Building a Coloring Book Cover, Part 2

After thinking over the title Heart of Rural Tulare County, I wasn’t satisfied.

I looked at the original coloring book, Heart of the Hills, and realized that this one needed to be Heart of the County.

That’s the ticket! My Shadow Consultant agreed, after suggesting a couple of tiny adjustments.

The idea to do this came quickly, and the retail places that sell my work want it in time for Christmas. That’s why most of the drawings are gleaned from the previous coloring books, compiling them into a broad portrait of the county’s rural places. I thought you might need to know that. It is sort of like buying a “Best of” album from your favorite music group, and then you either say, “Oh I love this song” or “Wait, I already have this”. 

Like all the previous coloring books, each page has a tiny hidden heart. 

The coloring book is $20 and is available here on my website. 

Upcoming Solo Art Show:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 1-4 p.m.

 

Building a Coloring Book Cover

The reasons for choosing this drawing for the cover of my new coloring book of rural Tulare County were because it is representational of the subject matter, appealing, and has enough blank space for words.

I looked at the previous coloring books and did a draft for the cover. These things don’t fall into place for me in one shot – I have to think things over, and usually send them to my Shadow Consultant in Bellingham who has a great eye for design. Ooh, weird, there’s that single “eye” again, just like when something “catches your eye”.

Good enough to know that things will fit here. I got out my colored pencils, put on a good podcast, and dove in.

When you are listening to something good, even simple mundane tasks like coloring go quickly. I think it was Mike Rowe’s podcast. Great vocabulary, intriguing stories, nice voice, excellent sense of humor.

UPCOMING SOLO SHOW:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.

Building a Coloring Book Page, Part 3

We last saw this drawing at this stage of erasing the gray background. I think it scans gray because the paper is a little bit thin, and also because that’s just the way the scanner sees things. If I lighten the background while scanning, the lines also get lighter.

After the background gray is erased, and the overlapping and gapping lines fixed, I add a border.

This is appealing (not up on blocks!), representative of rural Tulare County (yeppers, that’s the reality of any non-gentrified rural area), and has enough white space that it will be the cover of the coloring book, in addition to being an interior page.

Next step: get it printed on white paper with some substance to it at a print shop so that I can color it.

You can preorder the coloring book here: Heart of the County.

Would you believe that I love to draw, but coloring feels like a silly waste of time. It took a bit of self-talk to convince myself that this is part of my job. 

UPCOMING SHOW:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.

Building a Coloring Book Page, Part 2

I left you hanging on by your fingernails, wondering how in the world this gray and black picture will become a useful page to color, with a bright white background and well-defined parts. Were you able to sleep for all the suspense?

Here you can see the piece in progress, with many of the big spaces erased.

Those small spaces are very time consuming. A cursor is not as good as a pencil, and sometimes things just go astray. The way I get precise on those tiny parts is by enlarging it beyond all rational belief.

Photoshop Elements is the program I am using; the specific tools are the magic wand, rubber stamp, and the eraser. (And UNDO, UNDO, UNDO!)

The next step is to add a border. Will you be able to sleep tonight as you eagerly await the next step?

 

Building a Coloring Book Page

It starts with an idea and moves to a picture to refer to when developing the idea.

This is a drawing that I did for Tucoemas, a Visalia based credit union, back in the last century. I was able to locate the photo that I originally worked from, but it was small and dark. I used to draw from 3-1/2 x 5″ snapshots!

Next, the picture becomes a pencil outline, and then it gets inked.

After inking, the pencil lines get erased, and it gets scanned.

See how the background of the drawing paper looks gray? That is the way it scans, so I have to erase all of that using Photoshop. I also have to repair all the lines that cross over as well as the ones that don’t quite reach their destinations.

And that’s not all. . . stay tuned!

For Your Shopping Convenience

Here is the new calendar again for your convenience. I don’t want to post the backside because Reader and Commenter Sharon doesn’t want to see any months in advance. If you want to see it, email me and I’ll send you the picture of the back. It is $15 including mailing and tax until November 1. Then it is $20 including mailing and tax. This is the link that works.

This is the new coloring book. It will be $20 and isn’t here yet. You may order it now if you don’t mind waiting until sometime after November 8 for me to ship it to you. Here is the link to the page where the book will be available.

Images of Home will be a solo show at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery, full of my oil paintings and pencil drawings. I will also bring calendars, coloring books, note cards, wildflower books, and Wilsonia books. The gallery hours are 12-4 on Saturday and Sunday. I will be there on Fridays to keep the place open, but don’t know what hours. The opening reception will be Sunday, November 14 from 2-4. I will continue to tell you about this until you want to unsubscribe or email with concerned notes about my repetitious blogging. The particulars about the show are here.

