Judging a cover by it's illustrator.

In 2009 I created and wrote a children's book. This was not the first concept for a children's book that I had ever conceived; in truth I have had many. However, it is the first that I believed would be easier to bring to fruition. The premise is simple, the story cute and, if all goes according to plan, both parent and child might even learn something at the end. How could it miss?

In August of 2010, while on vacation I worked on the illustrations for the book and told myself that I would have all of them completed before December so that I could start sending it off to publishers. Above is one of the actual original concept drawing for the cover page of the book, featuring the primary character. It was drawn with pencil and colored with Primacolors. As you can see, it is unfinished. That is because I am one of the great procrastinators of our time.

Still, I'm kind of glad that I did not finish the illustrations while on vacation. Wanna know why? Because, If I am honest with myself, although cute, those illustrations were lackluster and probably did not contain my best efforts. Plus, I truly was not ready to submit to a publisher. At the time I was not clear on all that goes into making a children's book. I hadn't taken the time to educate myself completely on the process.

Now, although not a pro by any means of the definition, I believe I now know what it takes to get my story published. I now know how many pages a typical children's book contains. I have all of my illustrations penciled. I have completed the *dummy book. I have completed three colored originals and I think I have refined my manuscript and cover letter. Now I just have to make some copies and seek out publishers.

I am starting this blog in order to share my journey; the things that I have learned. Any rejections I might receive in the process. Any success I might obtain along the way. The joy of creating in itself.

I will post some of the original pictures. Sketches, both good and bad. Even things that I drew on envelopes when I was trying to capture a movement, position or facial expression. Every hit and miss I have keep with eventually make it's way here.

You will get to see pencil drawing with errors. Then you will see them again as they are cleaned and inked. Then on to the finished color copy. Plus you will see the different incarnation of the main character, Littlephont. Pronounced, Little-font. I'll share with you the story of how Littlephont got his name, since he didn't originally have once since it was not germane to the story, tomorrow.

Anyway, come back and visit me. Hopefully I can do this and finish adding color and ink to the illustrations at the same time. We shall see.

E.W. Forge (Somebody told me the other day that my first two initials spell "ew" forge. How rude, but I kind of like it.)

*(A dummy book is a simply a sample copy of the book allow the viewer to see the placement of the illustrations and text in order to see if the layout works.)