A New Sketchbook, and a Daughter's Request

Been off this blog for a while (although I've been keeping up with the lunch notes). The main reason is that I've been working on something, potentially for a publisher, so I can't post anything yet for copyright reasons – not a bad thing. But, in the meantime, I finally broke in the new sketchbook that Santa dropped off in my stocking this year. While I was sketching, my three-year-old asked me to do a drawing of a ghost. After I did that, she asked for a scared dog. How can you say no to a three-year-old? Well, in a case that doesn't involve running with scissors or playing with Mr. Wall Socket, that is.

After, she asked me to draw the "dog rectangles." It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but I eventually realized she was talking about the thick dashed motion lines from the Frog Prince book I did for her. So the second one is the dog running away, rectangle style.

The Woodcutter Story: Several Problems Resolved

This isn't a post about new art per se, although some of that comes into it. It's more about composition and consistency.

In the Frog Prince book, one of the things I liked most about doing it were the split-screen pages, like this one:

But, because of the way the story went, I didn't really have an opportunity to use something similar for the Woodcutter story. But this kind of bugged me. All the pages seemed so... flat. Granted, all pages are, but it was especially noticeable in this one because of the style of art and how little action happens on some of the pages.

In particular, this page caused the most problems:

It doesn't seem like it would, but it did. Because it's just him standing there. So I got it to where I was happy enough with it, and decided to continue on with other ones. Then, as I was moving along, I got to page 17 (which I'll show in a bit).

On that page, I had to show the bad woodcutter throwing his axe in the water, while at the same time he was pretending to cry. In any other style, I could make this work in a square format. But since the (self-imposed) restraints on the style of this book means I can't use shading, perspective, etc., I was stuck with a composition that was hopelessly horizontal.

The problem was solved, of course, if I could break it up like the Frog Prince story. But I hadn't done anything like that so far, so it would look weird in the context of the book, even if I liked it by itself.

Then I remembered the problem page. If I broke that up, along with its companion page, I'd get this in earlier, and fix the page that was bugging me. Here are the two new versions:

And here's the new one that forced me to overcome the composition problem:

They all look similar here, but in the book they'll be separated by a number of pages, like the split-screen ones in the Frog Prince. The only thing I miss in the silver axe page is that I showed the tree he was standing under in the original version. I liked it, but it couldn't carry the whole page, so out it went.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

The last page of the Frog Prince! Now all I have to do is print up a copy for her. Or several, after seeing the fate of the Happy ABCs.

One thing I never mentioned. The reason I dressed Princess Moy Moy the way I did is because that's how Arianna likes to pretend to be a princess. She has a big pink bath towel that she wraps around herself, and sways back and forth saying "priiiincess." That's also why Moy Moy's dress has an empire waist - Arianna always holds it up high like that!

Or Maybe This

Just in case the Prince looked like he should have a big gold chain to go with that open shirt, I changed his collar. Here's the new version. I figured I'd leave the old one up on the previous post, just for comparison. I'd welcome any input – anyone have a preference for one or the other?

Not Too Much More Frog Prince

Not too much left to go, at any rate. Down to all but the last page!

Page 21 is a good example of something I would change if this were to move to an actual book format. Currently, it's 22 pages (which allows me another 2 for title page, or, in other words, a 24-page book. All books have to be in multiples of 4, because of the way they are printed). A typical picture book is 32 pages, so I'd need to add another 10 to fill it out. Which is why I'd change page 21 – I could easily break that into 2 pages, if I weren't concerned about finishing this before Arianna is too old to appreciate it (say, at 2 and 3/4 years old. Hey wait, she's narrowing in on that now!). The transformation could be one page, and his explanation the next.

Other places to split pages would be when she answers the door. If I weren't trying to keep the current page count down, I'd have made that it's own page. I could also make Princess Moy Moy's first appearance in the garden a two-page spread, as another example, as well as her running back with the golden ball. But all of that is just a future possibility, I've got a child to hurry up and read to!

P.S. On my screen, it looks like the Prince has a yellow front to his shirt (i.e. the same color as the frog's belly). On Serena's screen, it looks like his shirt has a neckline that goes all the way down to his waist (she said all he was missing was chest hair). How does this look for other people? Should I make it more decidedly different from his skin tone, or does it look okay?

More Frog Prince

Up to page 18 – nearing the end! Only 4 pages to go.

