Little bits of news

I'm tickled pink to find out that a copy of Binksie and Bep is on an actual shelf, in an actual library, complete with a little "local author" sticker!

 The girls on whom the book is based are half-convinced they're famous. Especially since, in the past month, they've each been recognized by people they hadn't before met, who had read the book.

 Rumor has it that three of my paintings got to be part of the Robbin Gallery's annual Extremely Minnesota exhibit! I haven't seen the show yet (and sadly, had to miss the opening last night! :-( ) but hope to soon.

I've been trying to finish up all my oil painting in preparation for cold winter weather. Ventilation gets more difficult in the winter, and besides, these November days of moody skies and bare trees really make me want to spread out my watercolors and get to work! But I keep starting more oils, while waiting for the ones I'm working on to dry. :-P

 Some paintings drying.

 Here's one I've just finished:

 "Dusk" 

12"x16" oil on linen

Hannah C. Heyer

Binksie and Bep - It's Here!

Binksie and Bep is finally here!
 It's now available on my Etsy shop: Here!


Written and illustrated by (yours truly) Hannah C. Heyer
8" x 10" (20.32 x 25.4 cm), soft cover, 34 pages, with 27 full color illustrations.


Yay! :-D

Woof.

Got my second proof for Binksie and Bep in the mail today!
The first proof I received didn't have any words in it-- apparently a glitch with the program I was using to make my PDF-- and instead had strange dots. The color was also a problem, with my clunky and ignorant attempts at converting my RGB images into CMYK for printing, and one of my illustrations.... well, it just wasn't working out.
So! Back to the drawing board.

I used a different program (Scribus is my new best friend!) and this proof looked so much better!
...until about half-way through the story. That's when things got interesting and bilingual. Somehow someone else's book was inserted-- backwards no less-- right in the middle of my own. The adventures of Binksie and Bep were interrupted by a story of a dog, told in English and Italian. I now know what attenti al cane means! :-P

It was funny, and as I need to make a few minor changes anyway, no great loss. :-)

Tale of the Koala Princess... part three

I just have to share. ;-) This was drawn by my niece, for whom the The Tale of the Koala Princess was made.
Love!

You can see part two here.

Book Progress

My eyes are red from staring at a computer screen for too long! :-P But I think, I hope, I'm nearing the end. I'm still working on the editing and formatting of my book, including the cover.
While it would have been nice to be done sooner, the longer I'm taking with this, the better it's getting. Little extras have been added, fonts tweaked, scans improved, and ideas developed. I've still got a mountain of work to do, but real progress has been made, and that feels so good.
This is what the title page looks like at the moment:

"The flour was sort-of measured...

...an egg (or three) thrown in..."

I've been working on the boring and tedious aspects of my little book: formatting in preparation for printing. This is all new territory for me, and it gets a little overwhelming at times. I'm not a big fan of computer work!
However, there are delicious smells coming from the kitchen, and I've heard rumors of a cream-pie contest. It's going to be a very white Christmas; the snow has been falling all day, and my dad is out on his tractor clearing the driveway. And I'm looking forward to seeing most of my family this weekend!

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

More Illustrating Progress

Bep's turn to get some color...
And some glasses too!


:-)

Let the Coloring Begin!

Yesterday I began the process of painting in the illustrations for my book. Trying to be organized, and avoid silly mistakes and inconsistencies, I spread all of the drawings out and picked one thing at a time to paint.Binksie gets to be painted first. This gives a pretty good idea of how it will look, though more color and detail will be added as the painting progresses.

Now if I can just stay in the lines...

Binksie & Bep

Today I worked on illustrating.
I'm publishing a children's book, which will hopefully be coming out sometime early next year, and tonight I completed sketching the last of the 21 illustrations in ink.
They still have to be painted, but it's great to be able to get a tangible idea of what my book will look like once it's completed.
I'm so excited about this project! It's been so much fun, but a lot of work too. I've decided to go the self-publishing route, which for me translates to lots of control (yay!) but also doing virtually all the work myself (yikes!).
I've learned a lot over the past year, through the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and other resources, about publishing and all that goes along with it. Lately I've been learning more about formatting, layout, ISBN, distribution, and all that fun stuff.
There's still a lot more to learn and do, but I've been so blessed by my family and others who have critiqued, advised, and put up with my rambling, "out loud" thinking as I pursue this adventure.

Stick around and you'll no doubt get an ear-full about this book!
For now here's one of the ink illustrations.

Tale of the Koala Princess, part two

The copies I ordered of The Tale of the Koala Princess came today!

I ended up using Lulu.com, since I was in a hurry and had heard pretty good things about that company.

I was a bit disappointed that the only format I found that had few enough pages for this little story was their photo book, but there were a lot of page layout options and over all it worked out well.

The printing looks good, and I really like how clear the pictures are.
The cover looks good too, but the illustrations inside all have a slight pinkish hue to them, which I'm not crazy about.

But my little niece LOVES pink, so I don't think she'll complain. ;-)
I can't wait till she gets it!