Finally, this is what I saw when I walked back to the house from the studio one evening last week.

Sure beats smoke, eh?

Friday List

Here a listicle for you because I spent all day staring at the computer and feel a little dull.

  1. Mineral King cabin owners are allowed to go up and finish the process of securing their cabins for the winter. 2 teams went in last weekend, warriors in a posse to rescue cabins from various elements. Now some of the owners will get to inspect, perfect and complete their work. (“Some” because many live far away or don’t feel the need to go up before the predicted storm.)
  2. The storm is predicted to be bigger than any we’ve had for 2 years.
  3. Precipitation doesn’t always put a fire out. Things smolder for many months.
  4. There were 10 things broken on my website, several of which were repaired, and several which remain a mystery. I think there might be 2 versions of my blog – one which allows commenting and one which does not; one which shows the heading in a normal way, and another which does not. This is way out of my limited experience to explain or fix. 
  5. After spending an entire day staring at the computer screen, the new coloring book might be finished. (Will be $20 each) Here is the cover:
  6. The details of my upcoming SOLO show at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery got nailed down.

Images of Home

Opening Reception: Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.
Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery, 125 So. B Street
Gallery open: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 12-4
Show will tentatively hang through Christmas Eve
I will be there on Fridays!
 

 

More This, That, and The Other Thing

This:

Another new notecard, Farewell Gap/Mineral King, made with a drawing from a few years ago.

That:

In designing a new coloring book, mostly by gathering up finished designs from the previous 5 coloring books, I needed another few designs. A friend suggested old farm equipment, and I remembered a drawing I did for a credit union back in the last century. They would tell me what they wanted, I would drive around looking for something to photograph to draw, and then they would print it to use in various ways. I think this drawing would translate into an ink drawing for a coloring book called Rural Tulare County.

The Other Thing:

Wait! I think this might make a better cover for the Rural Tulare County coloring book than the produce wreath. (What?? You think I want to put wildfire on the cover? You can just have yourself another think ’bout dat! There will be zero glorifying of the horrifying in my coloring book!)

This, That, and The Other Thing

This:

The new Thank You card is here.

That:

I am working on a new coloring book: Rural Tulare County. This design might become the cover for it and of course it will have lots of color. It has a little space for the title of the book in the center – that’s how I choose the cover design.

The Other Thing:

What do you want?? You have already eaten almost everything I care about in the yard. Now you want to check out the fridge too??

Random Collection of Unrelated Thoughts in a Saturday Bonus Post

One week ago we climbed on the hill behind our house and saw this above our roof.

The smoke from fires makes it look like a foggy day. The differences are an orange tint, warm temperatures, and falling giant dandruff instead of a gray tint, cold temperatures and falling water.

This week Tucker and I had a little fun in the grass. He likes to stay just outside of arm’s reach, and jumps ahead whenever I crawl toward him. This is the second year of no mowing in hopes that the lawn would thicken up either by roots or by seeds. The cats love it long, and it seems thicker. Of course, transplanting chunks from another area may have contributed.

I just checked this book out from the library (Woodlake, because Three Rivers is closed due to the fires). It is fluffy, and fluffy is most welcome right now. The weird orangish tint is because of the fire.

This week I learned that the company who printed my coloring books has not saved the files. This means that reprinting any of the coloring books will involve a massive amount of computer work, again. The fad has passed along with demand, so I am unsure about proceeding. I am considering compiling a new one, combining pictures from the previous five. The Heart of Rural Tulare County is a long title, but it describes it well. This is an old post about designing #5. All the coloring books are sold out, but perhaps one of my retail outlets still has a copy or two. Here is the cover of the second one:

This week several places asked about reordering notecards. The prices have gone up considerably, and I am in sticker shock. When I started making notecard sets in 1987, they sold in stores for $5 for 10 cards. (You can read about that here, here, here, and here; there may be more old posts about them, but I am tired of looking for them and you are probably tired of reading all those links). Now they will have to sell at $10 for 4 cards. I made a new design, and will restock only a few of the most popular cards. People just don’t write that much any more to justify my keeping a large inventory. This is the upcoming Thank You card (no, it won’t say “Note Cards – 5.5″ x 4″ Folded – Premium matt: Front Side)

Because of the fires, drawing lessons did not restart the day after Labor Day. I have postponed them until the first week of October. I miss my students (a dear one died yesterday morning – if you are in drawing lessons and want to know more, email me). But, with the fire restriction of voluntary evacuation, I am reluctant to leave home; if it suddenly became mandatory to evacuate, then I wouldn’t be able to return home and get all my sweaters stuff.