Inkshares Community discussion
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Coloring Book???
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This is a very, very cool idea. I am a terrible artist, so I can't help on that front - but I know plenty of the other writers here are. *jealousy*I really dig the idea of the Inkshares Crowdsource Coloring Book!
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I really dig the idea of the Inkshares Crowdsour..."
You can color them up with crayons and take fabulous pictures with them!!!
I agree this idea is very cool. I am NOT an artist either but I still think is would be a neat idea!
I agree this idea is very cool. I am NOT an artist either but I still think is would be a neat idea!
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Current successes, you are obviously welcome because you're on your way and your participation would help the rest of us.
I know Jae's in, but his book is sorta in a different category than mine... We should just test out how long it takes to make a given one before we start thinking of making more than one.
Anyone in to help with formatting/graphic design? It would be nice to have a single cover, or at least a shared style, for all the genres.
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K.E.? Amanda? E.R.? Melissa?
Anyone who can do their own drawing, or at least a crude approximation to save me time - by all means, yes! I just can't do art for EVERYONE. And I'm not really up for designing a million different fashion/weapon/spaceship/creature elements, so you're going to have to give me something to go off of.
Yay! I'm excited that people are interested! My husband thought this idea was dumb!
This is cool. I would have never thought of this. I only recently realized this was a thing, I saw an Outlander coloring book LOL, not a children's story by any means.Being an artist myself I would love to help out. I can do line art that is simple or intricate and delicate, whatever the author's want to represent their work. I'd be happy to do whatever you want me to do. I love to draw mazes too, so it would be fun to incorporate that somehow with the maps that some have for their fantasy books. I'm home all the time now anyway, and since my son just went back to school my time is a lot freer. If you want to see any of my illustration work to get a feel for my style, let me know. I'll post a link to a FB album that's on my illustration page.
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Link us to your stuff, sure. I'd love to see it!
Okie dokie, here's a link to my illustration page and the stuff I've posted there. The top half of the page is mostly 3D art, which I had just uploaded for another thread. So if you scroll down you'll see my paintings and sketches and pet portraits and... stuff. If we get this thing going it's probably a good thing we live in the same city.https://www.facebook.com/pages/Meliss...
Cara wrote: "So I had an idea at 3am (along with another idea I will share on another thread)... This is a long-term idea, for those of us who aren't going to move on to other things after the Nerdist contest i..."I like the idea, would it be alright if you give me your email and allow me to email an artwork I had created from scene in my book? I...I think this is it.
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Paul, I will forward you the email!
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Sure! I'm cara.c.weston@gmail.com.
And Paul, I don't have your email address, so you could email me there to be included. :)
I will be helping out too, so once we get everyone's character or scene descriptions, we'll divvy up the workload.Cara has been busy creating an awesome Pinterest board so if you need ideas and inspiration on a style you want feel free to use it. You can access it through my Pinterest account: https://www.pinterest.com/melissaberg...
It's the last board on the bottom.
I'm excited this is going to be fun!
So that Pinterest board is full of lots of art to get inspiration from. I added a little of everything from one of my art reference boards. Though most are full color, look at the shapes, the poses, the overall designs. Even if the picture itself doesn't fit your story, look at the poses and shapes. Find some things you really like and save it to a folder, including all other details, actor or model photos you think look like your character. Written and sketched out designs on what they should be wearing or holding. Then whichever of us is working on yours, we'll have a basic starting point and go from there.
Does anyone know the font that Inkshares uses in their logo on the website? It looks a bit like the Cinzel font I use on my wordpress website. If those or wordpress only font names, it also looks a bit like Cochin that I have on my computer... I'm making a mock-up of the coloring book title, and I'd like to get the logo and font accurate. I was also going to use the tagline they have in the header of their home page. "Authors share. Readers decide. We publish." If they have any other tag lines other than that, maybe we could find out.
Do we want the cover to have anything about the Nerdist Contest itself or just keep it all Inkshares authors, so that we can continue to use it after the contest is over?
That's great KE, anything to give us an idea so it's accurate to your story. If you want we could use your art directly, or I could polish it up and incorporate it into something with more detail or background or whatever. It's all up to you.
Not sure if anyone else has this. Here's my email: Melissaberg@mac.comYou can send to either me or Cara.
I know, it definitely takes time to learn, the bone structure and musculature is different. I took at least 7 life-drawing classes, and many more night school workshops before I could start getting it right. Yet hands... now those are always a problem.
What my eccentric, long haired art teacher always said: "Practice, Practice Practice... Drawr Drawr, Drawr" (yes, with the r at the end), and "I'm Batman."
My email is pda4ever@gmail.com. Melissa there is a thread somewhere around her with the I share logo stuff. I will see if I can find it, but I am at work and have limited time and access.
I found the actual logo, but it didn't have the Text. I have something that looks pretty close to their font, so I think it will work. Thanks Paul
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Paul, I will forward you the email!
If I could draw just hands and faces for the rest of my life, I'd be happy. :) We have complementing skills!
I feel the same way about maps and non-Euclidean architecture.
I learned photoshop when companies were still thinking it was only for basic ad layout and color correction. Toy Story hadn't even been made yet. It's changed a lot, and I am still trying to catch up.
I've started watching tutorials on digital painting using photoshop. There is some really neat techniques, but I'm still learning that part of it. Getting better.
Cara, we've been corresponding by email, but I'm just getting to this group thread now. I'm totally on board. This is a cool, cool idea! I'm very excited about this collaborative project, and if we look at making this a full print coloring book published on Amazon createspace, we might even compete with the adult coloring book market. Even if we don't compete, just being placed where thousands of people / day are searching for this keyword (adult coloring books) means we're going to attract a lot of eyes.Some considerations:
-Coloring books have a minimum length requirement. I think it's about 30 illustrations. However, usually coloring books just have illustrations. If we were to have illustration page + 1-2 page excerpt from the respective author, we can create something full length with 10-20 authors alone.
-Illustrations for coloring books are most effective when they are very detailed but still colorable. The trend began with patterns called zentagles (Here is a useful article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-...), which still seems to be the common element that those who buy adult coloring books find relaxing
-if we can make this book serve the dual purpose of promoting our books while also functioning as a relaxing coloring book that will be great. That why I think adding in a great excerpt after each illustration will be a good idea, especially if the excerpt complements the image / the image brings the excerpt to life. Thinking logically: for each illustration, the reader is going to spend time coloring it in. That time spent coloring it in is going to place their eyes adjacent to the page with the excerpt, increasing the likelihood that they will read it. It's a great tactic (and when formatting this book, I will make sure that each illustration is on the LEFT side, with the start of the excerpt on the RIGHT side. I'm envisioning a basic block formula like this:
RIGHT PAGE: Book Cover
(flip)
LEFT PAGE: illustration
RIGHT PAGE: Excerpt start
(flip)
LEFT PAGE: end of excerpt
RIGHT PAGE: Next book cover
We will have to make sure then that excerpts are 1 minimum of 2 pages in length, and when they're not, we'd just leave the 2nd page for excerpt blank.
Thoughts?
I was wondering, since I am ABYSMAL at drawing can I set a scene with words and a picture? Also, I would really love to be a part of this!
I love all your ideas John. I've been working for the last two days on an engaging cover that captures the whole idea between reader and author, along with the coloring theme. I hope to have something by the end of the day to share with everyone.Paul (and anyone else feeling intimidated by the thought of maybe having to draw something): Don't feel like you have to draw something yourself. Some are artists and want to, so that's fine too. Mainly what we need from everyone who wants us to do an illustration are basic sketches of your character or scene. The pages from your actual book about the scene you envision as an illustration would be very helpful too. Any details you can give us would be great. We also created a Pinterest board where you can find some inspiration on style, composition, poses for characters. Find something you love that you think would work for your scene and character and include it with your other materials. Anything to help us visualize with as much accuracy as possible your vision of the illustration you want.
For instance, I plan on doing an illustration of a scene from my story, I'm a big fan of art nouveau and the artist Mucha (there are some samples of his work in the pinterest board) So I plan using this style, and since it's a style that relies on swirls or pattern type elements, I'm going to incorporate that with a boarder or frame around the scene that has a bit of a celtic knot design. Yet instead of being just a celtic knot, it will actually be a maze.
I am a stay at home mom, and now my son is in school, so I don't mind helping out for anyone who wants it. Since I don't have the credits or money to preorder everyone's books, I'd like to help out in other ways as best I can. Maybe good karma will some day be returned, right?
So go ahead and send me as much info and details that you want, and I will do my best to make an illustration that represents the mood and style of your work, and the vision you want to create.
My email: Melissaberg@mac.com
Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/caracweston...
Cara wrote: "John Robin? I obviously already want to draw Rena, so if you're ok with that... :)K.E.? Amanda? E.R.? Melissa?
Anyone who can do their own drawing, or at least a crude approximation to save me t..."
I am so in on this! I have the Secret Garden on my shelf and have already started working my way through it. I'm catching up after some horrible life stuff (husband got laid off), so sorry about coming late to the party. I am not an artist but my husband is. What deadline are we looking at for submission of illustrations? What dimensions/ resolution?
As far as contribution is concerned, I am not an artist but I have access to the entire Adobe Creative Suite. I'm moderately Photoshop capable, and I have a font license for all their typefaces which really will help with a nice pro layout and feel. This might all be redundant though since we have several artists in the group, but I'm here for whatever you need me to do.
