Despatches: A successful upload; another endeavour disappointing: Rethinking endeavours; to do or not to do

Now why should you read this post? It may be much ado about nothing. Aha, maybe that’s why you should read it; in case it isn’t.

Successful upload. As you know (those who may follow my blog) Ebony and the Auntie of the Starlight, a Caribbean Cinderella story was uploaded to Amazon. Then  on Sunday, August 10, the Observer newspaper highlighted it in Bookends. I was very pleased.

Disappointment: I saw the PDF of Things I Like. I did not like my painting of the illustrations at all. At all! They looked lovely when I painted them, even when I put them on my blog, but stand alone in a book. No sir! I saw every miss-stroke of the brush, every distortion of an image.  The idea was to  produce the PDF  and get a corporate sponsor for copies for basic schools. Well, I’d be embarrassed to own these images. My designer did  her best. I was so overwhelmed (not to tears, or anything like that), just so astonished, that all I could say to her, is ‘stop there while I think about this’.

There are lessons to be learnt here.

1.       A Level Art does not make you an artist or illustrator.

2.       Four hours of painting lessons year before last, does not get you back to A Level standard, which does not  . . . anyway.

3.       There is a reason why they have illustrators for children’s books.

4.      You may never be able to turn yourself into a painter or illustrator for your own books. Accept that!

So what do I do now?

1.       Clearly I should ask my designer if she can just colour the pictures with Photoshop or something.

2.       Give up the idea of the book and feel ‘pale and wan’ (check the literature we read in school for explanation of the term) about any such endeavour.

3.       Perhaps ask about new illustrations for the text. What a frantic thought!

Well, clearly, I’ll go with #1 first. The fact that I have not done it yet speaks volumes although I cannot hear what is being said.

This post would seem to be all about my angst; much ado about nothing, indeed. However I think it speaks to some very important concerns, none of them new,  but the ability to self-publish underscores them.

The most important is how do you get the money to self-publish what you want to publish, or in my case, republish? People have been asking me why I don’t seek crowdfunding. To show how up-to-date I am on the concept,  I was about to write 'cloud funding' (naturally, things are stored in a cloud, so clearly, .  .  .  ) when a little voice said, “Look it up!”  Eh! Eh! But is a whole world out there of crowdfunding. So many sites. I would of course be shy/too proud/can’t wrap my head around the concept of people I don’t know supporting me, and on and on into further  angst.

I think one of my biggest challenges right now is do I want to continue to try to  break these new barriers, of this new digital  world, and I really hate this being in the spotlight of doing things, doing them differently (no doubt, that is why I write a blog, eh!), or do I want to retreat into the dignity of the ‘pure writer’ who must always be published by a well know publisher to be considered to be a serious, pure, mature writer? To do or not to do; to be or not to be.

This is a case of pure confusion. I’m going to put it down and come back to it another time. Any ideas would be welcome, guys! 

Next post will be about more mature matters.

Continuing the journey into illustrations with less than a brave heart. Oh, for an agent of sorts!

 

The designer with whom I work, (she worked on The Ring and the Roaring Water and produced the illustration for that cover), looked at my painting of the illustrations from Things I Like ( previous post) and thought we could work with them. So I should be thrilled, right? I was, but being thrilled only lasts for some time, I’ve found. Being thrilled can so easily be followed by doubts. Is this  part of the artistic temperament?

So I’ve done two more, which are shown here. One is a night scene. Big challenge! I approached it by looking at other illustrations of night scenes in children’s books, and have come up with what I think may work. No, I haven’t shown it to my designer yet. I have two others to do, and one of those is a night scene inside. Source of light, etc. and how that throws light onto  the scene, to be taken into consideration. All very interesting, fascinating even.

The plan is to produce a CD from which we could produce a couple of hard copies to be shown to prospective sponsors. Excellent idea! Then ‘faint heart never won fair lady’ syndrome creeps in, that is, not about to win fair lady. How does one promote oneself? I really find it very hard. And this is why I wish for an agent for Jamaican/Caribbean children’s books, to market them, look for sponsors, set up readings, etc. and etc. and etc. The person would have to have some other source of income, decidedly. We have tried versions of this with great expectations, like someone going around to book/craft fairs, etc. for a percentage of sales.  Not even remotely sustainable.

Actually, I wish one of the young social media whiz kids would take this on while pursuing his/her other more lucrative sources of employment. Ah, well. Meanwhile I’ll continue trying with Things I Like.

 

Can A Level art translate into illustrations for children's books? Join me on the journey.

 I did indicate that it was not one of my New Year resolutions, attempting to see if A Level art can lead me to my own illustrations for my children's stories. But here I am. Oh, in all honesty, it was called Higher Schools when I did it, but who today would know what that was? So the equivalent is A Level. Also, in all honesty, I did some painting after I left school, flowers in water colour, but not really using a water colour technique, and landscapes and still lifes in oils. I actually sold a 'mother and child' in oils, and a number people asked to buy one particular landscape, which I would not sell, because I like it. However, none of this makes one a children's book illustrator. The challenge is this; there's this book Things I Like  (Early Childhood level) and I would like to republish it, but need the pictures to be in colour. I don't think I can afford the artwork. So I tried my hand, and my acrylic paints again. Aha!

Here, therefore, are two versions of the same illustrations; the second with the elements of the picture outlined in black, because I saw somewhere that illustrations for children's books should/could be outlined. And I know those lines are perhaps too thick, but that's the only pen I had here. The black broken line on the figures indicates that they are stuffed toys, and not real children. That's how the original artist interpreted them, and his name was Warren Chen Shui. I'll show the cover done by him as well.

I invited you to join me on my journey, although I'm not sure how far I'll take it. However should you wish to, you can say which of the pair you prefer.  We must bear in mind also that I did not draw these pictures. I have merely coloured them. So that would be something else to see if I can do.

By the way, it was my Higher Schools Art teacher, Mrs. Burrowes ( I hope that I've spelt her name correctly - I so admired her)  that introduced us to the earth shattering concept that the pictures we drew were to look like our people, our skin colour, not a copy of the golden haired, pink skinned figures we saw in books. What a release! What a freedom! What a pride in ourselves was uncovered! People who complain about all sorts of inequalities now, imagined or otherwise, have no concept of the difference between a colonial island and one that was independent, no knowledge of some of the people who really freed our minds. Mrs. Burrowes was one of those. Giving thanks.