Compilation |

Compilation |   

Compilation of your book may be accomplished in several ways, including simply by using an online self-publisher to compile the finalized .JPG files into a book, or you can use programs such as Adobe Acrobat to compile all of the .JPG files into a .PDF file.

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Proofing |

Proofing |

Proof read your work.  Take a break and read it later after you've rested. Effective proofreading can be accomplished by reading each word of your book very slowly to make sure that you didn't inadvertently omit any words or punctuation, or to correct typographical errors.

Text |

Text |

After you have successfully colored your .JPG images, you should be ready to insert your story text (either from your storyboard, or from a manuscript you created.  

Various text styles (fonts) can be downloaded or purchased from the internet.  For free fonts, GoogleFonts  or visit https://www.google.com/fonts 

The text of your picture book can be inserted on the photo editing software.  Remember to use spell check before inserting the text.  Most photo editors don't have spell check built-in.

Coloring |

Coloring | 

After you have effectively Inked and Electronically Inked your .JPG images, you should be ready to color your images.  Color selection is important, and I suggest that you experiment with various shades of the color you wish to select.  Coloring is mainly accomplished by using the paint bucket tool on your photo editing software.  However, there are other ways to accomplish coloring, including, using layers and using the various type of paint brush functions.  If you have successfully inked your images, the colors will not spill out into unwanted areas of your images.  For example, if you don't connect the inked lines exactly, an object in your image may become the color or another image you were coloring.

Saving |

Saving |

Save your work, and save it often.  Begin by saving the work as a file name which is easy to understand and remember.  Saving the first .JPG as "Page 1" and continuing from thereon, can be a simple and easy naming convention to use throughout the picture book making process.  As you work on the .JPG file, remember to hit the save button on a regular basis in case the program freezes or crashes.

Electronic Inking |

Electronic Inking |

After you have a .JPG which is ready to begin working on (i.e. after you have resized the .JPGs), you may need to complete the inking process you stared with earlier.  This is because you will see inconsistencies in your inking which you may want to alter to become more uniform in inking thickness, or where lines that should have been connected, were not.  

Electronic inking is a process to further refine your inked lines.  You can first start out by using the paint-bucket tool and "spill" or "splash" black paint onto the black inked lines to make them darker, and to make them more consistent in color and thickness.

Electronic Clean-Up |

Electronic Clean-Up |

Electronic clean-up is a process which involves removal of excessive pencil or inking marks that were scanned in during the scanning process.  Since your scanner will scan at approximately  300 DPI (dots per inch), it will scan in the excess pencil marks you were not able to remove during the Erasing process and extra ink marks from the Inking process.  To achieve an effective electronic clean-up of your .JPG images, you will need to become familiar with the photo editing program's paintbrush features, and the different types of paintbrush styles installed on the program.  For example, a spraypaint style may help blend two colors together because it sprays is speckles until the area is painted as much as desired.  Also, a chisel tip brush is useful in achieving straight corners.  

Use white color to paint around the inked lines on your .JPG.  IF you zoom in really far (up to 1600% zoom), you can more precisely clean-up the excess marks on the .JPG than if you stay zoomed at a 100% view.  

To further clean up the image, use white color and the paint-bucket feature and "spill" white around the inked lines.  This will paint the background completely white, while leaving the inked lines nice and dark still.  This will take some practice to know the intricacies and tendencies of your photo editing program.

Photoshopping | Image Editing/Altering |

Photoshopping | Image Editing/Altering |

Adobe Photoshop
Pho·to·shop
ˈfōdōˌSHäp/
verb
alter (a photographic image) digitally using Photoshop image-editing software.

Photoshop (or other free-source alternatives) can be used to edit, ink, color and text-format your picture book.  Photo editing programs such as Photoshop or Paint.net can resize your .JPG image.

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Resizing |

Resizing |

After you have a .JPG file for your image, you may need to resize the pixels so that you have consistent page or image size.   This will become important later when you compose your picturebook from the multiple .JPG files (each .JPG file will become a page of your picturebook).

Scanning |

Scanning |

After you have planned out your story, and have finished sketching, inking, erasing and storyboarding, you're ready to start scanning your work.  Scanning means taking a digital image of a piece of paper (in this case, one that you have your storyboard on).  When you scan the piece of paper, it becomes digitized, and stored on a computer or other digital storage or other handheld device.  Scanning is needed in order to paint the inked sketches, if you so choose to paint the images digitally.  You can also scan traditionally colored (painted or color-penciled) sketches into digitized form.

A scanner can scan and import image files into several different formats.  For easiest use, I suggest a JPG (also known as a JPEG) .  If the scanner exports the image file as a .PDF, you will need to then export or convert the .PDF file to a JPG file.  Most programs have an export function, and you will use that to export the .PDF to a .JPG.

Storyboarding |

Storyboarding |

A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a media sequence (book, movie, music video, etc.

Erasing and Clean Up |

Erasing and Clean Up |

After the process of Inking is completed, and after the permanent marker has dried (which only takes seconds), you will then need to erase and clean up the inked image.  Use a good soft-rubber eraser.  Is you use a hard, crusted eraser, it will smear the pencil and ink marks, while a new, fresh eraser will not.  

Erase the pencil marks which were not inked over. In my case, there is a lot of erasing to do.  As you become more familiar with your style of sketching, you might have less erasing and clean up to do.  

Clean up involves completing any lines that may not have been completed, and making sure that the inked version is the best you can make it.

Inking |

Inking |

No, not inking like a squid.  Inking is the process of refining a pencil-drawn sketch with usually black smooth solid lines that comprise the perimeter and other lines on the sketch / drawing.  

Inking also involves the process of choosing the best line from the pencil lines that have been drawn over each other to comprise a particular line.  When you choose the line you are going to use for inking, you eliminate the other lower quality lines that are not in the desired location on the sketch.  You eliminate the other pencil marks by inking over the pencil with one smooth stroke of the marker, in the exemplars on this site.  The black lines on the BILLY sketch above is an example of inking.

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Penciling and Sketching |

Penciling and Sketching |

Penciling and sketching are synonymous terms, and they simply mean the art of rough sketchings / drawings / and doodles, usually in pencil, hence the name of the process, and can be very unrefined.  Visit the main ArtBlog Section for information on how to put Penciling into effect on your drawing project. 

Penciling produces a very rough sketch of the drawing.  Your penciling will have pencil marks all over, and the lines will not be clean.  In fact, you may have several pencil lines drawn over each other to comprise the correct kind of pencil line.  

Picturebooking |

Picturebooking |

Picturebooking Definition:
noun.  The art, act, or process of the creation of picturebooks, usually for children, which contain colorful depictions of characters, and a story which may contain either informational, educational, or other moral-learning events.