It’s been a busy few weeks. With an upcoming school visit in the near future, I wanted to give the K-2nd grade students a story they could relate to better than my nonfiction picture book, The Declaration of Independence from A to Z, that’s more geared to 3rd grade and up. So, I dusted off an old manuscript that I really enjoyed writing, and decided to make it “come to life.”

Putting a 32-page picture book together is a lot of hard work. First, I had to break down my manuscript into pages. Then I had to do some rough sketches on what I envisioned the illustrations to look like. I’m very thankful for the drawing and animation classes I took a few years back, plus my film school training. I wouldn’t have been able to understand composition that well without that background.

Next, I had to decide on book size, font size and type, and the overall look. Then I needed to come up with what the main characters would look like and the colors of their clothing. I really felt the pressure since I wanted everything completed at least 3 weeks before my visit.

Using Procreate on my iPad made a huge difference. I was able to work on sketches and then do the inking and coloring, all on the same device. I exported those images and used Affinity Publisher to put everything all together. I really like how the book came out.

Creating a book from scratch is challenging. But hard work does have its rewards. I now have a fun, rhyming picture book that I hope my readers will enjoy. Follow this link to get one for yourself.

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