reason to go with Lulu is the price. I ordered seven 7.5″x7.5″ black and white staple bound dummies from Lulu for a total, including shipping, of around $45. That’s only $6.40 per book, (Each book was approx $5.20 before shipping) without any cutting, printing, or sewing from my end. All I had to do was set up the book as a PDF and upload to Lulu. Simple! And if (eek!) your dummy never makes it back to you, the loss is bearable. Though it would be infinitely nicer if the dummy never made it back because of a book deal…

My Dummy

Here are some pictures of my Lulu dummy books for my story “The Three Little Kittens.” They are 7.5″ square, color cover with b&w interior, staple-bound, and approx $5.20 for 32 pages.

Front Cover of Dummy

Inside Spread of Dummy

Back Cover of Dummy

Staple Binding of Dummy

Next I will go over how to make a dummy and submit it to Lulu. Stay Tuned