Circus tent interior -- Burro tightrope walker

To think that I will turn this rough sketch into a finished illustration is mind boggling.

Starlight Goodbye for Betty and Jimmy

This is another version of Jimmy and Betty saying goodbye on the beach. In the background the Ferris wheel and circus tents are supposed to be brightly lit, but I can see that they need some help. Note to self: they seem to be the right size when they’re enlarged on a 27-inch screen, but when they’re reduced to A5, they’re too small. The moral is: check your artwork at the publication size.

The sand needs something — perhaps a sea shell or two. Jimmy and Betty need some shadows, too.

One step closer to finished with Dylan's farewell pages

Almost done with these pages… I have to work in the dialog balloons and that will be tricky — I didn’t lay them out in advance for any of the pages. I was winging it like a cocky rookie. I promise myself that I will lay out the dialog balloons for my next book before I do the paintings. Damn! I’m a slow learner.

Today will go down in history as the first time I’ve taken a picture with a film camera since 2015, seven years ago. Rather than use a fancy camera, I used an Ilford Sprite II, an all plastic point and shoot camera. It was fun. I’m going to carry a camera with me whenever I go out of the house.

Another of the farewell pictures as Dylan Dolphin leaves the story

Two-page spread, Mexican circus tents in the background

Today I drew this rough sketch showing Dylan Dolphin leaving the story. The background took the most time. I’ve redrawn those tents half a dozen times. To make sure the tents didn’t distract the reader, I de-saturated the background colors, removed the black line work, and gave everything a dose of Gaussian blur.

Since this is a two-page spread, I’ll have to deal with Betty’s arm passing through the spine page margins. That will create a 3/8in gap in her arm as it goes from the right page to the left.

Getting back to the business at hand

Now that my part-time job is in the can, I’m working on waking up the right side of my brain. Doing technical work 24-7 suppresses my creative impulse. Today it felt good to wake up from four months of slumber caused by writing technical documents under the pressure of meeting impossible deadlines. That kind of stress is not relieved by anything but sleep, and even then it frequently filters into my dreams.

In this picture — one of the final pages that wrap up the plot — Jimmy and Betty are best friends saying farewell, not knowing if they’ll ever see each other again.

Chore Day One

Same chores: vacuuming and laundry.

I had a brainstorm while talking with my partner. I was talking about my chaotic time in college and she suggested a graphic novel about student life at a big college in the 60’s. It was mind-blowing as we emerged from the repressive Eisenhower 50’s to the student rebellion in the 60’s. I was not part of that rebellion, mired as I was in inner conflicts. As a student, who showed great promise — according to my SAT scores — I was a magnificent underachiever who spent an entire year floating paper airplanes out of the window of my 7th floor dorm window.

I figure my tale would require four volumes: freshman year, sophomore year, etc. It would be a huge undertaking on the order of a masterpiece such as Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, by Derf Backderf. FYI, that’s an affiliate link. Derf has been doing comics for 40 years. It would take me 40 years to learn the skills to describe my four chaotic years at the Great Big University.

Alas! So many books to write, so little time.

I'm now free to be a starving artist

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Today I wrapped up my part-time tech job. Now I’m going back to being a full-time children’s book author…for the next three months, at which time I’ll become gainfully employed again…unless the world come to an end.

The picture above shows my concept drawings of the villains of book 4. They’re heartless robots. The world is full of them.

Those darned circus tents

One more attempt at circus tents. It won’t be the last. I want to create a majestic landscape, with towering tents and roller coaster rides, with a magnificent mountain range in the background. I do know that Acapulco is surrounded by jungle, but this is my Acapulco.

The big news is that I sold another book today. That makes 5 books this year. My career seems to be on an upward path.

Circus tents, one more time

I drew these tents with the bezier tool. I wanted to make the stripes smoother and they are smoother. Despite that, I like yesterday’s hand-drawn tents more. I was in a hurry as I was copying and pasting and didn’t notice until too late that one of the tents is floating in the air. Perspective, please, Mr. Artist!

Drawing a Circus Tent, second attempt

I used a reference to draw this picture of a fabulous Mexican circus. Clip Studio Paint EX helped me draw the yellow and red bands quickly with the Lasso Fill tool.

The more I use Clip Studio Paint, the more I appreciate the tools designed for drawing comics. Even after drawing three books with CSP, I’m aware of only 10% of CSP’s features. I enjoy fiddling with other painting programs, but when I have a deadline, I reach for CSP.