So close!
/I am, according to the evidence before me, almost done illustratoring A Bug’s Nap, so I should show you one way I keep up with what’s done and what’s not done.
The way I’ve gone about the sequels to A Bug’s Lunch is to make a copy of that original Bug book, then modify the specific encounters and Bug’s reaction as I go along. I revamp Bug’s path and orientation for each encounter, and I have to draw each new object, trying to get it in the same visual territory as the original, i.e., not too detailed or “polished.”
I’m working in Affinity, Canva’s free and pretty powerful publication software, and as I worked on Nap, I found myself beginning to scroll up and down the thumbnails trying to see what I still needed to finish. That’s when I came up with a quick visual clue: Draw a bright red box around anything that I still needed to work on:
You can see on the right where I’ve dropped in a reference image that I’ve used as a placeholder, and on the left the panel with the book’s thumbnails. Now even a cursory glance is enough to show me that if I were to work on this one illustration I’d be finished with Nap and could move on to A Bug’s Dream.
It could happen.
Anyway, feel free to STEAL FROM THE BEST and use this idea on your own projects.
Also too! You may remember, having read A Bug’s Lunch, the gag with the book’s dedication, which Bug pauses to examine and announces, “I can’t eat this.” I had put it out on Facebook for the AUDIENCE to advise me on the dedication for Nap, whether it should be
Dear Reader: Sleep tight!
Dear Reader: Don't let the bed bugs bite!
My test reader Liam, who is six years old and whose father is in the Navy and who is just now living in the U.S. after a childhood of Japan, Italy, and other not-American places, is learning and is enthralled with English idioms, and he has suggested “Sleep Tight…as a Bug in a Rug!” and I am ashamed I didn’t think of it first. Well done, Liam!
