Merrellart

Began drawing the panels for ARTIST.   I’m using ARTIST as the working title and file name for now.  The most promising title I’m considering is TWILIGHT  OF  AN  ARTIST.  Once I focus, I maintain a flow.  I will begin a systematic method to transfer and prepare the drawings for Artrage and insertion of the dialog.

Circling the ways to draw the graphic book about the artist.  I need a style that maintains throughout this lengthy book.  And one that fits the picture sizing and reduction of the ereaders.  So now, decide and get moving!

DEATH is well over 200 downloads.  SQUAWK! and NIGEL & JINX both more than 125.  As all are free, I hope I’m building a readership that will bode well for my “Artist” story.  The “Artist” graphic piece will be long and the first I will charge for.

Working on a backlog of stories for my Westchester Life Stories group.  I want enough to go through December.  Then I will take January off due to film festival, etc.

A Westchester group story collection is in the process for publication of a print book.  The man doing the formatting needs discs, done in Windows,  plus a hard copy of each story.  This method is years out of date.  We should be able to simply email an attachment from any system.  Unsure how smoothly this will go or how long it will take.  But I’m not in charge and will let the powers that be handle all.

I read an article about David Hockney using iphone and ipad to make sketches.  He is now incorporating these images into his finished art.  Drawing directly on a screen is closer to drawing on paper, so I bought an ipad.  I’ve been practicing most days to use it adeptly.  I located an app called Zen Brush which closely replicates the way I like to use wash and line.

I shall do my next graphic book using the ipad.  The images can imported into Artrage for text then resized for Cal.  I love it.

My three ebooks, Nigel & Jinx, Death, and Squawk! all have more than 100 downloads.  In the Graphic Novels & Comics section, Death is on page 4 for highest number of downloads; Nigel & Jinx on p. 6.  This is exciting as they have been Smashwords for 2 months or less.

Had a lesson from son, Joseph, on how to resize images.  I use a high pixel count when drawing on my graphic tablet.  A much lower pixel count is needed by Cal to format for Smashwords.  I continue to climb another learning curve.

Since I got my graphic tablet, I’ve wanted to do a full graphic book electronically.  I now have a story that will take about 75 pages.  Drawing a lengthy series of panels with consistency has been the greatest difficulty.  I just recently tried using pencil and pastel with inking for contrast.  This works.  I will refine the technique with more exercises before beginning the new book.  I want to show a sample in my next post.

Smashwords has begun writer interviews.  You can answer their questions or ask your own.  It was easy to give a bit of information about myself and how I do my graphic books.  The Smashwords link:  https://www.smashwords.com/interview/pgmerrell

Just uploaded my third graphic book onto Smashwords.  This is SQUAWK! A Story in Fowl Language. I dedicated this book to Neal Yamamoto who is my teacher and mentor for graphic books.  [https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/348480 ]

As noted earlier, this book received the 2012 Sue Alexander Award for best unpublished manuscript.  It is now published and listed as a free book.  I’m using Mark Coker’s advice of offering several short works free to build a readership.

SQUAWK! is listed under graphic books and children’s books.  Info I’ve researched shows that downloads for children’s books on ereaders is proportionately much lower than adult books.  It will be interesting to track how well this does on Smashwords compared to my other 2 books.