Always Deny the Apocolypse

"Always deny the apocalypse, John. You’ll usually be right, and when you’re wrong, no one will be left to say, 'I told you so.’”

A brilliant quote in an article I read on the evolution of technology and how it will effect reading in the future of our society. 


It is called:


The Future of Reading: Don't Worry. It might be better than you think. By John Green

and is a very intelligent ramble that comes from many directions at once and addresses them equally and satisfactorily. He compares the future of books to Youtube, which I found strange at first until he used examples, such as "Charlie Bit Me", to scare the hell out of me. Basically he predicted that it is likely that there will be billions of books with very few readers and very few books with billions of readers.

If one has explored the world of Youtube in depth they will discover that this analogy is very accurate. But in no way do these numbers equal the quality of which these videos or books are! I know for a fact that there are a number of videos out there that are worth viewing and they don't have the recognition. This is true for a number of websites as to how they operate. It is hard to find good/interesting things unless you dig, and often the ones with the most recognition will always pop up first, leaving other works that are either equally deserving--or more--of recognition in their big black shadows.

And it's scary. To think that we will be reduced to reading books of equal quality as this:

This is cute. Really. But I do not look forward to reading books that are of...THIS...'quality.

John Green then went on to address the importance of a story in relative to how Video Games and Blockbuster movies.

He makes an excellent point when saying when you read the the written word, a story, you are in a way making it your own. Either with how you imagine the characters or in the way you relate to it. It makes me wonder about children's picture books.

Am I cheap for wanting to express something without words? Do I take away that something which makes a connection between the story and the reader that make reading worth while? In one section Green compare the The Very Hungry Caterpillar with a book about a really cute dog. The title described exactly that, and I couldn't help but grimace at the idea that that book might be real. My Puppy Is Adorable and These Illustrations Prove It. UGH.

But does that lower the quality of my book? Yeah, the story kinda sucks, I got that...I don't really like the idea of writing an actual story....Ah well. But was it bad I focused on the illustrations? Was I focusing too much on myself rather than if the reader could understand the story?

I guess I should just accept people are going to interpret my book in different ways since there is no clear cut definition. I hope that is good enough.

God...I look back on these journals and I'm like "what do these have to do with my project again?" And then I read and I'm like "Oooooooh~" So all this did have a point. :D

Formatting A Children's Book Research

In searching for ways to put my book together I have found few options. Often it takes putting everything into a PDF file but no specifications on how.

http://taralazar.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/picture-book-construction-know-your-layout/

This article I read addresses some of those issues, but it goes more into how to make it visually appealing.

The article talks about balancing illustrations and the words, but also mentions examples of books with solely illustrations to tell the story.

This other article dictates why it is so hard to find things on formatting children's picture books. http://stason.org/TULARC/writing/misc-writing/1-6-How-do-I-format-a-picture-book-What-about-illustrations.html The reason being, that most people who submit children's books for publishing send in the text first and then get assigned an illustrator once the story is signed off.

This is frustrating.

What I will have to do is either mess around in page maker or make the physical book by hand. I'm feeling that this may be the better option now...

Sketching Progress

Did two sketches tonight. It's looking more more likely I'll finish the 12 pieces by May. Which is good.
In general, today was good. Inked two pieces (admittedly one had very little detail in the pen-work and most of it's coolness will come with the colors) and sketched 2 pieces. The ink was very mean to me. I have some clean up to do in photoshop before I can start coloring one of the pieces. Hopefully I will completely transfer them to the final paper so I can work on them over the weekend tomorrow. I have a field trip this Friday to a Print Workshop, which should be fun and interesting but probably won't help with my project. I guess I can use it as "research". Different prospective mediums to use for illustrating a book and all that.

In other news, I have finally looked at pictures of squirrels and learned how to draw them properly. I googled them 7th period and did 5 quick sketches. Which is really the only way to learn. According to Miss Gergley, this counts as Research. Which is awesome. I shall do a journal soon dedicated solely to how I use google to get a general idea of what I want to draw.  :D

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw....Blasted little buggers are in my ceilings. GO AWAY.

But the purpose of this is to learn how to draw them, which I have (Hurrah!) and now I have to learn to draw kangaroos and then draw a cross between the two which is adorable and terrifying at the same time. Of course I may just go with a giant squirrel. Hmmmm...Things to ponder.

Weekly Review 5

How much time did you spend on your project?
I spent 5 hours on hands-on and 3 on journals and another 2 on research.

What did you do for hands-on?

Finished a page (inked) and finished a sketch (will be inked by the end of today).

What Research did you do?
I was lent a book by Marley (The Fantasy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible) read through that.
Looked through the website Write Fuzzy to investigate their publishing. Not for me.

