Illustrating a Children's Book

  Twenty-four pages, front and back cover, three sketched rough drafts, over a Thousand hours, lots of hair pulled out and several "do-overs", these are just some of the ingredients that go into illustrating a Children's Book...and I thought illustrating my husband's book covers was a challenge, Whew.
How did this all start, you may ask? Well you have to met the authors first, in my case this encounter took place at Sci-Fi Summer Con 2014, where I met Jay and Katie Barber, a fun husband and wife author duo.
They have written several fantasy novels together despite having two kids and a few cats at home.  Their six year old daughter, Maya, wanted to hop on the author band wagon. She had been creating adventures for a unicorn character named Mend. Trying to encourage her daughter's passion, Katie helped Maya compile the stories together. All they needed now was an illustrator and I was delighted to take on the task. But I had never done a children's book before, needless to say, I had alot to learn.
Designing the characters was the most fun, getting to be creative with Maya's ideas and imagination.

After receiving the sketch approvals from the authors, I began the coloring process. I scanned each of the pages into Photoshop, where I do most of my coloring. Here's a link to show a bit of my Coloring process. 

I have just recently started using "layers" in Photoshop, this was a life saver. Editing text and changing colors or character positions happens plenty while working on a picture book, and making edits after the coloring has already started can be difficult, but layering my images made it much easier. Coloring always takes the most time, but all the detail that is put into each pixelated brush stroke is worth it, once you see the finished piece.

FINALLY I was done and able to get the coloring approved...only a few edits to be made after that :)
Adding the text comes next. Katie and Maya typed up the story so I was able to copy and paste most of the text, with some adjusting of the background and the margins, the book was coming together. Final edits and image tweaks have been made all this week and the proofs for our book have been ordered from the printers.
It has been a long, challenging process, where I have learned so much. I don't want to toot my own horn but I may have patted myself on the back for a job well done. :) And I'm super excited to see what started with the imagination of one little girl, end up on children's book selves all over. :)

"The Adventures of mend" should be available October 15th. You can pre-order it here. :D

Thanks for reading!
~Caralyn

You know you Totally want to read it!

SUHWEEEEEET! Winston and Baum, my hubby's 2nd Book in his Steampunk Adventure series, is now available on the Kindle. So very Proud of him :)

You all might recognize the cover, I've only been posting about it all month LOL :P

Get Winston and Baum and the 7 Mummies Here

Should have hard copies available soon :)

Get updates about new fun books at RadioActiveRabbitInk  

Thanks for reading!

~Caralyn 

TAKE ALL DAY WHY DON’T CHA!?

Haven’t worked on my husband’s 2^nd Book cover in a long while but the last bit of the editing process has been completed so now we are just waiting on Me ooops so I figured I’d better get back to it. 

I finished the inking this weekend so now on to the coloring, I’m hoping it will only take a few days to complete Buuuuut things hardly ever go the way I plan sooo we’ll see LOL

I will post progress Photos as I color so keep checking my FaceBook page for updates :)

For the 1st Winston & Baum Adventure, check out RadioactiveRabbitink

Thanks for reading!

~Caralyn 

The World Beyond the Gears

I finished another Pocket Watch with a Steampunk Myxie inside. This pocket watch lost the glass on the front, but I didn’t let that stop me…having no glass made it fun to make little hands gripping the sides of the metal and a small face peeking out. :)

Unlike my previous Pocket Watch Myxie, this one is not Trapped inside, rather she enjoys the comfort of her Pocket Watch Home. Occasionally she sticks her head out of the glassless window to peer out at the world beyond the gears. :D

Planning to make one or two more fun pocket watches this month and then I might move on to some other sculpting ideas I have tucked away in my mind. Keep checking my blog for updates!

Thanks for reading!

~Caralyn 

In case you missed them...

For those of you who follow my FaceBook page, you have probably already seen these, but I decided that I would post them in a blog, in case someone missed them.

Fairy Tale Little Pal Series: Sketches, hopefully I will be able to get them all colored soon. :)

Order of Photos: Red and Little Wolf, Goldie and Baby Bear, Alice's Bandersnatch, Alice and the White Rabbit, Marry the Mole (Thumbelina), Beauty and Little Beast, Kissing Frogs

Thanks for reading,

~Caralyn