My Children's Book
Daniel and the Lion who Became the Sun
So finally, after dedicating 3 months of the winter and now this last week
reformatting everything, I ordered some copies of my children’s book “Daniel and
the Lion who Became the Sun.” It all started with a class on book illustration at
SCAD last winter. My goal was to paint everything in those 10 weeks but as time went on I reevaluated and finished 6 spreads, leaving the other half as pencil drawings that together create a book “dummy”.
Now I won’t bore you all going piecemeal over every part of the process, but I will include some development into the cover design. Despite being “done” with the book in March, it turned out there was a whole lot more needing work. I redesigned
the cover, created the front and back matter, reformatted every spread, and put final touches on some of paintings.
I used Blurb to print my few copies of this dummy, which comes out to a 8 x 9.5 inch trim size for the 8 x 10 inch landscape book. I painted everything at the latter of those sizes, including a 1/4th inch bleed. This gave me space to move things around and work with the text placement beyond my original layouts.
What proved tricky near the end was getting the cover to what I wanted it to be.
My original plan was print hardcover copies, which have a spine and an exceptionally large bleed to wrap around the edges.
After revisiting the cover after months apart, I decided my type wasn’t good enough and set out to make the main title feel more solid. I felt my initial design was thin and weak with poor spacing.
I made the type better and encountered a new problem: Blurb’s preview showed how the spine affects about an inch to the left of the cover. The “Daniel” of my first pass was touched by the crease, which is unacceptable and I proceeded to the above, smaller title, version.
I also explored a softcover version that eliminated this spine problem and worked with a smaller bleed. Softcover was also quite a bit cheaper. It let me stay truer to my title original layout and I ended up opting for this solution.
Overall, “Daniel and the Lion who Became the Sun” is one of the biggest projects I’ve ever done. I wrote the text myself and brought it to life, and I’m excited to have a physical copy in a few weeks. Despite this, the reception of its paintings was not as highly regarded as some of my past work (notably: Prince Foxtail). Some of its spreads are weak without a base of ink to ensure hierarchy and silhouette. For sure I could paint and compose better to remove this issue, but it’s a funny feeling to spend three months making what you think is your best work only to be told its not comparable.
But its done now and I’m thankful for that. The Art Academy started its summer term this week, which is nice to get back into the swing things and meet the new students. Other than that, I saw “Enter the Dragon” with a friend at the local theatre. I believe they showed it as a companion to the new “How to Train Your Dragon” movie, which I was worried we were going to for a second based on the marquee. I’d seen it before but it was still good and very entertaining. Lots of Bruce Lee being Bruce Lee, making faces and being ripped. What struck me also was the soundtrack, especially the opening number. Coincidental timing because the next day I heard on the news that the composer past away. Rest in peace Lalo Schifrin.
Next week I’m looking at doing some character design for a new book cover and to start oil painting with again, maybe. I’ll put a pdf of “Daniel and the Lion who Became the Sun” on my website next week as well. I’ll be sure to mention here when I do so you all can read it if you’d like.
Best,
Liam
