Today I started colouring Richard The Third. Or rather I continued colouring him.
You might remember a year ago I published Richard The Third and it has become my most popular graphic novel. A first print run of 500 sold out, and the second print run is quickly being got through. (In fact, looking across the studio, I see there are only about 120 of that second run left).
A couple of weekends ago at The Lakes comic festival I took part in the Rights Market, and three of the four publishers I met asked for PDFs of my books. Scholastic asked to see Joseph & Ruth, and the other two, VigeVage and WSOY, asked to see Richard The Third. They particularly wanted to see the coloured pages of it. But, at that time, I only had half a dozen pages of Richard in full colour.
The odd method I've used in the production of this book, and for my subsequent Shakespeares for kids, is that I colour the backgrounds first. This leaves the figures in black & white relief form. Which looks weird in colour, but means the black and white version of the book, the only version that's been printed to date, has the characters standing out against grey backgrounds. Which I think looks good. (See image above).
I'd gone on to do full colour on a few pages, for demo purposes, but then left the rest of the book in that half finished state. Well, now I'm going to, whenever time allows, complete the job so Richard will exist in a full colour version. It will no doubt be prohibitively expensive to buy in that form at the moment. But if the hope that springs eternal, of a publisher taking my books on and getting them to a proper sized audience, then it'll be a bit closer to being ready to be seen in public.
The new coloured version of the book includes a number of newly written and drawn pages, produced as a result of conversations with my agent Emily, nearly a year ago. These flesh out earlier scenes and explain some characters a bit better, but have yet to see print. Whenever a third print run happens, those pages will be in it. And of course they'll be in any colour version.
Worksheet:
Tues Oct 15 - Coloured pages 7 - 20.
tbc
My Books and where to get them:
Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones
Findlay Macbeth - Amazon - Etsy
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback
Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble
Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon
Captain Clevedon - Amazon
Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment