My current process to create an illustrated novel

In this post I'm going to share the steps that my brother and I are taking in a streamlined, non-messy fashion. Of course the actual process has many steps and other aspects that are integrated or left out of these several clear steps, but these are the necessary components of how we're getting our ideas onto and into a finished copy to publish, after much exploration and more to come.

Step 1) Writing

Most of the writing is done on paper by hand or on the computer in Libre Office or X Mind. The scratch notes and ideas are then compiled and interlaced into an actual scene that contains characters and flow of conversation, rather than journal notes, incomplete phrases and monologue inquiries. It's passed back and forth through programs, but X Mind has a nice way to organize the actions of the characters or scene on the left, and the colour coded dialogue of the different characters in lines on the right. Then it may be taken from this format and re-placed into Libre Office to print and work on the scene on paper again as needed.

Step 2) Layout

Once the writing is done, the Layout is a simple process of getting a basic, rough idea of where text and images go together on a single page. The layout of this book is likened to something like Dinotopia or a children's book, but with words more spread out than single large paragraphs on each page. Each page has sketches like stick men or worse at this point, and scratchy coloured pencil to mark where the words of the characters will be placed along with the illustrations. We as authors can barely even understand what we're looking at here, but it's a necessary step in the process. When we can draw really good, really fast, this step will be more integrated with the next.

(Words in red coloured pencil. Super rough sketches in pencil.)

Step 3) Better Sketches

The next step is to draw out some images that would be understood if someone were to look at the page. We are taking standard office paper and sketching out each page in a rough, but much clearer form so that we can see where the final piece might end up. This is a big jump from the stick men, pillow head drawings from the Layout phase. This is done without adding any words to the page.

(Just one sketch example - different from the whole page as it's described)

Step 4) Photoshop text

I then scan these preliminary drawings into P.S. and throw them on a fixed template page that will eventually be the final format and file to print and publish. After doing this, I copy and paste the text from our Writing files and place them accordingly within the scanned sketch pages we have pasted and arranged in the document. This may require some adjusting and resizing of the images and words to make them fit together and not overlap. It is still in a rough format, but it is readable with the words and pictures together for the first time.

(Not an official sketch page. More images and words would be there.)

Step 5) Style Guide

The context of our story inspires many types of art. As a way to continue studying artwork in an academic sense, but directing this studying into a streamlined focus on moving the finished pages of the story along, I've started to create Style Guides for each page. In a sense, it's like doing colour thumbnails for a complete book, such as James Gurney did for Dinotopia, or others would do for movies and so on. In my approach, I'm using other people's artwork that I like and would like to emulate as an overlapping template to guide the visualizing of the finished page. The images carry a certain tone or style that symbolizes and emphasizes what I'm feeling from our story in this page, these words and image. After adding the text into Photoshop, I create a folder with many layers of other artwork I've dragged in over top of the sketches. The art is placed over top of the sketches as a guide to see the whole page with a representation of where the art could be in the end.

(The content of the artwork reference pictures won't necessarily match the content of the illustrations needed for the story, but the style and visual reference will influence the final versions.)

Step 6) Studies and Final Page Creation

With the Style Guide in place, I will first do master studies of the artwork I've selected for each page. Then I will draw the images on the page as they need to be in the story. I will carry some essence of my studies into my own artwork by aiming for the greatness that I see in the referenced art and at the same time creating a new piece that is directly framed into the story and the final pages of it. It will be as good as I'm able to do it at this time, and then I will move on to the next page. I may also have to do additional studying before drawing the final image. Say for example I have pasted a certain style over top of an area where I'm going to draw a character's head, but I don't know how to draw the character yet. I will have to draw the character, based off whatever photo reference or ideas I have for them, as well as the style inspiration, then combine the two together. I have to learn to study while I create this story, rather than learning to eventually create it one day far in the future when I'm 'better.' This is the surest way I've come up with to apply my education in art to the actual goal right now, which is the process of bringing this to a complete stage of readability. Thus, after this step, the images are all compiled into the printable Photoshop document to be read and enjoyed with flow and harmony. Then, we are ready to show it to everyone.