Looked through Imagisnism Studio's art collection. Inspirational illustrations that are along a similar style I'm trying to grasp (but without the immense detail).

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
I did, it was brief. Just reminded me to go meet with some people she suggested. As well as making sure I had an idea of how I was going to go through with things (schedule.)

Were you in class this week?
Indeed. Shared a bit for show and tell and brought in some research for Jackie. Though borrow the book, she looked through it and was apparently helpful

What do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was?
Actually doing my journal entries this week instead of slacking. I did do the work the previous week, I just didn't write about it. I did some some back up journals, and made up for them.

What are your plans for next week?   
Get most of the sketches done if not all. Ink what I can.Talk to some people from the Family Reading Partnership to get an interview. Could actually do that this week....hmmmmmm. Figure out color schemes too.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaand 

Be happy. Indeed.

Imaginism Studios

The way that I see it, this studio...is awesome. I've been following their blogs and stuff through a website for a few years now, and it's incredible just how amazing they are. The main guy I think his name is Bobby Chu. The studio is Toronto Canada. I feel like all these amazing artist are in Canada.

Like ktshy (internet name). Her stuff is brilliant and awesome. Check it out. http://ktshy.deviantart.com/

Or like Bryan Lee O'malley who wrote the comic book sensations Scott Pilgrim! Also incredible....and Canadian...

But to the point. Imaginism Studios...they are just too cool. I mean...look at his stuff!!

It's APPA. Who doesn't love Appa? (And for those who are unaware, Appa is a flying bison from the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. But how could you not know that?)

This is titled "Beam Me Up Scotty" What's not to love?

Winnie the Pooh Winnie the Pooh...Cuddly Fuzzy...What are the words?

They also have did the designs for a good number of the characters from the Alice In Wonderland movie from last year! I'm not exactly a big fan of the movie, but the visuals were indeed incredible.

Sooooooooooooo detailed...Just looking at the art is so motivational. I don't know what to do with myself...I've seen over live-streaming videos works in progress come to life with incredible detail that seems effortless...it's scary!

Bobby Chu does these online classes where he gives a topic out over his feed and people have to draw it in a hour or two. Limited time frame is the point. And then he chooses which one he likes and he'll give them a the piece he was working on at that time as well. Sometimes it will be guest artists who are well known for the their styles in movies and such. They've had Chris Sanders who was worked on Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, and others I can't remember. (But that last one blew me away.) Oh and the guy who directed/designed for Ice Age. Meh. But anyway, there is a huge following...it's great..:P

Here's the Blog! http://imaginismstudios.blogspot.com/

And this is so brilliant as well...

Well...Good night. :)

Write Fuzzy Research (Not Fuzzy Publishing)

Now THAT is Awesome. Who wouldn't want to read a book with a whale and a little boy holding hands/fins?

This is really important. This is just an image from one of the pages on Write Fuzzy's Website.

And so is this.

I'm kinda scared of this.

So let me explain. Write Fuzzy is independent publishing company that focuses in children's books (poetry and picture books) that they choose through a process that is sorta like, "Wow. This is awesome. Who wrote this? Whoa, I'll never forget it. Let's publish it for them." :D With much smiles and giggles.

This was suggested for me to check out by friend of mine, which I thank her dearly for. But this doesn't seem to be the way for me. I don't think they have a slot opening for submissions for children's books anytime soon (there is for poetry from what I understand). So it still looks like it's Lulu for me.

  Also it seems most of the children's books are written by this Derrick Brown and illustrated by some else...meh.

In Other Fabulous News...

Finished with inking that second page. Which isn't really the second page because I'm not doing these in chronological order at the moment....Perhaps later.

BUT. Here it is.

I think it looks pretty snazzy.

As I was looking at it though, I thought to my self, "Hmmmm...I should add some building in the background over the treeline."

And if that isn't a great idea, I don't know what is. But we'll see if that actually ever happens.

In other fabulous news (heh, my title) I was flipping through the book Marley has lent me and it brings to attention my need for a color pallet. Hurrah. I have one page that actually has color. But will those colors work for other pages is the question? I will find out in a month. Need to have 12 pages complete No matter what. :/

Looks super cheery right? I love it. For serious. My brother doesn't like the dragon's colors though....hmmmmmmm. I'll probably ignore him.

But as I was saying, the book Marley lent me brings to attention the importance of a color pallets and the importance of how I want to color the piece. I probably will finish this with simple shading, but I have to keep value in mind as well (contrasting colors, lights dark, the works). It also has some neat tips on character design.

Now I need to get moving.

He Ran Away

Barry Deustch...Ran away. But that doesn't mean I didn't get some useful information!

