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 😉
Here is the full page. Not quite satisfied with their faces in the bottom part. But will finish and then possibly do again.
Happy 1st of May!
I finally got over my creative block, related to my book project, AND I fixed page 2 which had been bugging me for the last 3 months! So far I am quite happy with the result.
Here is a sneak peak of the work in progress.
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!
This week I feel like I have been all over the place. New uploads to my Etsy shop, book illustrations, people drawing…. And nothing really got finished… Oh well..
At least I haven’t spilled any ink today…
What’s next?
This is another test page. Trying to figure out the overall style I want to have….
I have inked some more pages since doing this that I am more happy with. Still need to scan them. So watch this space.
Happy Monday!
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.
Rendered another book page. I like how it turned out but after having rendered a few other pages this one does not fit in the overall style. so I will have to redo it.
Do you like the composition?
Still working on this page. After some feedback changed it from the previous one, to the one below. Definitely an improvement but not quite there yet. What do you think?
More doggies. I had so many ups and downs this past week. One day was great and I was all happy about my book progress and the next I felt like I cannot draw a single line and I should give up then and there. Quite a rollercoaster. And the progress is slow. I am seriously considering to start going digital after this. It will certainly be quicker. On the other hand, having ink stains on my hands is also fun….
But I ran out of paper and now I cannot find the same paper in the art supply shop anymore… bummer. Will do another shopping spree tomorrow to see what I can find. Until then, happy weekend!
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.
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.
Melanie Franz 