Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

I'm wondering about including 7 or 8 pencil drawings in my new book, "An Ancient Arrival – John & Andy – Book 1". Something along the lines of one of Dickens' books (I'm on trend with modern ideas, aren't I?)

I don't have a target age group in mind as I wrote the story for myself, but I suppose 13 - 99 years would be a wish.

Any thoughts ? More on the "why would you?" than the "how do you ?" end of the question.

All the best, Nick

I think, if you're up to it, that the addition of 7-8 drawings is a fine idea that would attract the reader's eye. A good way to pique their interest in the book. Depends on the quality of the drawing & the relevancy to the chapter/topic. Good Luck,
www.colleenbooks.com.

Colleen wrote: "I think, if you're up to it, that the addition of 7-8 drawings is a fine idea that would attract the reader's eye. A good way to pique their interest in the book. Depends on the quality of the draw..."

Hi Colleen,
I'd rate myself as a good amateur artist, especially in pencil. I'd have to work on paper and then scan my drawings to get them into image files, as I know next to nothing about drawing using art software.

John, my main character, is supposed to be a good artist. The connection with the story would be that these are his drawings of friends, teachers and so on.

Thanks for the positive feedback,

Nick

PS, I'm intending to do some drawings anyway to re-energise my artistic faculties. Having done a load of boring editing of my story, rather than creative writing, I am losing interest in the story :-(

Hang in there. Sometimes, when you've taken a vacation from your book, you begin to miss it, think about it, and return to it with new vigor. BTW, I'm writing a children's book, and am facing the same dilemma with how intricate my drawings must be. Fortunately, my step daughter has an artistic flair, so I'll be leaning on her quite a bit. Colleen -- I wish I had just a thimbleful of drawing talent.

I think its valuable and adds something interesting to the book, particularly if certain things need to be illustrated to help depict them, like in fantasy.

Nick wrote: "Colleen wrote: "I think, if you're up to it, that the addition of 7-8 drawings is a fine idea that would attract the reader's eye. A good way to pique their interest in the book. Depends on the qua..."

My take is that anyone can draw and produce OK work, BUT it is time-consuming when you are learning.

Having said that, I am for all practical purposes tone-deaf. A lot of arguments with musical people who contend that anyone can sing has meant we usually have to agree to disagree. :-)

Christopher wrote: "I think its valuable and adds something interesting to the book, particularly if certain things need to be illustrated to help depict them, like in fantasy."

I'm going to do some pencil drawings, then decide if I think they are good enough to include. Hopefully they will be mind-blowing ... not just blow.

Cheers Nick

Hi Nick,

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder / A picture is worth a thousand words.

Adding graphics, even crude sketches are fine and can help convey the message. Many do this for maps. Check out Tolkien's Shire map compared to the more refined Middle-Earth one, both were I believe hand drawn.

If you have scanned or imported a photograph of the originals then something like Gimp is a good choice for cropping and tweaking the effort. Similar to Photoshop absent the enormous cost. :) Inkscape by the same people is possibly a better art package for line drawings, very like the old Corel Draw and both support layers. There are countless tutorials and youtube video to help.

Kindle Create accepts embedded Jpeg and possibly also Png formats. And the format can be converted if required.

Myself, I use Blender ( 3d package ) and Gimp for the covers. LibraOffice's Draw for the star maps. All are available free to download and try, though not for faint-hearted. The learning curve with Blender is intense and does benefit from a good PC with lots of memory. Even the in-built Windows Paint, Paint 3d and Sketchbook are usuable, and I am sure Apple have something too.

Doubtless others can offer their preferred packages as there are a wide range available, many free or at low cost.

I think I did mention in the other thread, editing is the hard part. :( Don't give up.

Final point, as you should be aware the Kindle is B&W only, but does reasonable job turning things to greyscale, though the Fire tablet is full colour. Use Create or the Previewer to checkout how they will appear. You can use full colour in the print editions but it does add to the print cost.

Regards

CC

C.C. wrote: "Hi Nick,

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder / A picture is worth a thousand words.

Adding graphics, even crude sketches are fine and can help convey the message. Many do this for maps. Check o..."

Hi CC,
Very useful, and thanks for your time.

I've being having a go with Gimp - I will persevere, but I'm not finding it friendly,

I will try Inkscape and see if that is a better fit.

No colour. :-) I used to paint long, long ago. I'll be sticking to pencil and charcoal for now.

I did have fun crafting covers for the books. That helped motivate me

All the best, Nick

:)

Agreed, it is good at some stuff but annoyingly complicated for others. I should say I find Adobe Photoshop is equally baffling.

I am not a huge fan of Inkscape, but then I never liked Corel Draw. As a christmas present for myself I purchased a cheapish A4 graphics tablet which works well with pretty much all the packages and I am still getting to grips with.

CC