The way I rendered her disgust with the frog sharing her pillow is a direct result of the previous comments. A little dramatic without breaking the style of the drawings. So all comments are welcome – they make a better book!

Ew, Yucky!

I got a comment on the last post, noting that Princess Moy Moy doesn't really show much disgust at the thought of the frog sharing her cup. And, for good or bad, that's true. I toned down everything, due to the art style and the age of my audience.

Which is not to say that it wouldn't be great fun to go all-out on the grossed-out expression, if this were in a different style. So, for my own amusement, I thought I'd do a more over-the-top version of the princess from page 15. It'll never make it into the book, but it was fun to draw!

Finally, More Frog Prince

Been away from this one too long, but that's what major home renovation will do to you.

Page 15 was a collaborative effort with my wife. She liked the drawing, but the expression on the princess' face just didn't say "Ew, yucky" to her. I thought about changing the expression by adding eyebrows, but it just didn't work. Then we came up with just changing the shape of the whites of her eyes, which is such a fun solution I may revisit some of the older ones to see if it would apply to any of them.

More Frog Prince

Arianna looks over my shoulder when I'm working on these, and from the sound of it she's likely to enjoy the book when it's finished. She recognizes herself and says "Princess Moy Moy!" over and over while I work. She also says she likes it! Good incentive to keep going.

Another good incentive is the feedback. Got a couple comments on the princess conceding to the frog on page 11, so I decided to change it (and update the picture) appropriately. Also, my wife reminded my that Arianna says "Ew, yucky!" a lot, and suggested that I add it to the princess' denials. So that made it into today's entry, as well as being backdated to the last one too.

More Frog Prince

Interludes upon interludes

And now, a short break from my short break from Hansel and Gretel. Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year (the year of the tiger) fall on the same day this year, so I just had to do a card that included both. I left it up on the computer so that my wife could find it this morning.

I would feel like I'm wasting the chance to market a perfectly good holiday card here, except for the tiny fact that the likelihood of the year of the tiger and Valentine's Day occurring together again is pretty small for the next century or so. But in 2110 or whenever, I'll be so ready with this card.

But I've been working on the Frog Prince as well, so I'll be back to interrupting Hansel and Gretel in no time.

More Frog Prince

The Frog Prince continued

The next three pages of the bedtime book. Working in this style has been really interesting for me. At first, it was maddening. I want shadows! I want dimension! I want perspective! But now that I'm half a dozen in, I'm getting into it. Especially as it's computer art, I can play with the composition more. I don't even bother to scan in sketches to draw from. I make each element, and then move them around, even more easily than if I'd used my sketchbook. Granted, for me at least, composing a picture in this way would only work with something rendered in this style. But it gives me a chance to make the compositions more creative, more so than if I had tried to paint it.

The other thing I've noticed helps with composition is saving it for the blog. As an icon, it's really small, so things like the composition, or flaws therein, stand out even more (in traditional art, I have to get this same effect by walking across the room from the painting, so I can see it at a distance).

This is working for my painting as well – since I've been scanning in the steps of the Hansel and Gretel piece, I get to see it in the same way. Ordinarily, it's would be too bothersome to scan in steps of a painting to check it out, but since I'm doing so anyway for the blog, it's just as helpful. In particular, when I posted the last version, I could see that the top leaf line of the trees is almost a straight line. I'll be adding more layers of foliage beneath it when I go back to working on it, but I'd never have noticed if I hadn't seen it in blog icon form.

Another (hopefully brief) Interlude

Every night, Arianna likes me to read Byron Barton's The Three Bears to her, and it's easy to see why. It's colorful. It's pithy. And it has enough repetition for a 2-year old to follow along and say it with me while I'm reading it. So we do so. Every. Single. Night.

Notwithstanding, it is a fun book, and my only complaint is that there aren't more fairy tale books like it. Barton has other books, but they're mainly cars, trucks, and dinosaurs. But I was wishing that there were more story books like that one.

And then I thought, I can fix that.

So here are the first three pages of my take, toddler-art style, on the Frog Prince, one of my favorites as a child:






It'll end up being a 24-page book in the end, at least in this version. If I tried to take it to a publisher, it would probably have to be 32 pages, but I'm comfortable with the length now. After all, it is to help put a 2-year old to sleep – no need to write a novel.