Status Update: Scanning and Drawing

As an overall status update on where things stand with the book at this point, I have 30 illustrations which I have deemed more-or-less finally completed and I scanned them all after work this week. I scanned them at 600dpi so they can retain the detail of the ink lines and be scaled back to the 300dpi needed for the actual pages of the book. This weekend I spent several hours putting the drawings into rough layouts along with their accompanying poems to create the final pages. It was an absolute joy putting them together. (But there are still many more drawings to come!)

Throughout the process, I could relate to a wonderful quote by Maurice Sendak: "All my life I have been in the fortunate position of doing - creating - what came naturally to me. What could be more wonderful than a dream of childhood coming true?  As a small boy, I pasted and clipped my bits of books together and hoped only for a life that would allow me to earn my bread my making books. And here I am, all grown up - still staying home, pasting and clipping bits of books together." 

One of the drawings I completed, I will post a small detail of here, as a little "teaser."  The whole drawing is a two-page spread, so this is mostly the left-page side. Perhaps I will post the rest of it another time...or perhaps you will need to wait for the book to come out. For now, I will let your imagination try to fill in the blanks as to why this barber is laying down behind his chair.