Part 3: Colouring with Photoshop

My Storybook Process

This part focuses on how I learned to digitally colour my existing drawings using Photoshop. With this newfound knowledge, I had to make some hard decisions whether to keep refining and salvage old drawings or let them go and start fresh because they either no longer fit with the new drawing style or the story have changed since.

2021 | October

Motivation kicked in again!

4 months later, motivation came back again to draw, because a forever-talented-and-artsy friend came to visit and stayed with me. I took the opportunity to ask her for advice... and she showed me how to digitally colour in Photoshop.

Before/After in Photoshop

Mind. Freaking. Blown.

Suddenly my “final sketches” became my conceptual rough ideas for the coloured, more polished drawings.

Going HAM continues...

Pencil sketch of a Lion and a Bunny playing by a tree

2022 | January

Not every sketch made it to the end

The more I improved on my coloured drawings, the harder it was to justify keeping the initial sketches. Over time I've developed a certain style and consistent look to the characters that the old ones now seem out of place and inconsistent with the newer drawings.

This is one I had to scrap, despite really liking it as a standalone. (Tbh I think my new version of this still doesn't compare).

2021 | DECEMBER

Took a mini break from the project to spend time with family for the holidays.

During this time my brother and I worked on a music composition project (will share at a later time ^^)

2022 | JANUARY

New Year, New Perspectives

Back at it again!

After working on something else completely different from the book, I was able to go back in with fresh eyes re-reading my story. I realized it rambled a lot, likely because I didn't spend enough time proofreading. To keep the story from going all over the place, I cut out a lot of content (entire chapters, even), including the drawings that went with it.

In memoriam...

Image thumbnails of inside pages of the first book draft

2022 | March

1st book draft

I had given myself a deadline to publish for March so I pushed really hard to get it going, but I learned there were WAY more things to figure out before that could happen (duh). So it ended up being just a decent 1st draft I can properly share with people.

Self-imposed deadline and stress is my jam to get sh*t done.

In hindsight, it was still the best decision not to rush things, because over time since then, my drawings have drastically improved, and my story flowed much better.

(aka not so longwinded and a lot less text lol)

Next: Colouring with Procreate