Thanks y'all!
@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen Thanks, and you're welcome! With this project, I decided to just share the whole process from start to finish. It's going to be a good ride I hope!
@Nyrryl-Cadiz I know right? I was like, "it's a fairy tale, love this story and know it by heart, I need a smaller project after that oracle deck (just completed a 44-card oracle deck for Blue Angel Publishing.)" But, once I really dove in, realized what a grand story it really can be, and I had a vision from the beginning of what I wanted the reader to experience, so am just going to go for it. Some of these are quite complicated too, but I'm going to learn a lot (already am), and I think come out with something pretty special. <fingers crossed>
@demotlj Thank you! It makes it even more fun knowing the structure of the whole thing from the beginning. There were a lot of points, I was tempted to start getting to the art before the whole thing was laid out, but I stuck through it, and am glad I did.

Ummigah, I did it!!!

First time laying out a chapter book, and I'm pumped. I didn't go into this project planning a chapter book, but after looking at what I wanted to do, the age group I want to aim at, and the length I wanted to keep, I think this is the right choice. Other than the spot illustrations I plan to do for the chapter beginnings, I have all the composition sketches in place and the text complete, and laid out. It ended up taking slightly longer than I had expected, because as it turns out, I am fully adapting the text. Pretty much changed the ending, made it more modern and easier to understand for the age group I am aiming at which is 7-9, with the word count clocking in at 8440, and I ended up going with a 8.5x11" book with 18 pt font and 24 pt leading. Adapting a long text was great practice to get me back in the swing of writing, and I really am grateful now for the years I spent teaching ESL! I was a little intimidated at first, but am even more in love with the story since the changes I made. I'm also grateful for the years working in advertising and working with InDesign. Eighty-six pages would have been stupid difficult to do in just Photoshop.

Is it painting time yet? Pretty please? (Well, after much reference hunting and line art anyhow.) I'm pretty sure I'm going to start with Story 1 which is the most snow themed, then story 5, which is the Lapland story and has the bulk of the reindeer illustrations, and will be great for the holidays I think. I'm hoping to do Snow Queen ornaments and stickers, maybe even jewelry! Not sure after that at this point, but will probably save all the flower and garden illustrations for spring. Who wants Snow Queen pendants?!

Holy sh*t you guys! Thanks for suggesting Later.com! Just started on it, and am breathing easier already!

@jdubz I've just been going through the pain of having a cloud folder that is accessible on my phone as well as my computer. Go on my phone, dowload to my camera roll, and post from there. Tap everything out on my phone all painful like, etc etc, but looks like Later.com is going to make things a whole lot easier!

Also, I use an app called Squaready to get nice squares on the phone for pics.

Just joined https://www.scbwi.org/ and they have regional chapters all over that have meetings and conferences. They are also an international hub for artists, authors, agents, and publishers. Kind of the standard club within children's books.

@baileymvidler Thank you! Yes, I do multiple thumbs for each, so that when I go to lay it out, I have options, both for what is best for the story, and also what flows best from one image to the next.

I've found that for printers, the 8"x10" and the 6"x9" is like "the standard book size" is pretty much offered everywhere. Good advice, thanks!

There is a great class for this!
https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/take/portfolio-and-self-promotion-with-james-yang/lessons/1038590-portfolio-and-self-promotion

AHAHAHAHA! Done with initial thumbs! So crazy making. Am just itching to paint! But, still so much more to do before I can get the watercolors out.

So, layout is gunna be next. Ummigah...Still having trouble deciding the exact dimensions to do. I think that this will belong in the "Chapter Books" category aimed for ages 6-9, leaning towards the higher end. It's broken down into seven short stories, and I'm going to be doing some re-writing to reduce the text, make it more strong girl hero main character-centric, and the timeline a little bit more sensible and easier to approach.

So, with that said, my understanding is that it should be smaller (easy to hold and read by oneself, and put in a backpack), and portrait layout rather than landscape. I've read that 6"x9" or 8"x10" is a good standard way to go. Anyone have more insight on this? Would love any advice on this if anyone has experience on best practices for deciding dimensions. Does my understanding sound correct? I really wanted to do more landscape style illustrations, but all my research says that would tend to be aimed at younger readers, and this is definitely not just a straight up picture book. Unless I went more adult "art book" (a la Griffin and Sabine or something like that), and then I don't think it matters...but, not even sure about that either. I mean fairy tale art books for adults?! Am I cray cray? I like the idea of going a little more adult art book, because that kind of takes any rules out of the picture...the categories and age groups thing is tripping me up a bit. Must. Decide. Who. The. Audience. Is.

On with the thumbnail extravaganza!

Got two more sheets done today. This is definitely the hardest part!

What a great turnout! Good luck to everyone.