Two hand painted (by my good self!) angel figurines are now available from the Old Ones Productions store - you can buy them here:
http://www.oldoneproductions.com/products/hand-painted-angel-figurine
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Old Ones Productions - Hand Painted Angel Figurines
Two hand painted (by my good self!) angel figurines are now available from the Old Ones Productions store - you can buy them here:
http://www.oldoneproductions.com/products/hand-painted-angel-figurine
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
The Cult of Me: Guest Author Interview - Andy Weir
The Cult of Me: Guest Author Interview - Andy Weir: We have a treat for science fiction fans in this week's guest author interview! One of my favourite reads of the year has been Andy Weir...
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Festival of Drabbles 2015 - Places to Discover Drabbles
We're all too rapidly approaching the Festival of Drabbles for 2015 which will be a week long celebration of drabbles. If you're already a fan of the form then make sure you join in by joining the event and if you aren't aware of drabbles then this is a great event to learn more about them:
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/375605662648575/
On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/970201-festival-of-drabbles-2015
It was the Indie Book Bargains website (now known as Book Hippo) that first introduced me to the drabble form - drabbles are a story that is exactly 100 words long. Here are some sites where you can discover drabbles.
If you are aware of other sites to read drabbles then let me know in the comments section below.
Book Hippo
http://bookhippo.uk/
Book Hippo features a drabble in its daily newsletter. You can also submit drabbles here for inclusion in the newsletter.
Drblr
https://drablr.com/
Drblr is a social network dedicated for drabbles - it's easy to sign up and submit drabbles and even easier to browse the submissions.
Short Fiction Readers and Writers
https://www.facebook.com/groups/shortfictionreadersandwriters/
The Short Fiction Readers and Writers group on Facebook has many drabbles posted from a variety of authors.
The Cult of Me
http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/p/100-word-stories.html
As such a devotee of writing drabbles I have a page dedicated for the drabbles I've written, There are other pages for the various drabble series as well.
Ken Magee's Author Blog
http://www.kenmageeauthor.com/?page_id=78
Ken's author blog has his drabbles posted.
Rick Haynes' Author Blog
http://profnexus.wix.com/rickhaynes
Rick is a prolific and award winning drabblist and you can read his drabbles on his site.
Ignite Books
http://www.ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk/p/drabbles.html
Kath Middleton has some of her drabbles on her blog.
The Drabblecast
http://www.drabblecast.org/
A drabble themed podcast and website.
Microfiction Madness
https://www.facebook.com/groups/465369153574246/?hc_location=ufi
A Facebook group dedicated to stories of 100 words or less.
Are You Afraid of the Dark
http://afstewartblog.blogspot.ca/
Features drabbles every Wednesday.
Have You Entered October's Short Fiction Contest?
October's Short Fiction Contest is well under way and there's only two weeks left to enter if you haven't already done so. This month's image features an unusual visitation which has already sparked some interesting stories. |What do you think has the men so surprised?
To enter write a story of no more than 500 words based on this month's picture and submit it through the form on the competition page linked below. There's no entry fee and there's a £50 PayPal or Amazon prize for the winner, with prizes for second and third place stories as well.
http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/october-short-fiction-contest.html
If you haven't read the winning stories from September's contest yet then you will find them here:
http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/september-short-fiction-contest-winners.html
Friday, 2 October 2015
Guest Post - Illustrating Famous Animals Volume 1 by Katie Stewart
As part of her blog tour celebrating the release of her latest book 'Famous Animals' Katie Stewart has written a blog post about how she created the charming illustrations in the book:
Maybe in a bid to prove to the world that I’m not as old as I look, the illustrations for Famous Animals Volume 1 were all done digitally. Until recently, (ie. the past few years) my illustrations were entirely done by hand. Occasionally, I’d do a drawing or painting, scan it onto the computer and enhance it in Photoshop. However, I found trying to draw with a mouse close to impossible. I would look longingly at drawing tablets, but they were all so expensive. Then a couple of years ago I decided to treat myself to a Wacom Intuos Pro, courtesy of Ebay. The Intuos Pro is a wonderful thing, but it demands great hand-eye coordination, something I found quite difficult with the tiny screen on my laptop. So I splurged some more and bought a large monitor. After using that for a while, I realised that my one reason for not buying the smaller Wacom Cintiq – the smallness of it – was no longer an issue. With a large monitor I could use the Cintiq to draw straight onto when I wanted detail or use it like an Intuos with the monitor if I wanted to do bigger work. So I broke the piggy-bank completely and bought a Cintiq 13HD and so begins the story of how I illustrate…
The illustrations for Famous Animals each started with a very rough sketch, each on a 12 x12in transparent ‘canvas’ (in Photoshop). The sketches were based on images I’d found of the historical figures and animals on Google. Most of the pictures only required sketches of the figure. Only a few needed details for the background.
Once I had the sketch to my liking, I’d add a layer underneath the sketch and begin to add my colours using a basic brush. I use mixer brush a lot to achieve form and shading, again mostly a basic brush, though sometimes I use a feather of fur brush to add texture. I find it a bit like sculpting.
