My sample books arrived! I was so relieved that they feel really nice: fabulous quality and beautiful smooth paper. I tried writing in them with a variety of pens to see about bleed through but only the Sharpie was a bit suspect, which frankly is to be expected. I didn't like the feel of the … Continue reading Sample books, and last-minute hitches
Preflight Checks
I have now finished the Coast & Clifftop book so am sending it around to various friends and family to read. InDesign has a spellcheck but I'm not using that, and the justification and hyphenation of the text boxes means I get some odd word splits, as well as the Latin needing the once over. … Continue reading Preflight Checks
Blue paper
I'm finding it interesting how much the books are driving themselves, and although I have the bulk of the birds I need to put a book together, there are inevitably ones which I feel would be more appropriate or necessary so I need to paint them. I love playing with the white space and the … Continue reading Blue paper
Getting there…and the next book
I am discovering that it's amazing how much needs to be done to get even a short book like mine to the print ready stage this end, let alone actually print ready. Proof-reading, editing, nit-picking, fixing wonky layout and fonts, checking, checking and triple-checking the Latin names, spelling and grammar, then sorting out all the … Continue reading Getting there…and the next book
Printers, and a rough draft
I have almost finished my first book! It's been a steep learning curve, but I think I have finally worked out paragraph styles and master pages in InDesign, and found this vid really helpful for the page numbers, and this one from the same channel for the contents. I have found indexing a little more … Continue reading Printers, and a rough draft
Centre Page Spread
My bird book has increased to a 36 page flatplan, a template for which I couldn't seem to find online so drew one myself, and have decided to definitely go with the Centre Page Spread (CPS). Discussions on what to do in this expanse of two pages - which now my book is only 90 … Continue reading Centre Page Spread
Book Planning and a New Bird
I am rapidly accumulating lots and lots of bits of paper. And half-finished cups of tea. I was originally working on using Amazon's self-publishing (Kindle Direct Publishing) facility but as my book really needs to be printed - it's a logbook so you record your sightings - and it needs to be smaller than the … Continue reading Book Planning and a New Bird
Big Ideas and Flatplans
My bird book plans are starting to take shape. What I am wanting to create is a logbook x Spotter's Guide x old-school I-Spy book (ageing myself here...) in a fairly small format using the scans of my paintings as the main identification guide. Nothing complicated or fancy, just the basic shape and plumage to … Continue reading Big Ideas and Flatplans
New Project
I taught myself to paint with gouache when my son gave me a Windsor & Newton starter set for my birthday in 2017. I was kindly given a large roll of paper offcuts when I visited Jealous Gallery in Shoreditch, and because it was the cut end of their screen printing paper 29cm wide, I … Continue reading New Project
