Rookie Errors
Something started to happen.
But it was not what I had planned.
That first draft of my second book, that I ‘completed’ back in July? Turns out I had committed an enormous, faintly ridiculous, rookie error.
When Will, my book designer, mocked up the book, either the characters were lodged right the way down the gutter (that middle bit where you can’t see anything…) OR there were two great big spaces at the sides of the image.
I had painted most pages in completely the wrong size/ratio for the book shape I’m after – a square that will match ‘Samuel and the Monster‘.
Oops.
Dozens of pages and weeks’ worth of work were rendered completely worthless.
No bueno.
Thankfully, Will came up with clever solutions for a handful of the pages, but still a good half a dozen still remained for me to rectify/repaint and, of course, they are all just happen to be the more detailed scenes.
Deep breath.
What was it Samuel said in ‘Samuel and the Monster’? Oh yes:
I can do this.
So I cracked on.
One scene, where the fruit are in a greenhouse, I repainted entirely and, happily, it has improved substantially in repainting.
Friend and mentor, Shazia, suggested I sketch paint four mini drafts of the scene, a warm up exercise which really helped hone the details for the more daunting, large version.
I am still working on the next scene, cutting out characters that I liked from the original, repainting a few more and completely redoing the background – widening the whole thing to fit onto two pages, without the gaps.
So far, so time consuming!
Next up this week: finish some bunting to jazz up a gathering and paint a large number of small furry creatures to bulk out one of the final scenes…
Onwards!
