PIX STUFF!
It's beginning to look a lot like crunch time over at Pix Production Central.
Final files for the new version of book one were turned in - after a lot of working and re-working the back cover design - on January 20th and are approved and good to go.
My finished files for book two, TOO SUPER FOR SCHOOL, are due on March 20th, meaning I have 48 days left to finish this book...oh my!
Lots of coloring (and design work) ahead for me in these next 48 days. For those interested, the coloring process goes as follows:
1. It starts with the inked page:
2. That inked page is "flatted", which means everything's filled with colors...these colors can be super random, but so long as they fill every space, they're useful for the next stage. I'll be honest; I pay someone to do this because...it saves me a ton of time (and people are much faster at it than I am).
If you're wondering where the lettering went, that's done in a different program (I color in Photoshop) and incorporated later (see step 5).
3. Once I have a flatted page, I make color selections. I start making choices - what color is the building and sidewalk or the clothes, what shades of green for grass and trees, etc. (think Bob Ross asking "What color is the sky in your world?").
4. After I've done that, I go and add shading and highlights and any effects (the faded lines showing Pix's landing in panel 1, for example) or extras (Cherry's freckles).
Is everyone sick of seeing this specific page yet?
5. And then there's some technical stuff to prepare pages for print (like incorporating the lettering), but I won't get into that because I have to get back to coloring!
So yeah, a lot of that in the next 48 days, so if I'm slow to respond to emails or phone calls, this will be why...for what that's worth.
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