One Week Until Pub Date
Did you know books go to print about a year ahead of their publishing date? That means I was finished with all the touching up, details, and fixing of errors on Look On The Bright Side in Fall 2022! So, yes, I didn’t really touch it for a year before it came out… and now it’s in my hands!
Right now we are one week out from Look On The Bright Side being available on 10/10/23 and I have to trust that the people who want this book on a large level (bookstores and retailers) have chosen to get copies, that the buzz I got from trade reviewers is enough, and that this book that I have dedicated a lot of time to… will perform. The Marketing and Publicity departments are the unsung heroes of this work at this point. It’s pretty scary! Kind of a leap and the net will appear sort of thing, which feels weird because you’ve dedicated years of your life and a lot of labor to this book that you just have to trust will be okay in the world.
Things To Keep In Mind While Illustrating A Graphic Novel
New Blog Post
There are so many things to keep in mind while illustrating a graphic novel! Obviously, it’s good to think about the regular things like sizing, demographic, tone, and what brushes and tools you’ll use to finish it. Those are expected parts of any creative process, especially a book-making process. I wanted to share with you some of the things I think about while illustrating my graphic novels that are beyond the technical details.
With each graphic novel I do, I also am improving all of these skills and continually working on honing them. It's no surprise to me that I think I did a better job of doing all these things in Look On The Bright Side versus the first book Go With The Flow. Practice makes you better at this and a graphic novel gives you a lot of time to practice.
Pacing - you want to make sure that the reader feels like the story pushes and pulls visually as the emotions do. You want to slow the visuals down when there is a need for a pause and you you want to make them more chaotic when there are stress and climaxes in the story.
Page breaks - You want to make sure the reader is continuing to turn the page with anticipation. It's always a wild thing when a kid tells you they read your book in one hour when it took you four years to make. On one hand, when I hear that, I think, "Omg it took me so long to make, please savor it" but on another, I think, "Good my page breaks worked and you couldn't put it down!"
Visual intrigue - I want you to find the pages interesting, not too repetitive, and... pretty. I try to do my best to change up the panels where I can to give your eyes a treat and brain space to continue to get excited about the story.
To read more about my process and the blog post in its entirety.
Upcoming Events
I have several upcoming events (virtual and in-person). All events are FREE and open to the public.
Lily ✎Denver, CO ☀︎ Oct 7th
Denver Children’s Festival of Stories 10am - 4pm MT
Talks: Empowering Girls & Storytime Reading
Lily ✎ & Karen ✍︎ Online ☀︎ Oct 9th
Comics Creators Getting Coffee 9am PT
On the :01 First Second instagram
Karen ✍︎ Los Altos, CA ☀︎ Oct 10th
Book Launch at Linden Tree Books 6pm PT
Lily ✎ Boulder, CO ☀︎ Oct 11th
Book Launch at Boulder Bookstore 6:30pm MT
Karen ✍︎ San Francisco, CA ☀︎ Oct 15th
Books, Inc Lauren Village 2:30pm PT
Karen ✍︎ Berkeley, CA ☀︎ Oct 28th
Berkeley Public Library - Comic Con 3:30pm PT
Seedlings
Seedlings is an early look at my process from shared early snippets of things I’m writing, to pages from my sketchbooks, to writing prompts and tips on how to cultivate an illustration practice.
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