IF YOU DONT READ THIS YOU’RE JUST A plain IDIOT!

Click on review to read on Amazon

 

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More on Illustrating Your Book

Two more short videos on my experiences working with an illustrator.

Choosing One Illustration Over Another

Streamlining Workflow

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Illustrating Your Book

The first two in a series of short videos on my experiences working with an illustrator.

Transferring the Image in Your Mind to that of Your Illustrator’s

Making Effective Illustrations

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The Moon Coin “charming and clever and beautiful and daring”

A Perfect Tales-Told-By-the-Fire Book

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By Tricia Rightmire

I’ve been working on how to phrase this review for a while, but I sit down planning to sound all clever and erudite and end up getting all wistful and making lots of hands-over-my-heart gestures at the screen, so I think this time I’m just going to go with that. . . .

The Moon Coin is lovely, folks. It is charming and clever and beautiful and daring; it’s full of adventure and surprises and courage and puzzles and characters with whom I fell immediately and permanently in love. It’s written with a younger audience in mind—think “older elementary school, some middle schoolers”—but it’s the sort of book that just begs for a blanket and some comfy pillows and a crackling fire on the hearth, with everyone piled in together and hearing about far-off lands full of faeries and dragons and cats big enough to ride (they get really crabby about that, though, so I don’t recommend trying it). It doesn’t shy away from big words or complex ideas, but couches them all in a universe that’s so rich and consuming that they’re not “too hard” . . . and it’s just. so. fun.

The downside is that it’s the first of an as-yet uncompleted series, so you can’t just sit down and binge-read through them all; the upside is that every minute in this world is delicious and grand, and makes you want nothing more than to have your own Moon Coin so you can go adventuring. Grab the youngsters who mean the most to you, settle in, and enjoy!

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From Sketch to Chapter Art, an Illustrator at Work

For me, getting to work with Carolyn Arcabascio was a dream come true. We worked from a master list of scene options, with Carolyn picking out scenes she liked and making sketches. For the prologue, Carolyn drafted three options. All three were great, but two in particular were spectacular. I first went with option 3 (one of my scene suggestions). I think we spent more time on this sketch and subsequent color drawing than on any other piece. But it never seemed right. At the eleventh hour, I asked Carolyn how hard she’d hit me if I suggested scrapping the thing and instead going with the pinky promise scene you see below (one of her scene suggestions).  Carolyn responded: “There would be no hitting involved!” and told me it wouldn’t be a problem. You sure can’t ask for better than that.

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From the Prologue: Bedtime Tales.

Click on image to enlarge.

Richard: Did you make all these sketches in the same location, Carolyn?

Carolyn: Yes, I do all of my work at a drafting table that’s situated in a little nook of my apartment in Acton, Massachusetts. There’s a bookshelf to my right and a wall of “inspiration” to my left, where I hang prints of other artists’ and illustrators’ work. On either side of my drafting table are drawers of supplies, and stacks of sketchbooks and old paintings. The drafting table faces a window overlooking a quiet street and the woods beyond it.

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From Chapter Two: A Coin of the Realm.

Click on image to enlarge.

Richard: Do you use models when you’re sketching?

Carolyn: I use a combination of models and photo references. If I need to work out the nuances of a character’s posture and really understand the perspective of it, I’ll ask whatever friend or family member is handy to pose for a sketch. Often, I’ll get into the position myself or mimic the facial expression I want to portray in order to get the feel of it. And sometimes, if there’s a character being portrayed multiple times across scenes, I’ll make a rough model of their head out of clay so I’ll have it to refer to.

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From Chapter Four: To Barreth.

Click on image to enlarge.

Richard: When drawing fantastical creatures, do you use bits and pieces of real animals for inspiration, or have you actually seen a wirtle and you’re just not telling us? 😉

Carolyn: No wirtles native to Massachusetts, fortunately! When figuring out the look of fantastical creatures, I use photo references of different animals to understand the way the anatomy might work, and then combine features as I see fit and as the story calls for. To understand the wirtle’s legs and paws, for example, I referred to a series of photographs of show dogs leaping over hurdles. The severely arched, scruffy back was influenced by photos of hyenas on the prowl. The bone-structure of the face ended up being something of a cross between a cow and a warthog, and I wanted the snout to be bare—kind of gross and raw-looking. Add it all up and, voila! We have a wirtle.

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When Lily and Jasper’s uncle disappears, Lily must search for him in the most unlikely of places: the fading realms of her childhood bedtime tales.

Gold Medal Winner of the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award.

Epic fantasy for ages 9 to 99. Visit the Moon Realm

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❍

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Copyright © 2011-14 by Richard Due. All rights reserved.

No portion of this website may be used in any manner without the expressed written consent of the copyright holder.

Gibbering Gnome Press, A Division of Ingenious Inventions Run Amok, Ink^®

The Moon Realm^®

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Illustrations and Excerpts from The Moon Coin

Illustrations and excerpts from the

The Moon Coin.

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From Chapter One

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From Chapter Two

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From Chapter Three

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From Chapter Four

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From Chapter Five

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From Chapter Six

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From Chapter Seven

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From Chapter Eight

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From Chapter Nine

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From Chapter Ten

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From Chapter Eleven

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From Chapter Twelve

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From Chapter Thirteen

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From Chapter Fourteen

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From Chapter Fifteen

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From Chapter Sixteen

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From Chapter Seventeen

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From Chapter Eighteen

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From Chapter Nineteen

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From Chapter Twenty

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❍ ❍ ❍

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Copyright © 2011-13 by Richard Due. All rights reserved.

No portion of this website may be used in any manner without

the expressed written consent of the copyright holder.

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Gibbering Gnome Press, A Division of

Ingenious Inventions Run Amok, Ink^®

The Moon Realm^®

.

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Paper, by the folks at Fifty Three, Inc.

Paper

Simple, elegant, powerful . . . what are you waiting for: go create something.

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I just download this App today from iTunes. I think the folks at Fifty Three are really onto something with this one. If you like to sketch, or communicate with images, Paper has the tools. I’m not sure what direction they’re planning on taking this App in the future, but I’m looking forward to going there. Now . . . time to buy me a stylus . . .

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Typesetting THE MOON COIN: The Print Edition

These are some screen shots from CS Indesign 5.5.

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When I was working on the eBook version of The Moon Coin, I was very limited in what I could do. Since then, Amazon has introduced a new Kindle .Mobi format that promises a slew of new features, including embedded fonts. After I finish evaluating what that means for users of older kindles, I may adopt that new format later this year. Similarly, Apple has recently introduced iAuthor, a new proprietary software program to build their ebooks. It also promises a slew of new features.

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First up, a presentation shot.

Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.

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Here’s a detail shot of the graphic elements in the header.

Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.

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Here’s a detail shot of the graphic elements in the footer.

Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.

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Chapter Art!

Carolyn Arcabascio has begun delivering chapter art for The Moon Coin.

Here’s how chapter one turned out (as viewed on an iPad):

2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner

Preview: The Moon Coin.

Six chapters formatted for ePub, Mobi, or PDF.

Please share these files with your friends. Enjoy.

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Paperback and eBook now available:

Amazon and Second Looks Books.

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❍

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Copyright © 2011 by Richard Due. All rights reserved. Gibbering Gnome Press,

A Division of Ingenious Inventions Run Amok, Ink^® The Moon Realm^®

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