ひとりゴート Ink Progress

Well this is my haul from inking this weekend. I'm just shy of finishing half of the pictures. I may tweak these here and there, but this is basically it. There are ten pictures here, but two of them are on the backs of others. I did a test scan to see how nicely that would play with my scanner and it does bleed through a little, but I fixed it with almost no effort by shuffling contrast and brightness bars. So for these black and white scans it definitely won't be a problem. I'm thinking that it won't bleed through at all after I do the crayons, but the worst case scenario would have me redrawing two pictures. A slight pain in the butt. Far from the end of the world.

Mid-ink thoughts--I expected to get tired of drawing goats while working on this book, but that hasn't been the case. It's the grass. I'm tired of drawing grass. So much of it. I like the look of it and all, but my hand is killing me.

I haven't got a strict deadline for this book, but I want to finish soon so I can work on other projects. I'm still considering my options on how to publish. Going to try traditional publishing first and if that doesn't pan out, I'll try print on-demand with crowd funding. Making it an eBook would be a last resort. Since it's drawn in landscape, I think it would look terrible on most e-readers.

Inks should be done by the end of the week. I leave for a vacation in Hawaii on Saturday and when I come back I want to be doing the crayons. There's a big touch panel expo coming up that my company is going to have a booth at though. Overtime might limit my output this week. Here's hoping it doesn't.

Cheers, ya'll!

Group shot minus the ones on the backs. Below you'll find pages 1-10 all in order.

Bear with Me, Both English and Japanese, Now Available

I posted about Bear with Me on my 40k blog, but this is the first time for me to mention it over here. Well, Bear with Me and ぼくはクマのスナッフル are both finally available through Smashwords and Amazon. They are also both finally approved for distribution to Apple, Sony, Kobo and Barnes & Noble. I just gave it a search through iBooks and saw that it's been delivered. I got wonderful feedback from my test readers and their children. If you've got a child then you may have same endless need for good picture books that I do. Or, if you simply would like to show support for my work, please give it a download and review it on Goodreads. I've been doing my best to introduce my work to people through the net, but truly, nothing beats word of mouth and any help to spread the word is beyond appreciated.

Bear with Me
Smashwords
Amazon

















ぼくはクマのスナッフル
Smashwords
Amazon

First Post: Cover Page and Moving Forward with a Beta Test

Well the first post on this blog comes along just before the final push on finishing up the book. I just sent off a pdf to some beta testers to read with their kids. Depending on the feedback I receive I may be ready to publish on time. It should be around next weekend if things go all right. I wish there were a pay-what-you-want option with Smashwords, but they don't offer one anymore. Instead I'll schedule some months when it will be free and will charge in the beginning only as a way to let people show support if they want to.

The picture heading this post is the cover image I'm going with. I tried another with fuzzy bear fur letters for the word "Bear," but my brother and I didn't like the way it looked. I also added a border which I hadn't originally wanted. Many websites (like Amazon and Smashwords) have white backgrounds and I think the thumbnail will look better this way.

Making the book was a lot of fun. Since I've been caught up in reading about publishing and taxes, I'm excited to start drawing the next one. I have a Japanese title for it, but I have to figure out the English one. I've got some rewriting to do as well, as I lost my original Japanese manuscript, but I think that's really a blessing as I already like the new direction I plan on going with it. I'll be posting about it as I make progress.