@Jenna-Jenks Hahahah! Thanks I'm excited about getting them out there

Finally getting around to coloring my book again. Its crazy how much time school can take. I have until Feb 15 to have this thing colored and printed out. I still have some watercolor textures to make and I need to work on "About the Author" page too. Hopefully I can kick some butt this weekend

I added the water color texture to this spread. I still need to do some lining up on the leaves, but I really like the natural messiness it adds to the digital coloring.

This is a great thread! I I bought the 10.5 iPad pro 256 G from Best Buy on Black Friday over two years ago. I think I got almost $300 off the original price I love it! I use it way more than my 8 year-old PC and Wacom. I travel a ton, so the smaller size and lighter weight has been a good fit for me. I don't have the cellular version. Like others, I just use my iPhone hotspot. I've only used about 80 G so far but I also have Cloud back up. Good luck Laura!

Love the colors! Welcome Kali!

I'm doing an experiment. I used a light table to watercolor on blank paper over the printed copies of the outline of my drawings. Bwala! I created some cool watercolor textures to imbed into my digital procreate files. Here is an example:

All the colorizing is done digitally, but I used the watercolor textures to add some real-lifeness to it. I find it difficult to manipulate digital brushes to look like legit water color. Although there are a lot of super nice digital watercolor brushes out there. At some point I need to try to experiment with making my own brushes. Have any of you all done that, made your own brushes?

I got like nothing done during the holidays! Ugh!
I think I’m going to have to do another art hibernation in order to reach my next deadline. My next deadline is Feb 15. I want to enter it in the local US Bank show in Bowing Green, KY. (I have to give myself deadlines that involve other people lol). Sooooo, I’m gonna get this baby colored!

I’m playing around with some coloring ideas here.

I’ve also been playing around with some water color textures I think I may try embed into the layouts.

@CLCanadyArts Awe, thanks Yeah, If I sent it to a publisher, I would leave it mostly as is, just a few spreads in color.

Helloooooooo!
Long time no see! How have you all been? I'm sooo excited for the holiday break!
I'm back at it you all! So I've let the book pickle for a while and now I'm ready to be back at it! I have been going to school the last three months and I've not had much time to work on my book. I've just been showing it to family, friends, and people getting their feedback. I've gotten a whole bunch of pre-orders
I've edited and changed a few things in the book and now I'm now coloring it!!

Here is what I have so far on this spread:

I've been going back and forth between self publishing or traditional publishing. They both have pros and cons. I don't remember if I mentioned earlier, but my dream would be for every book sold, one given away to someone who couldn't afford one or just needs a special gift during a hard time in life. I would love to give stacks away to foster kids and funeral homes and what not. I feel like self-publishing would for sure give me the freedom to do that. But its going to be a ton of work on my end. Publishing through a company would be less work for me, but I would also not have much say in a lot of it. Any thoughts anyone?

Nice!!! You go!

I'M STILL ALIVE! I survived it you all, and I got the dummy-book and my portfolio all done at 3am in the morning of the conference. I must say i was chugging the free coffee at the conference. But you all, it was soo amazing! any of you who haven't checked out SCBWI (Society of Children's books writers and illustrators). You should totally check them out! They always have cool stuff going on. Here is they're website:
https://www.scbwi.org/
There is a membership fee but I think its totally worth it if your ready for the next level Its a good compliment to SVS. I heard SCBWI mentioned on the SVS podcast before too. SCBWI has a ton of resources available to members, and the community is so friendly, helpful and encouraging. I don't know if they do this everywhere, but down here in Nashville they also have monthly hang outs where we meet up and talk about our projects and get input!

I also got to meet @StudioLooong while at the conference too! She got honorable mention for the portfolio preview! You go girl!

I almost met @robinleigh49, but my brain was so full of fluff (kinda like Poo Bear) that I totally forgot to reach out ): I'm bummed, but I'm determined to find you next time Robin! Do you think your coming next year?

I'm going to be submitting my dummy-book to a few agents and publishers who were at the conference. I may not know anything till the end of this year, but I'm in no rush. And I'm trying not to put my hopes up too much. But its exciting to see where this project might go.

As of right now, I'm taking a break from drawing and I'm going to let this project pickle. The plan is to have people review it and give me their input on any edits I should consider before hitting the coloring stage.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me on this crazy adventure so far. It means the world to me to have such an awesome online community here! I've learned so much from you all! and if it wasn't for you all keeping me accountable, I'm sure I would not have gotten this done in time.
Go forth and be awesome art peeps!

Here are a few pics from the mock up: