Saturday, May 2, 2009

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends


I was at a mini reunion last night of some of my old art school friends . I was so happy to see everyone, some folks I hadn't seen since I left campus my graduating year. My friend J.Q. joined the festivities. As I was giving him a hug he told me that he had something for me. I knew right away that it was the book I had illustrated.
J.Q. has been going way out of his way to help me "self"-publish it. "Self" is in quotes because I hardly did it on my own.
I sent him right out to the car to get a copy.
About a year ago I decided that I wanted to have a printed book that I could use as a promotional piece. I asked my songwriter friend if I could use one of her children's songs to illustrate. Once I got the illustrations done, I realised that I didn't know anything about publishing.
I sent a general message to all my friends that I thought could give me a clue.
J.Q. took the ball and ran with it. He brought the originals to our friend, C.R.'s oversize scanner (thanks C.R.) because I made the images too big for my standard scanner. Then he took the images and uploaded them to his computer, cleaned them up and put them in a book form layout that the printer could use. He also did some cut and paste magic to created the cover which looked much better than the one I had made using scissors and glue.
We have been communicating back and forth since September and last night I got to see the finished product and show it to my art school buddies.
I am very happy with the finished product, much better than I would have done on my own.
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