When I was satisfied with the rough colour image, I’d turn off the original sketch layer and begin to add details. Some of the illustrations required a lot more layers than others. I tend to work with lots of layers because 1. It’s not so much work to redo if I muck it up and 2. It allows finer control over any adjustments or blending I might want to do. I think Joan Aardvark and Henry the Apeth probably had the most layers as their ‘costumes’ were very detailed. Each piece of Joan’s armour and weaponry was done as a separate layer and then the detail on the armour was another layer again. I used a style which made it slightly 3D metallic to add some depth to the picture. With some of the animals, I used a fur filter and cropping mask for added realism.
The background was the last thing I worked on, again a new layer under all the others. Generally, I made these fairly simple so that they didn’t detract from the figure, but with some of them, like Henry the Apeth, I wanted to set the figure in time and space, so I added more detail. Some of them have texture filters to add interest or the ‘oil painting’ look.
All this work was done in RGB colour, but to submit them to IngramSpark for printing, I had to convert them to CMYK with less than 240% saturation, which was a bit of a nuisance, but I think I managed to keep the colour pretty well as good as it was in RGB. I also reduced each one to just over 8 x 8 inches to fit the trim of the book. I would really have loved to have done a book that catered for the 12 x 12 paintings, but unfortunately IngramSpark didn’t have anything that big that allowed premium colour. Still, it will allow me to do prints on a larger canvas and maybe one day I’ll do a bigger book. I have plans for more in the series, hence ‘Volume 1’.
What happens when you combine a love of art, animals and history with a sense of humour? You get a book that is delightfully different. Famous Animals is an alternative history, an artistic peek at the world of such remarkable animals as Felix Mendelswann, Joan Aardvark and Luciano Pavaratti. At the same time, it takes a biographical look at some equally noteworthy humans. A book that will appeal to young and old alike.
Click here to buy Famous Animals from Amazon
 |
| Joan Aardvark |
Maybe in a bid to prove to the world that I’m not as old as I look, the illustrations for Famous Animals Volume 1 were all done digitally. Until recently, (ie. the past few years) my illustrations were entirely done by hand. Occasionally, I’d do a drawing or painting, scan it onto the computer and enhance it in Photoshop. However, I found trying to draw with a mouse close to impossible. I would look longingly at drawing tablets, but they were all so expensive. Then a couple of years ago I decided to treat myself to a Wacom Intuos Pro, courtesy of Ebay. The Intuos Pro is a wonderful thing, but it demands great hand-eye coordination, something I found quite difficult with the tiny screen on my laptop. So I splurged some more and bought a large monitor. After using that for a while, I realised that my one reason for not buying the smaller Wacom Cintiq – the smallness of it – was no longer an issue. With a large monitor I could use the Cintiq to draw straight onto when I wanted detail or use it like an Intuos with the monitor if I wanted to do bigger work. So I broke the piggy-bank completely and bought a Cintiq 13HD and so begins the story of how I illustrate…
The illustrations for Famous Animals each started with a very rough sketch, each on a 12 x12in transparent ‘canvas’ (in Photoshop). The sketches were based on images I’d found of the historical figures and animals on Google. Most of the pictures only required sketches of the figure. Only a few needed details for the background.
Once I had the sketch to my liking, I’d add a layer underneath the sketch and begin to add my colours using a basic brush. I use mixer brush a lot to achieve form and shading, again mostly a basic brush, though sometimes I use a feather of fur brush to add texture. I find it a bit like sculpting.
When I was satisfied with the rough colour image, I’d turn off the original sketch layer and begin to add details. Some of the illustrations required a lot more layers than others. I tend to work with lots of layers because 1. It’s not so much work to redo if I muck it up and 2. It allows finer control over any adjustments or blending I might want to do. I think Joan Aardvark and Henry the Apeth probably had the most layers as their ‘costumes’ were very detailed. Each piece of Joan’s armour and weaponry was done as a separate layer and then the detail on the armour was another layer again. I used a style which made it slightly 3D metallic to add some depth to the picture. With some of the animals, I used a fur filter and cropping mask for added realism.
The background was the last thing I worked on, again a new layer under all the others. Generally, I made these fairly simple so that they didn’t detract from the figure, but with some of them, like Henry the Apeth, I wanted to set the figure in time and space, so I added more detail. Some of them have texture filters to add interest or the ‘oil painting’ look.
All this work was done in RGB colour, but to submit them to IngramSpark for printing, I had to convert them to CMYK with less than 240% saturation, which was a bit of a nuisance, but I think I managed to keep the colour pretty well as good as it was in RGB. I also reduced each one to just over 8 x 8 inches to fit the trim of the book. I would really have loved to have done a book that catered for the 12 x 12 paintings, but unfortunately IngramSpark didn’t have anything that big that allowed premium colour. Still, it will allow me to do prints on a larger canvas and maybe one day I’ll do a bigger book. I have plans for more in the series, hence ‘Volume 1’.
Click here to buy Famous Animals from Amazon
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