Sorry for not posting in a while - in future I'll try and post something weekly. Today I'd like to show samples of the stages I went through to make my book, starting with thumbnail sketches of the page layouts. For anyone who is not familiar with the term - thumbnail sketches are very small sketches, I should have put my thumb on the sketch to show the size but anyway, you get the picture. 

  
From these sketches I'd work up the drawing into the actual-size pages of the book. Then transfer that drawing onto a an 11x17 inch sheet good quality paper, then pencil the final drawing, scan it and colour it digitaly using Photoshop. Done! 

Here's the back cover of my book, with one of my dads favorite ditties he loved to recite on his birthdays. Next week I'm going to show you the stages I went through to make this book. 

I hope whoever is looking at my blog has enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing and illustrating it. When I started this book, I wasn't sure if my dad would live to see it, and I was so happy to give him a copy on his 100th birthday, five years ago this weekend. He loved it, and passed away a few months after that - so, that's that!