Deadlines and delays...

I’ve been absent from my Substack for a few weeks. Way too many weeks than I would have liked. All for good reasons of course. So what has kept me so busy? I illustrated a children’s picture book.

I get requests for my illustration services all the time but most of the projects are either not appealing or they simply do not appreciate the value of paying a creative person for their skill and time. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a day job that pays the bills but is also very tiring. So needless to say, any spare time I have I would prefer to be working on my own ideas and comics. Unless a project shows up that pays me what I want and is creatively fulfilling. This was one of those projects. The only downside: an extremely tight deadline.

I started work on the project towards the end of June. Over a period of about four weeks I sketched, illustrated and coloured 30 individual illustrations for the book. I then did the layout and design as well as prepared the files for printing. A very quick turnaround indeed, but I am grateful for the experience of doing this.

One of the big things that I struggle with in my own projects is being satisfied with what I have produced. I don’t have any deadlines or time restrictions of any sorts so I can put something aside, or work on it a bit longer. That ‘bit longer’ is the problem. A problem I didn’t have producing this children’s book (or any other freelance project I’ve worked on) as the project had a very strict deadline. I trusted myself and simply produced the work. I was happy with the choices I made and with the final product. I can without any doubt go through all of the images I created and find problems or areas that I’m not happy with, but that is all with the knowledge that I produced the best work I could at the time. And that’s what makes the work good to me, or ‘good enough’. But at least there is a finished product at the end that I am satisfied with.

Over the past year or so I have slowly been working towards having this kind of attitude when working on my own projects. Which is probably why working on this children’s book was a good experience for me. I carried over my comic book drawing skills and ideas into this project. And working on this children’s book project helped me realise these skills on a practical this-needs-be-finished level. I am always searching for the most efficient way of illustrating my comic ideas, drawing what is necessary to tell the best story possible. Working on this children’s book I had to do the same thing; clear and concise storytelling with expressive characters in environments that are not too cluttered with information.

It is possible that I will be working on more children’s books in the future. I have more confidence in what I am doing and will certainly appreciate the ‘practice’ time on projects that don’t come with the weight of being ‘mine’.

Kev :)

PS. ‘Flaco's Journey’ is now available to order on Amazon.