(Example: You'll see when it's done.)

What do you think? Share in the comments or on Social Media.

- When Anthony Was

#context #adventure
Questions That Answer

"My questions lead me to all kinds of discoveries about my own pursuits in art."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

BY ANTHONY ROSS

This morning I went on James Gurney's blog, 'Gurney Journey.' I watched a video of him painting a tire store in the super moon.  It was inspiring in many ways.  His playful energy and dedication to his craft of painting on such a consistent basis are awesome.  It's nice to have people who exemplify certain qualities through whatever it is they do.  The art, and the blog he posts on on a daily basis is the version of his life that we get to see.  It's a pleasure to have these bits of expression in all kinds of ways through out the internet.  They allow us as curators of content to jump back from the computer into other realms of play and then return to it and share it.  Obviously there's stuff to create on the computer itself, but you get the point.

I thought about what questions I might ask James, since I have the ability to do so.  He answers questions on his blog, and so with the amazing technology, I can connect with James Gurney through virtual space.  I'm able to ask this fantastic artist anything I want and he will likely respond with some kind of answer.  It's tough, when the options are open.  My questions lead me to all kinds of discoveries about my own pursuits in art.  The questions gave me answers before asking, and more questions to answer in the contemplation of them.  I got a lot out of thinking about what I would ask this inspiring artist.

In the end, I did ask a question.  A simple one regarding how long it takes him to do a study.  I had wanted to ask about his beginnings as a painter, but the question isn't formulated yet.  It made me contemplate mine and learn from that, and that was enough for today.  The fact is that there are too many things to say.  This naturally brought me to reflecting on my art training at the Watts Atelier.  A teacher like Jeff Watts or the others there would be able to cover much more of what it is to learn to be a representational artist of a high level, like James Gurney.  Over the internet I can just get a short answer, or even a long short answer.  It's just not the same as a direct connecting and correlating with someone in person.  It's not the same to ask the questions online, so the questions have to be different.  The best part is that it's an option, and that there are amazing people sharing amazing things relating to every topic there is.  It's the wonder of the world that Gurney inspires me to honour in myself.  It's these relationships that you can use to reflect upon for yourself.  It's to ask the question of, "What question would I ask?"  There's your answer.

James Gurney in his studio.

#work #play #resource
Playing with the Buddha Board

"These ideas are not reality."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

BY ANTHONY ROSS

The silly smile.  What else is there to live for?

Let's talk about something I was playing with today.  It's called a Buddha Board and it's fun.  The reason it's fun is because it's in the moment.  There is only the essence of what you are painting on the board before it dries up.  The way the board works is that you paint with water.  The water dries up and changes as it does.  Once it dries up it is no longer visible on the board.  It's fun because of change.  Everything is fun because of change.

My reasoning for what's not fun is because it is stale.  When I say 'it' I am referring to anything that feels like it is permanent.  Key word being feels.  We all know that change is a constant, but we forget.  When we forget that we as well as all our conditions, as well as the way we relate to those conditions changes, then there is nothing to worry about.  One can't worry in a state like this, because one doesn't know where to begin.  There is joy.  Worry doesn't come into being.

When drawing, there is a time for doing messy work.  This is in the early stage of coming up with what it is to draw.  I find this hard, because I want to develop clean and skillful drawing skills, and doing fast ideas is always doing your work with less care, in the skill-oriented sense.  It is all about getting the essence.  I've used a black ink pen and water brush quite well in this area before, and the Buddha Board replicates that, but does an even better job in lightening the pressure to do a clean piece of art.

I am playing with this idea today, not just the board.  Change is a constant.  Permanence is an illusion.  The one who controls is confronted with change as a constant battle.  They get distorted and illusioned with stability.  That stability is stale and hard.  It creates conflict and struggle.  What action is not struggle is action that comes from the essence of joy.  When joy is something that can't be held on to, but something that moves.  There is no final piece of art work in our lives. :-DEach piece moves in and out of the framing of how we are perceiving.  That's a beautiful painting.

