ROW80 Round 3 - 12th Update

Ever reached that point where you have so much to get done you don't know where to start? Yeah, that's where I'm at now. I finally got the tablet PC from my supervisor, so I just have to convert the mouse functionality to touch functionality (I think I know how to do it, just hoping it isn't harder than it looks). I also have a 6,000 word group assignment for my usability subject that I haven't even looked at yet, so I'll have to somehow find time for that as well. *head explodes*

So. Hopefully I'll start testing my eBook prototype this week. I know I probably said that last week. And the week before. And the week before... DON'T JUDGE ME! I already have three users lined up (out of a required six or seven) so at least that's a start.

As for my children's book, I finally got around to doing some character designs! These are only rough and dodgy to get the basic body shape/style/colour scheme etc, and the final ones will be drawn more realistically, but my dragon characters will look something like this:

I've already designed the endpapers for the book; flames for the front:

And bubbles for the back:

I've also created a few new backgrounds in addition to the ones I did last week, including a gum tree forest:

And a lake surrounded by pine trees:

I still need to work on the story text, though; I know exactly what happens, but getting the right words to go in the right place with the right pictures is proving to be far more difficult than I anticipated.

Hopefully painting and programming is enough to protect me from Judgemental Dog:

Anyway, I'm off to wrestle with my eBook prototype...

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ROW80 Round 3 - 11th Update

Since my last update, I have more or less completed by fantasy eBook prototype. I still have one persistent navigation bug (for some reason Flash keeps eating my "previous page" button), and I have to convert it to touch interaction (which should just be a matter of substituting a few bits of code), but aside from that, all components are fully functional. Some of the features include pop-up descriptions and audio pronounciations for the characters and places, while there are also detailed maps to show the reader exactly where they are within the story world. Hopefully my test users will enjoy reading it.

I'm now working on some of the backgrounds for my illustrated children's book. I decided to do the backgrounds separate as a combination of acrylic/watercolour painting and collages of various materials, such as cobweb paper, textured cardboard and ink-stained gossamer ribbon. I'm doing this for three reasons: a) my painting/drawing skills aren't quite at a high enough standard where I can consistently paint landscapes well, and at this point in the year, I don't have time to make mistakes. Cutting and pasting different materials is faster and it is easier to see what it will look like while it's in progress, reducing the chance of it not turning out well. b) The combination of different materials and textures will create an interesting visual style for the images. And c) by doing the characters separate from the backgrounds, I can reuse backgrounds and have greater freedom in positioning the characters within the various environments, and it also means that if I mess up the character drawing, I only have to redraw the character, not the background as well. I want to try to get most of my backgrounds done over the next few days, and then I'll start working more seriously on my character designs.

Here is my first quick-and-dodgy background, a simple snowscape (acrylic):

And my second, a mountain sunset (acrylic, textured paper and gossamer ribbon):

And my third, a desert (acrylic, cobweb paper, textured paper and cardboard):

As always, Judgemental Dog tries his best to be supportive...

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ROW80 Round 3 - 10th Update

So... Apparently I haven't posted a ROW80 update for two weeks... *looks around guiltily, then acts like nothing happened* Though I've been flat out working on academic stuff, I have been somewhat slack in terms of blogging (may Judgemental Dog have mercy on my soul).

Anyway; progress report. I am happy to say that I've made heaps of progress on my fantasy eBook prototype. It is more or less fully functional now; I still have to add in a few small things after feedback from my Honours supervisor, but most of this will be more time consuming than technically difficult, so it shouldn't be too big a problem. I'm aiming to have it complete by Monday so I can begin user testing, though I have to wait for the tablet PC we've ordered to arrive before I can start. It's a huge weight off my shoulders, though; earlier on I was really panicking because I didn't know how I was going to get it working, but after harrassing one of my old lecturers and just tinkering around with it for hours (actually, days), I got there in the end, and I am actually pretty proud of what I have made.

Here is the coloured version of the world map for my novel that will be used in my fantasy eBook prototype:

To be honest, I haven't done as much on my illustrated children's book as I would like, since I've been too busy trying to get my eBook prototype working. However I spent a lot of time last night bouncing ideas off my nan, and based on that I've decided on what I think will be an interesting but easy/quick style for creating my backgrounds. All I really have to worry about now will be drawing the characters (dragons and children) and refining the story/text. I don't have any completed character designs at this stage (everything is still at the rough sketch/messy combination of random art materials stage in my sketchbook), but when I have a finalised dragon design, I'll post it on this blog.

In other (awesome) news, a few weeks ago, I entered a drawing competition for some author-signed steampunk fantasy books... And I won :D Here is my drawing (I did this during a lecture because I was bored):

Unfortunately even when I receive the books, I probably won't have time to read them for another few weeks anyway :( (I say that knowing I'll end up just staying up all night to read them).

I hope Judgemental Dog doesn't get his hopes up too high...

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ROW80 Round 3 - 9th Update

Another fairly short update this week; I had a test for one subject yesterday, and spent most of the weekend grappling with problems I was having with my fantasy eBook prototype (some of which I've solved, some of which I haven't). Most of the progress news I have for this post relates to my illustrated children's book.



