Act 1 Artwork Begins for Badin and the Secret of the Saami

Somebody or something from page 1

I am excited! So excited, I stayed up until klockan två på morgonen (2 o'clock in the morning) working on the first page. At left is an abstract from a panel on that page.

Unfortunately, most of the time spent was recalling and looking up all the skills I forgot regarding Manga Studio 5EX layout functions. However, thanks to Liz Staley's Mastering Manga Studio 5EX and her Manga Studio Cookbook, I was able to figure out what I did (and fix some problems I made while trying to fix it). I also spent alot of time finalizing a satisfactory workflow and test my new fonts.

Once I get in the groove, I'll zip through pages much faster than 3 panels every 2 hours (!). At least I hope that will be the case. However, with a project like this, one really needs to plan far in advance regarding page layout and overall design of the book.

So far, it seems I'm most comfortable looking at my thumbnail sketches on the desk and working digitally from loose penciling (from composition shapes, gesturing, etc), lettering and inking. That will save a step of scanning my thumbnail sketches. Color is not something I want to deal with until the entire Act 1 is complete. My goal is to ramp up to at least 1 page a day. It is going to be hard, but I think I can do it if my stock illustration sales continue to grow.

As always, I appreciate your support and spreading the word about this amazing project.