Toasty and Snowy 2, OR, The book, the book, the book!

Hi! I may have forgotten to mention that I've started in on my next children's book! Despite some fans clamoring for more Koalabirds (if you haven't gotten your copy yet, GO RIGHT AHEAD!), the next adventure of our favorite owl duo has been simmering for quite some time. So, for whatever the cosmic reasons behind my creativity, I've decided now is the time to make it!

Just a quick pic of two pages I drew yesterday!

SO MUCH MORE info and process and fun after the jump!! CLICK! :D

This time, Toasty and Snowy are visiting a friend at the beach! You'll meet a few new friends in this book, and enjoy one of my favorite things: drawings of really detailed and delicious-looking food! Ha ha! I'm mostly kidding, but they do eat a lot and there will be (hopefully) gorgeously-colored seascapes and coastal cottage vibes and all the rest.

I've written it out (more or less), done thumbnails, and done "layout thumbnails" -- I guess that's what I'm calling it when I sketch 4 pages per sketchbook page in order to finalize the layout of each page. (My normal thumbnails are what, like 12-16 pages on a sketchbook page, with teeny-tiny text for the written story portion.)

I painstakingly researched the correct page size to do a FULL BLEED on KDP (Amazon), and set up that document -- twice -- because technology! -- and now I'm happily settling in to sketching out each page on my actual watercolor paper, with the correct bit of the page proportionally lopped off. ;)

I've also made a handy little chart for crossing off each page I sketch with a purple colored pencil, like I did for Koalabirds. There will be another chart for inks, and another for watercoloring. I love this system I devised because it's oddly REALLY motivating.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this with you here so you can follow along a bit. I know I often just disappear and present a finished book months later (unless you are Brenda, then you see my stuff when we work at Coffee Depot, hee hee) . . . but I hope to surprise and delight you with process updates from time to time! Because books are a BIG DEAL and it's a long time to disappear for.

What are you most looking forward to with the return of Toasty and Snowy? Leave a comment! Be sure to read the first book if you haven't already! It's very silly. And if you want a print of these sweet li'l owls, well just click here!