I have finally settled on a story idea. It was somewhat inspired by yet another random midnight half-asleep scrawling I found near my bed yesterday: "Bubble dragon picnic". It's completely different to the ones I was working on last week (or the week before), but I finally feel like I've found a story that I genuinely care about, instead of just writing/drawing something for the sake of filling my journal and printing a book. And after describing the story to my Illustration class and the teacher, the general response was, "Oh, that sounds so CUTE! Hurry up and write it so I can read it!" so I'd say I'm on a winner. And yes, the story is about dragons (none of you saw that coming, did you? Did you?). I also think I'm starting to see a visual style developing, though I'm going to have to experiment on it a bit more over the next few days (part of this will involve setting stuff on fire, which is always fun). Now that I've pretty much got the plot sorted out, I just have to actually write it into story form (which means getting it down to around 150 words). It is a relief to have finally chosen a story though; I had been freaking out, going, "What the hell am I going to write about?" but now I can just start writing and drawing (still need to decide on a final design for the main character).



Judgemental Dog is making sure I'm not slacking off:



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ROW80 Round 3 - 8th Update

Well, I resubmitted my ethics forms today, so I should hopefully get clearance to start user testing with my fantasy eBook prototype within two weeks. The prototype itself is coming along well, though I need to look at adapting it to a touch screen interface as opposed to a typical computer (still have to fix up a few of the interactions though, I haven't had much time to work on it this week).



Most of my focus since last check-in has been on my children's book. I'm working on developing plot ideas, but they're a completely different set of ideas to the ones I was working on last week, since I decided those ones weren't really what I wanted to do. I'm feeling the pressure as far as time goes; once I choose a story, I then have to write out the actual text and come up with the character designs, illustrations, style, and layout of the book, and still have enough time left over at the end to organise printing. With that in mind, I really need to choose a story idea by this time next week. The next few days will be spent just refining story ideas, coming up with dialogue and text and doing a few character and scene sketches. I knocked off some various coloured papers and shiny or texture cardboard from uni, so that will give me something to play with in terms of different picture style experiments and character construction (surprise, surprise; one of the main new ideas I've been kicking around involves a wolf and a dragon).



Judgemental Dog tries a new motivational tactic:



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ROW80 Round 3 - 7th Update

Since Sunday I have done a fair bit of sketching in my journal for my illustrated children's book (still haven't settled on a specific idea, but I have narrowed it down to one or two ideas that are much more detailed, and I think I'm close to settling on an illustration style for my book). I have also done a lot of writing for my children's book, not specifically the story itself, but on ideas and outlines, exploring various themes and refining different stories (and it felt more tiresome since I was handwriting it in my journal and not typing it on my computer). I still felt crappy after the weekend's migraine and I've had uni every day so far, so I haven't had the time or motivation to do much else.



I did get my literature review back today from my honours supervisor, who gave me a mark of 95/100 and said it was one of the best literature reviews she's ever read, so off I went home with a considerably swelled ego to work on my prototype a bit more, only to discover more bits that I had thought would work, actually wouldn't. I also discovered I had to redo my ethics forms, but since they're mostly minor changes, it shouldn't take me that long, and I should be able to submit the final version by the end of the week.



In my Illustration for Children's Books class today, we were lucky enough to have children's book illustrator/writer Roland Harvey come to talk to us, which was quite interesting. It was good to see the different stages of his work, showing how he took a book from the planning stage, through the illustration and composition phase to completion. And it was lovely to be able to see the full sized originals of some of his watercolour pieces, as the detail in them was amazing (and a little envy-inspiring, if I'm honest lol). However, he did also mention that there is a surprising amount of 'politics' involved in getting a children's book through to publication, as there are so many issues of political correctness and age-appropriateness involved, as well as 'creative differences' between the writer and the illustrator of the book if they're not the same person. It certainly shattered any illusions I had of producing children's books as simply being a matter of 'draw some pictures and slap in some text and off you go'.



Today I also got my first pay from uni for tutoring, which I started last week, so that was a bonus :D



I feel your pain, Judgemental Dog. Oh, how I feel your pain.



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ROW80 Round 3 - 6th Update

*sorry for late check-in, folks. Had this ready to post last night, but came home from work with a migraine and spent the next 12 hours being sick every 20 minutes and generally feeling sorry for myself. But at least I had Judgemental Dog to keep me company*



Short post this week, since I'm too busy freaking out over my academic workload to write much. I've still just been trying to get my fantasy eBook prototype finished (not going anywhere near as smoothly as I'd hoped). I tutored (well, co-tutored) my first class on Thursday, which was fun (though weird, since some of the students were friends from other classes I've done as a student lol). At the moment, I'm brainstorming story concept ideas for my illustrated children's book. So far I've come up with four or five ideas, though there are two in particular that I'm leaning towards. However, I'll have to play around with a few illustration styles first, to find a balance between getting them done quickly and making them look nice. Once I've chosen a style I can then decide which story it might suit better (or vice versa).



While I was in a lecture on Tuesday night, I decided to attempt a sketch of Rex (a.k.a. Judgemental Dog) from memory. Didn't come out perfect - his chest should have been broader - but it isn't too bad:



On that note, I shall leave you with this week's Judgemental Dog photo, taken by my friend, Carly, and edited on her iPhone:



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