Creating Beaches Instead of Fuzzy Alien Monkey Babies...

I’ve been staring at the computer screen for the past 6 hours touching up digital photos of the artwork for the final versions. Removing a wrinkle in the paper here, lightening a background there and even creating a beach in one ocean scene for the author instead of redrawing the whole full-bleed layout by hand. I can copy grass, create new waves, expand a bush... so I know how to alter stuff pixel by pixel. Perhaps that’s why some of the tabloid headlines and photos don’t grab me anymore. I could probably create Fuzzy Alien Monkey Babies that looked a lot more believable. Mine would certainly be cuter!!

So tomorrow morning I will replace all the dingy rough photos with these touched up scans and then get everything ready to go to the printer on Wednesday morning. The colour proofs will be the most telling, but so far, despite the many hours to ensure the proper colour, detail etc. I am pleased to get the digital artwork so that it does the drawings justice. I didn’t spend all summer creating those images to have them go muddy when scanned or look icky because of how they were photographed.

This is where being a type A personality comes in handy. When I wasn’t happy with the results of the photo shoot because the stuff shot under the studio lights looked too yellow, I double checked by going to the printer’s and looking at the images on a calibrated screen... then went outside the next morning and shot all of the pictures again in full sunshine. There really isn’t anything like Mother Nature’s full spectrum light to bring out colours properly.

I did take a break this afternoon to go for a long walk on the trails at the Irishtown Nature Park about 15 minutes from the house by car. We all went and Mum & John were amazed at how many different kind of birds we saw. I am sure they will bring their binoculars next time!! Bethany complained a bit that her legs were going to fall off, but forced exercise is sometimes necessary!

Well, it is off to bed with one last chance to sleep in just a tiny bit before the routine of the 6:15 am alarm starts again for another school year. Updating the website for September will just have to wait a bit longer!!

Happy Labour Day Weekend everyone!!