Changing the layout of the inDesign book template

With my images of various sizes I figure that I can change the margins of the inDesign template to get enough wiggle room for most of the pictures to look pretty good. Doing a little nudging and tweaking is preferable to redrawing the misfit images. I reduced the margins from 20 mm to 5 mm for the e-book template. I had to google “change margins for all indesign pages” to learn that I go to File -> Adjust Layout. I like the skinny little margins. I might even change them to 0 mm to bleed to the edge of the screen. I’m basing my margins on what I see in the Kindle Cread preview app. I’m hoping that the preview shows what readers will actually see on their devices!

Going through my rough draft tonight I got a feeling of a good feeling…satisfaction. It was great to see all of the pictures and all of the text laid out. I still have some work to do on both the images and text, but I’m pleased with what I see.

Hustlng to Get the Book Done

Today was the first day of my one-week vacation. I managed to paint two pictures and start a third. I got to thinking that each picture takes about as much time as two hours of television or Youtube surfing. Now that I’ve stopped using Wi-fi, I don’t do Youtube. When I’m doing cardio, I read instead of compulsively checking the channels I subscribe to. When I’m eating a meal, I read. When I’m settling down for the night, I read. There’s a lot of reading going on now that Wi-fi isn’t an option, which is fine with me because I’m a real good reader.

As for television, I still watch it with the family for about 30 to 45 minutes at night. My shows are ANTM reruns, Project Runway, and Masterchef. I’m waiting for some new Letterkenny episodes, and of course, more Rick and Morty.

Today’s output: Jimmy trying to rescue Buddy and Jimmy hearing Buddy’s cry for help.

Picture #23 Momma Jay Yelling to Jimmy, colored with Procreate

I’m coloring the story’s images out of sequence. You would think that it would be a good idea to start with picture #1 and then go to 2, 3, 4, etc. I agree. That is a good idea, but I’m doing them in the order that feels right when I sit down to paint. When I’m a little tired and impatient, my plans for systematic creation simply fly out the window and I’m left to my raw instincts.

In this image Momma Jay sees Jimmy on the roof. He’s looking down the chimney. Naturally, she’s terrified that he’s going to be swallowed just like her long lost brother. I don’t blame her for being scared.

Moving the TV

Today I moved my television out of the basement and into the living room. As I’ve already mentioned, I no longer use wi-fi in my home environment. Everything is wired now. I considered drilling a hole through the floor and running a cable down to the basement, but that was more work than I was prepared to do just to watch TV. I just moved the TV.

Now, back to business. Here’s a picture of Buddy Butterfly trying to convince Jimmy Jay to break his mother’s rule against going up to the jaybird-eating chimney. I decided to make Buddy really huge and overbearing. I omitted his wings intentionally.

Picture #25, Jimmy and Buddy Are in the Belly of the Beast

The “beast” is the bird-eating chimney, of course. This is another 100% digital picture done with Procreate and my iPad Pro. I’m impressed that Procreate can handle a 285MB image without any sign of sluggishness. I can’t say the same for Photoshop on my iMac. I think I’m falling hard for Procreate!

“Are you okay?” asked Buddy. “Yes, except for my mussed up hair,” replied Jimmy.

Picture #23, Completed, WIth Background

Dang, I’ve been drawing hands a lot. Hands are insanely hard, but I’m getting better at them, so long as they’re cartoon hands with four fingers. This picture bleeds into the page on all four sides. I have two options: I can complete the missing forms, such as adding the top of the tree, or I can simply paint into the missing lines and let the imagination complete the drawing.

Enough forward thinking! I don’t want to spend energy thinking about future chaos. I’ll deal with it when I get there.

Image #18, Buddy Butterfly Doing the Unthinkable

The “unthinkable” act that Buddy is obviously relishing is disobeying Momma Jay’s first commandment: stay away from the murderous chimney! Buddy has a big problem with authority. We’ll see where that attitude gets him!

I made some changes from the previous version of this picture, mostly with Buddy’s wings. I’ve been struggling with his wings since the first time I drew him. I made him smaller, fixed his wings, and moved him to the left of the chimney. Now that I’m looking at this picture a little more objectively, I see that his wing is covering too much of his face. I have to move his head a little to the left to show his rascally grin. I considered fixing his face in Photoshop as I was creating this JPEG, but damn, it’s so much easier and faster in Procreate!

#13 Jimmy and Buddy Racing with their Bicycles

Jimmy and Buddy are still enjoying their idyllic friendship, this time by riding their bikes around town. I don’t know how they got the bicycles … maybe they’re rented. And that butterfly looks like he may actually be a competitive cyclist. Just look at his legs — they’re tree stumps!

I used Procreate’s line smoothing feature for the wheels and bicycle frame, the inorganic forms. Normally I would have drawn everything by hand and lived with the wobbly lines. Wobbly lines are part of my style, but the next deadline is rapidly approaching and I’m taking all of the shortcuts I can.

#12, Jimmy and Buddy Drawing Funny Pictures of Each Other

Moving the story along, we’ve got the Jay family, along with Buddy and the two mice, moved into their cozy new tree house. The only dour moment, so far, is that Momma Jay has firmly laid down the law about staying away from that bird-swallowing chimney. This picture of the boys drawing each other begins the middle of the story arc, where everything is going along just great. We see the boys doing some carefree goofing around and having innocent fun. Their life is idyllic, and you know that can’t last long. It never does.

For Buddy’s eyes and Jimmy’s glasses I let Procreate smooth the circles. The arcs of Buddy’s thorax and antennae also use digital line smoothing.

Finished #10, Momma Jay Warning Kids

Posting everyday has been a boon. I’ve learned to honor my limits. When it’s 7:15 I stop whatever I’m doing — inking, painting, drawing. When the day’s time is gone, my day’s work is over. I export the image and write a little post like this one. I call it a day and move on to family time.

My new attitude has carried over to my day job. In the past I’ve worked extra hours to finish up some incomplete project. Sometimes I would toil away until midnight just to be able to check the task off my to-do list. But I don’t do that anymore. Now, when it’s 5 PM, I check out. Whatever is left undone can wait until tomorrow. I like this way of living.

Here’s Momma Jay Warning the Kids in it’s final form. I may yet tweak some of the line work. In this project, nothing is ever complete, perfect, or finished.

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