Bringing the Story to Life

This week I have been in the process of revising the initial sketches sent to me by my illustrator. It was a very surreal feeling, seeing those images for the first time. Seeing my story brought to life by an artist who can actually draw with ability and perspective was very humbling. Mostly because I cannot draw. I would love to illustrate my own books, but it would just end up as the same figure in the same position on every page. Very boring.

The initial sketches were wonderful, almost exactly what I had envisioned for the story. We needed to revise some of the details of the animals since it is a story of the real animals here on our farm. (See image below for two of the minor but definitely not small characters). I am unable to post any of the initial images yet, but stay tuned.

We are ready to move forward in the process to finalized line art and color. As the final product progresses, the story becomes even more real. Even though the story describes events that actually did happen to real animals, events that I have replayed over and over, seeing them in text and illustrations brings the story and the animals to life on the pages. I created and wrote the book in a way that children can appreciate, and hopefully inspire a love of animals in a younger generation.