Giovanni and Scampi

So, here it is. I thought I would actually start a more "main stream" blog. I already had one going with my .mac account on my website, but I never really got much traffic. We'll see how this one does.
I uploaded the final print files for our new book on the 5th of April 2010, which is one week ago from today. I really meant to keep a better blog of the whole creative process but, I didn't.

The background:
December 2009. Our first book ("Our" being Aaron T. Watene and myself), "Wailoa and Kukui" was on the boat coming from Shenzhen, China due any day. Aaron and I had discussed what our next book would be considering we sold enough books to justify the cost of an additional book. The 2nd book was going to be a collaborative book with the famous Giovanni Shrimp truck, a landmark culinary icon on the North Shore of Oahu. It also happens to be the neighbor to Aaron's prime selling location. In my research, having a collaboration book, where there are more than one invested party is a good marketing strategy. Not only are we invested in the success of the book, but the collaborating party is also concerned that it be successful. That was and is our thinking in choosing this story for our 2nd book.

Now on to the story:

January 1st; the 1st sketch
After a few days of research as to how best to give a bottom-dwelling crustacean a personality, I drafted the first sketch of Scampi. Here he is riding his first wave. Using this sketch, I of course was able to visualize how the rest of the story would unfold, through the illustrations.


January 2nd; my goal this time around was to create the entire book in sketches before committing too much time to the illustrator versions.


January 2nd: I was also keeping the book laid out in inDesign (page layout program) using the sketches as place holders.


January 4th:


January 5th: I was on fire here. Completing 1-2 sketches per day!


January 6th


January 7th: I was looking forward to "learning" how best to create the crashing waves in illustrator. Vector waves are traditionally not done very well. I'm happy to report that I did have some create vector waves, stay tuned for some of the finished "proof"


January 8th: I particularly loved the pose that Scampi was making, kind of a arms out flying motion!


January 9th: I loved how I put him in the deep jungle, kind of a Raiders of the Lost Ark thing with the Tiki statues around him. That part was shot in Kauai you know...


January 16th: Aaron and I had some financial issues we needed to work out during this dry spell. It is hard for anyone to be creative when they lose their motivation. I eventually got back on track, but never got quite back on the same pace as before.


January 17th:


January 18th:


January 20th:


January 21st: I love this sketch. All the diverse groups that come through as tourists. You gotta love Hawaii for that!


January 22nd: The final illustration.

That sums up the month of sketching. During this process, I was able to do very little else. The sketches would take 6-8 hours each day. The process of sketching and shading or rendering doesn't usually take that long, but the amount of research to come up with the unique backdrops, and putting the thought into making each page interesting and unique does take a lot of thought and planning.

If you've read this far, you deserve a medal. I will post more blog entries showing the finished pages in the near future. There is still a lot more to write about!