Doodles by an old lady..

Friday, November 4, 20051:49:00 PM EST
Feeling Chillin'

I think I've mentioned before that I enjoy playing in Paint Shop Pro (and Photo Impact).
When I was reading Wildcat's Journal today (http://journals.aol.com/knightbek/TheWildcatsLair/ ) he mentioned "dustjackets" on books (he reviews books and is writing one with his wife). Anyway, it got me to thinking that I'd do todays journal on some things that I've attempted in Paint Shop Pro, during and after a time I spent writing my "only" story, that I call Kesterwood Forest. I divided my story into 3 parts and began calling it a "trilogy" and even had the nerve to refer to them as "books".. well, they did meet one definition of books.. my total word count (after 2 years) was 251,040 ! It broke down to 104,493 for "book one", 79,606 on "book2" and 66,941 for "book 3".. ok so it wasn't going to be huge.. but it fit the criteria I had found on the web to "constitute a fantasy/ fiction book".

I have no fantasy of thinking they are worthy of publication.. but they are mine! And they stay in my head even now, I can't rid myself of thoughts of "more chapters.. or maybe book 4?" Hey, I'm old let me dream ....

Long about my 7th so called edit and proofing of my own work, I decided I had better quit while I was ahead. It was getting to the point where I figured if I kept changing things it will no longer be "mine" but might turn into something that others feel it should be. Meaning, just things i've read about what a proper book should be. It didn't have to be "proper", it just had to be mine.
I tore myself away from editing and put my efforts into the dreaming part. "Let's see... IF it were a book, what sort of cover would i like? What would some of my characters look like?"
The first thing I did was a "cover"...

I made this using about 4 different photo's I had found on the web. I used parts of each by cloning them together, then I used a plug-in I have to make it look like an oil painting, and lastly put the title on it.

I kinda enjoyed doing that! It made it even more real to me. So I decided to try my hand at some artwork to see if I could come up with some of my characters. Below, shows some of the steps I took to make them.

First, I scanned in a ruff.. ruff ...ruff, sketch. I then "colorized" it in the brown tone you see. From there I used all shades of basically the same color to shade and blend colors. (I used the "spraycan icon", the "paintbrush" and sometimes marked areas to "blur") You are seeing just 4 steps in the actual product.. in reality, there were more like several points at which i saved and renamed the picture as I was going along.. always.. ALWAYS keep the original of any picture you work with!! And Always "save as" and rename about once an hour as you work. (to see more of the character art work here's a web addy where i put them: http://www.geocities.com/kesterwoodgirl/kesterwoodart.html )

One of the last things I did was to attempt making a map. (groan) A map?! I looked into books I had read over the years to try to get some idea what these maps should look like and then dug in my heels and tried...

This really made me laugh... I get lost after the first turn anyone makes while driving a car! And I was going tomake a map LOLLOL.. too funny. I'm not sure how "accurate" it is, but it does have the names of places that the characters go during their journey.

I still have an idea that runs thru my head for some time now to "continue" the journey.. I know the beginning.. and i don't worry about the middle, somehow it always takes me to places I would never think of off the top of my head anyway. The ending is my problem.. I haven't figured out how it should end. I've always known the beginning and end of each of the Kesterwood "books" before I began to write.. hopefully one day the ending will come to me and I can once again journey with my friends.

I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.