Buddha Board in the studio.

#work #conditioning
Soul-Project Challenges

"These ideas are not reality."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

BY ANTHONY ROSS

It's a fine thing to have a soul-project.  A project like this is both captivating and challenging.  It tests your will and it inspires you like nothing else does.  The challenges that come up with it are what breaks the patterning or conditions that one is accustomed to.  The project brings them up and inspires greater growth to places unknown and not yet reachable, or something.

The project I'm working on is super secret right now, but at some point it will be seen by the public and will be critiqued by many.  I am the artist on this project, primarily.  Meaning, all the pictures to it are my responsibility.  Such huge responsibility.  A lot of the times it's overwhelming, even though I am placing this on myself, and I know this, it is still something I am taking as a personal development project and something that I want to be good.
I realized that I had fallen into a trap here.  The trap is that I was thinking of myself as my work.  If the work fails, I'm a failure.

I don't think I'm alone in this, as someone who has done that to themselves.  A mental clinging to what you do, and the effort in which you do that thing.  This doesn't actually make the work better or the work more enjoyable.  Though, I think it's a fine line in these areas to determine how much 'want' you need to do a thing well, rather than just the doing of it with a detached ideal to do it as such. So the question is, can the desire be there without the attachment?  Can the understanding of what the result should be be there while the process is free to not have a conclusion?  Can I work on what I want to work on without feeling like I need to?  This is a bit paradoxical.  This is the very question of playing and of how to describe it.

It is fortunate to not have the conditions of life play the part of pressure on an individual.  In actuality, it is rare for most of us to have the pressure of conditions in such a manner.  The real conditions are mental, much more subtle, and they, when unconscious, control your ideas, action and aspiration.  So in this fashion, I continue to witness the coming and going of waves of uncertainty regarding finances, security in general, and future happenings.  What will I be doing if I don't do well on this project? Am I doing enough financially so that I can work on this project and will this project help me have security later on or should I do something else that's financially stable in the meantime?

These things have nothing to do with the art, and are of importance for anyone, yet, their importance must be secondary to the real wealth of life and of qualitative being.  If you plan for these, you could be missing a great deal of actuality.  These thoughts occur and they bring my attention away from my work, because the feeling is that there is not enough in them.  I run after these conclusions to what would be my preferred conditions, and I lose the unconditional and detached sense of well-being and peace. These ideas are not reality.

These same ideas of 'not now' can infuse any topic into their sense of self.  Meaning, I can think 'not enough' or 'not good enough' about just about everything.  This is also saying that 'now' is not enough.  Without a detached understanding, these mental convictions will contain themselves in the projects and things that we are most observably influenced in and by.  They will contain themselves in everything we see as conditions.  It's in this way that this project of mine is so very difficult and exciting.  The difficulty is something I attach to when I go to work on it.  It's the idea that it should not be difficult 'now' (when I work on it), when I try to do a 'good' drawing.  I have the conclusion of how it should be and the effort is to keep that conclusion in tact.  That is the way one must work to have something come out as good as they feel it can be, compared with other things.

I know what good art is, so I want to make my art good.  To know what that idea of good is and not be swept up in it is a skill.  It's basically having the space to be a complete failure that is detachment.  Anything goes.  When anything goes, one ends up playing.  When one ends up playing, the art or project generally turns out nice, or at least the making of it is fun.  When the making of it is fun, the result is secondary.  That is just how finances and security must be secondary to the fun that is the detached understanding.  So the question is, how does one work on anything with this detachment?  How does one remain in this detachment, and still do something that is just for fun?  Again, it seems the doing of something just for fun is an odd idea, and that maybe the fun is also in things like the difficulty, which are found to be so NOT fun so much of the time.  Thus the chasing of the conditions which is seen as fun is short-sighted.  Real fun is understanding these mental blockages we have in anything we do.  In that understanding, they transform.  Then everything we do is fun and free.