Basically I went to his presentation (which was fabulously amusing) and then he was like "I see there are cartoonist in the audience, so feel free to come speak to me." And I was so going to go over, but then a friend asked me a question about AP Art. When I was done...he had his backpack on and sped out of the class room and I was like:







Yeah....Well anyway, I discovered that Mr. Deutsch and I had a lot in common. Such a procrastination. Best thing EVER.

Not really, but it's nice to know that I'm not alone.

His methods of completing pages using his Wacom Tablet (See Here) was cool but nothing I hadn't seen before. I really enjoyed his humore though! :)  Anywho, he apparently also has issues with completing work. I'm not sure if this is a trait of artists or just lazy people...probably the later. Which is bad. ah well.
Now back to doing work for this project.

Book Printing Research

So, I've been looking at alternatives to Lulu.com.

Don't get me wrong, I think Lulu is really cool, but 60 dollars for a book? My book? A little frustrating.

It's not even that it is the publishing costs. For self publishing, there are no costs. It is the printing that cost 60 dollars. My book is going to be on high quality paper, hard cover (jacket?), in color, and in a large format. I don't really have a choice with some of these...but I didn't realize that the books were so expensive!

So I looked at some other publishing websites.

http://dogearpublishing.net/default.aspx Dog Ear Publishing seems to be a good alternative. At lulu, I sort of have to get Hardcover if I want full color and stuff. But here, the website professes to have paper back full color, which seems to be a bit more affordable. They don't have an easy calculator like Lulu, so the price is a little fuzzy...but I'd like to think it could be cheaper.

http://diggypod.com/index.html Diggy Pod Printing also seems promising. They have a calculator as well, but they don't seem to provide as many services as Lulu or the Dog Ear Publishing. I used the calculator, and being as cheap as possible, I am able to get my book to cost about $14. Awesome right? Well...wrong! In order for me to get any copy, I have to order a minimum of 24. HELL. NO. That's like over $300. Hahahah...ha.

And the largest book format they have is 8.5 x 11. Yeah...not so much.

But back to Dog Ear, the more promising one: it has a section in which it compares to other self publishing sites. http://dogearpublishing.net/whydogearcomparison_lulu.aspx The one for Lulu is informative and helpful. It says for designers, who only want to print a few copies, it is ideal.

This sounds like a promising recommendation. I have no delusions that anyone will actually buy my book. I had originally intended to possibly do about 10 copies that I could give to friends, but for $60 a book, that is not going to happen.

I admit I am cheap, but whatever.

Anyway, the writer of this comparison goes on to compare profits and such (and since I am not actually selling the book this has no relevance to me).

So, It seems to me like Lulu is still the best option as far as Self Publishing goes. Dog Ear Publishing seems to not be free publishing and more geared towards profit for the author than a single nice copy of a work.

Still have yet to compare to big Publishing Companies. Hmm... I don't even know the names of any. Next Research section decided.

Lulu Research

Lulu...is cool.

For those who do not know, Lulu.com is a self Publishing website. It lets the author choose all the stuff. Yeeeeeep.

I really thought I would be lost.

At first I had NO idea what to do. I'm doing a children's book. Does that make it a different category? Does that put it under a photo book? GAAAAAAAaah.

And then...I watched a tutorial video. It made me smile. It was so eaaaaaaasy. I still wasn't sure what category a children's book would be under but....you know....Whatever. I decided to mess around. And you know what?

This...is one cool website.

I know, I know. Already said. I just needed to emphasize.

I was all worried about the cover design. Turns out they got an app for that. FOR REAL.

It's sooooo colorful.

Anyway, I went through the process of starting a project and got all the way up to the place I am supposed to upload my files. Of course I don't have any at this time so...eh.

So here are the facts:

•  Free publishing (you pay only when a print is ordered) On copy of my book will cost about $60 for 40 pages. YIKES
• I set the price and if anyone else buys it...I get 80% profit. What I set the price to...I dunno. Would anyone buy the book? Probably not. I'll just make the one copy.
• Cover Designs are easy. 
• Have to use InDesign or Adobe Acrobat to set up pages.
• After the Book is completed and officially published it can be shipped in 5-15 business days. 

This is cool. Though there may be something different about how soon I can get it after I finish it.

This little research made me think about something.

I don't have a title for my story. I need to get on that.

Next up: Compare to Publishing Companies.

Leo Lionni Research

For you Gwen.

So, Leo Lionni has been recommended to me, by my lovely sister. :)

And to tell the truth, I thought I had no idea who he was. But now that I have seen his books....I REMEMBER!!!

Though I don't remember the stories, his style is burned in my mind. Here, have a video!

I feel as though I am Frederick....HE is poet and he knows it. :D Though....I'm not a poet.

And this one is very good too...:)

Inspirational works are very important...:D