Just got a reminder from WordPress about this blast from the past. The last children’s picture book I published.
Back then I had so much fun with the paper cut outs that I was eager to make another one. But then the baby started to walk at 10 months old and life as we knew it (aka peace and quiet) was over forever…
Check out the full book here on Amazon.
I have been working obsessively on a book project the last couple of weeks, to the point where I forgot to even post here. Meanwhile Etsy shut down my shop for no apparent reason…
Also we had a lot of sunny days, so I am using any hiking opportunity I can get.
Here is a first sneak peak of the main characters.
Or maybe please dooooo….
I am still on hold with my book project. Instead of finishing it I started working on the next story in this collection and hired an editor. So with the second story starting to get more shape, I think it is time to finish the last missing illustrations of the first story. If you have no idea what I am talking about… well, meet Madame Woof Woof. The main character for my upcoming children’s book.
Illustrations are 80 % done, after that it will be picture editing and type setting which is a whole new skill as well that I am trying to get better at… I will certainly not get bored. Stay tuned! 🙂
Here we go. It still needs some retouching and editing but this is the raw version for now. And of course the text is missing.
What do you think? Comments and criticism more than welcome.
I will let it rest for now and tackle some of the other book pages I am still unhappy about. Or I procrastinate and draw some more random animals for my Etsy shop... tempting! I am adding new designs daily. Go and check them out 😉
After a short East break I am back on the drawing table. After a break it always takes me a bit to warm up again. So I spent about 2 hours sketching and inking people. I am still on my way to 100. Currently at 76…
Not sure if these two below count. Maybe they should! They are part of a page from my book project . Keep walking and talking…
Hoot hoot! 🙂 Quite happy how this owl turned out.
For this page I thought I will try to put the whole image together digitally after drawing all the individual parts. I couldn’t make the page work with the first rendering, plus I had spilled some ink, so I decided to try it this way instead of starting with the full page all over again. One of the biggest challenges when drawing traditionally it the lack of the CTRL + Z shortcut….
Do I have fun drawing traditionally? Definitely. Would it be easier to do it all digitally? Most likely.
Do you prefer digital or traditional drawing?
Let’s see what will happen.
Here is a close up, sneak peak, of another page I just finished. The original sketch for this page was completely different, I had the book dummy and layout, did the drawing and rendering and half way through I gave up, twice actually, as I simply couldn’t make the drawing work. So I then completely change the whole page around from a close up to a high angle perspective… Not 100% sure yet whether I like it or not… I might redo it again.
I guess these are the micro despairs along the way, crawling slowly uphill from the pit of despair (see picture below.)
Another page sketch ready to be inked today. Although I still need to tweak a few bits and pieces.
Another page almost finished for my upcoming children’s book. It will be total 32 pages and I think almost finished are about half of them. So expect more progress shots coming up.
The biggest part eventually will be the scanning and editing of the images. But that is for next month. Goal for this is to finish most of the drawings.
Have a great weekend!
I am currently working on illustrating a children’s book that I have written. Inspired by our loveable and sometimes silly black family Labrador and why she sometimes barks at night.
After a lot of ups and downs the last months and being stuck in the Hendrix’s pit pf despair for what felt like an eternity (see image below), I have been on a great climb for the last week! And I have been really enjoying it!
I am trying to make the most out of the current momentum and therefore have been drawing the last couple of nights. Sleep deprivation is a small price to pay to get out of the pit I guess.
Do you know about this long project arc? Have you been there?
I am currently redrawing the frog page which I have posted previously. The first rendering does not fit the overall style of the other illustrations anymore and I wanted to tweak the composition a bit. I can really get lost in the hatching now. It is rather soothing.
Super windy today. So this drawing fits the mood perfectly. Madame Woof Woof also feels like curling up.
Drawing for my upcoming children’s book titled Madame Woof Woof.
So I spent the last month working on my book. It took me a while to actually figure out the final style that I wanted to go for. Now I kind of figured that out.
Next I am still in the process of tweaking some of the compositions. I liked the initial sketches and all but now that I am doing the fully rendered pages, I feel that some of them fall flat.
The story is about Madame Woof Woof, a black Labrador, and all the different reasons of why she barks at night.
More doggy sketches on this sunny day. Currently my illustration process alternates each day from “I love it” to “I hate it all and I cannot draw shit..!” I suppose that is normal? Either way, I decided to push trough and get all the pages done by the end of this month. So watch this space.
As you might guess from the sketches, Mouse´s favourite past time beside eating and running around is napping. I mean, dogs sleep 12-14 hours per day. I am pretty much envious at this point as I have been sleep deprived for a month.
I have been pretty much drawing dog after dog, exploring different poses and especially sleeping positions. Dogs can look too funny while sleeping.
I was stuck with my book dummy and some of the spot illustrations I wanted to add. So now I have a huge number of sketches from which I will pick my favourite ones.
Actually it’s supposed to be character sketches for the same dog 🙂 I mentioned previously a book I am working on. So this is it. The original idea started 2 years ago with the first sketches, and it has been brewing ever since. As I am not a writer it took me a bit to put the story together and to have it professionally edited.
Since getting into illustration, I realized that for many illustrators it’s a race to the bottom with some authors not willing to pay more than dumping prices. So I decided I would rather do my own stories and illustrate them. I know that marketing will be the hardest part, but I will deal with that later.
Anyhow, since I started working on this book I have been coming up with multiple other story ideas, so there will be no shortage of ideas to explore once I am done with it.
Inspiration for the story is Mausi (Mouse, yep, what started as a nick name when she was little became her actual name.), my sister’s adorable Labrador. She is gentle, loveable, cheeky and a bit gaga at times, especially when it comes to water and sticks.
Have been seriously under the weather today. Bed and movie day it is. Meanwhile, grab you free ebook of What’s the Weather picture book until midnight today here.
Going to by a sled today for the little one. There is a decent amount of snow already and hopefully we will get more.
Meanwhile grab your free ebook of What´s the Weather here. Or get the print version of the picture book.
Have a great weekend!
Beautiful sunshine and everything is white. Good start for winter I would say.
We haven´t build a snowman yet, but it is definitely on the to do list.
Meanwhile you can get your free What’s the Weather ebook here! It will be available for free download until the 26th. Just happy to share. Of course the paper version is also available.
Have a great weekend!
First snow arrived, just on time for my daughters birthday and the What’s the Weather book release!
The project came to life when I had a creative blog and bought a bunch of colourful paper last spring. The dining room table was covered in paper and glue for about a month I think. The results can be seen here in this very colourful picture book for 1-3 years old.
It not only helped me through my creative block, but it is also a fun way to go through the seasons and different kind of weather.
Vertical snow fall is rare in Iceland. It usually hits you horizontally. Just like that. This is an almost accurate depiction of me going to the car today.
Melanie Franz 