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Also, I would really love to be a part of this!"
PAUL!!! Crap! I'm sorry! Check your email again - did it go through?
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K.E.? Amanda? E.R.? Melissa?
Anyone who can do their own drawing, or at least a crude approximation..."
Amanda! Yay! Can you send me your email or email me/melissa to get in on the group email?
We'd like your concept/reference photos in tomorrow, if possible. I'm only realistically going to be able to do one every two days, so it's ok if it's more like Tuesday or Wednesday. I want to have all illustrations done by Friday so John can mock up the book over the weekend.
Do-able? :)
I'm heartbroken, but there's no way my husband can get anything drawn in time to be part of this. He's interviewing for jobs right now and has a coding test he has to do for the next two days.I hate to miss out, but I guess I will have to.
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I ..."
Oh, bummer, Amanda! I hope the job interviews will go well for your husband. If you have any quick ideas for, say, a crossword puzzle, those don't take long.
What do you think?
Oh that's an idea. Do you think it would be too jarring to go from having all coloring images to a wordfind?
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I would love, love, LOVE IT if you were able to throw together a crossword puzzle. Since people don't know much about your work, you could pick words from known works that would point to your book -
Like... 1-across: Elf of Rivendell who gave gifts to the Fellowship and inspired my character, (x) or something.
Or does that sound too hard? You could also do words like "adventure", "magic", "fae", etc. that could be legit words in any crossword and readers of fantasy would know.
Sounds good. I'll get something together by Friday.
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To the artists that have answers to this - The only thing I'm not sure about is taking the art from paper to digital file. I know there's an awesome app that does that, but I don't have it. I could probably use Illustrator, but my skills are rusty and it would take a lot of time. Is there a pro-tip anyone can share?
I did this by scanning the art in. I don't know if I was just lucky as we have a brand new printer and it automatically saw it as line art, but it was nice and clear and erased lines didn't show up. I used Photoshop to raise the threshold just a bit, making the lines darker and more crisp, then I used calculations and chose the blue and green channels to create a new alpha channel. I then chose 'load selection' picked the new alpha channel, and it selected all the black lines. While these were still selected I hit delete (I might have inverted the selection too, so it's basically selecting all the white areas only). That deletes all the white, so now you have your drawing on a transparent background. I added a new layer under the drawing one and filled it white. Then if I thought the lines needed to be a bit darker, on the drawing layer I went to 'edit - stroke' added a pixel or two of line thickness and hit ok. Basically done, saved as jpg to flatten the layers. If you don't have a scanner on your home printer fedex/Kinkos will scan it for you and save it to a flash drive. I do that with my artwork that is too large.
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To the artists that have answers to this - The only thing I'm not sure about is taking the art from paper to d..."
Awesome, Christine! Thanks!
I'm crap at digital art, so I really only work on paper and then I scan it in with the awesome scanner at my work. I don't know how to do all the awesome stuff Melissa just described, but I'm thinking I need to learn...
http://youtu.be/csWUI9sQIG4Hey I saved it. This one is great and so much easier than I thought it would be.
Congratulations on the coloring book, everyone! It is awesome!
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you can sign me up for the next one too...bummed I missed out on the first one.When would the art need to be done by?
WHAT IF
to cross-promote our books, we produce a grown-up coloring book?
One coloring sheet per book. Could be lineart (that looks like a kid's coloring book, OR if you want it could look all stylized like a graphic novel or whatever) of a scene from your book, or just lineart of your cover image.
We'd put a coloring book-level quote or description at the bottom of the image, plus author/book name (link? put active link in pdf file we send out?).
No printing (unless???), we'd just send the digital file of a group of maybe 5, 10 when someone pre-orders your book - and all the other authors do the same.
We could ask current successful authors to send one out to all their current followers/readers.
We could have several - one for high fantasy, one for hard sci-fi, one for space opera, one for horror (I don't want to draw horrific things, ok, someone else has to do those), etc.
We could produce other activity pages, like a maze for books with long journeys or cool maps, or word searches/crosswords with plot-relevant words. BE CREATIVE.
I'm not the only artist here, so I wouldn't have to do all the art... right? (C'mon, anyone?)
Buy in: if I do art for you, perhaps you could order my damn book. Otherwise, I'm sure there will be shared work to do promoting the coloring book as a bonus for ordering, coordinating the files, graphic design, organizing sheets by genre. I can't do this all myself.
SO...
Anyone interested? This is not a service I'm just offering for free; it's a collaboration to cross-promote each other's books. (This might even be something worthy of an io9 mention, if the art is cool.)
THOUGHTS?