Self-publishing ‘Let’s Visit New Hope,’ Part 4: Sketches to finished art

The new children’s book ‘Let’s Visit New Hope’, written by Gayle Goodman and Roy Ziegler and illustrated by me, Pat Achilles, has just been released by the New Hope Historical Society. We used Amazon’s online publishing service, Createspace, to publish it.  This series of posts will follow the steps in the creation of the book.  

Some of my initial sketches for the children’s book Let’s Visit New Hope were just what the authors wanted, leaving me few changes to make before the finished illustrations.  The vignette below, used on both page 10 and the title page, hardly changed at all through sketch, color sketch and finished art.

But some of the sketches, for various reasons, needed changes before I put brush to board. (For these illustrations I painted with acrylic paints on illustration board.)

For instance, at the beginning of the story Benjamin Parry welcomes us to the Bucks County countryside, with his New Hope Mill in the background.  I had researched photos of 19th century mills still in existence today, and men’s clothing of the time period, to sketch the scene.  When author Roy Ziegler added some details to the text, explaining Parry’s was specifically a flour mill, I added a cart with wheat sheafs and sacks of flour. For the finished art I also redrew Ben more in the proportion of a real person (click on the image to enlarge).

Some initial sketches changed completely.  I had planned to draw the carousel at Peddler’s Village, but author Gayle Goodman convinced me that the the ball cannons at nearby Giggleberry Mountain would be a much more exciting romp to draw.

One of my favorite projects in this book was creating a double page spread panorama of New Hope.  We took some artistic license by putting several of the major historical buildings in town together – the Parry Mansion, Bucks County Playhouse and New Hope’s first Town Hall building – but I think it captures the essence of this lovely river town that has so much personality.  You can see the progression of my illustration from sketch to finished page in the 30-second video below. I will have prints of this scene and others in the book available for sale on my Store page soon.

You can obtain author-and-illustrator signed copies of ‘Let’s Visit New Hope’ by ordering through the New Hope Historical Society’s website at http://www.newhopehs.org. My next post coming soon: Publishing with Amazon’s Createspace. Previous posts in this series are on my blog, just scroll through https://achillesportfolio.wordpress.com/pencilled-in/ .   If you want to read future posts as they are published, subscribe to my blog by clicking on the +Follow box at the lower right of your screen and you will get email notifications when I have posted the next article.

Self-publishing ‘Let’s Visit New Hope,’ Part 1: Inspiration and Timeline

The new children’s book ‘Let’s Visit New Hope’, written by Gayle Goodman and Roy Ziegler and illustrated by me, Pat Achilles, has just been released by the New Hope Historical Society. We used Amazon’s online publishing service, Createspace, to publish it.  This series of posts will follow the steps in the creation of the book.  

The authors of Let’s Visit New Hope contacted me last summer to ask my availability for taking on a book project.  Author Gayle Goodman, who has worked with grade-school children in the area, was the motivator, having realized there are no children’s books devoted to the unique, historic town of New Hope.  Roy Ziegler is a local author and historian whom Gayle brought on board for his particular expertise in the history of the area.

Art (c) M. Sasek

At our first meeting Gayle brought along two books from her childhood that somewhat inspired her to develop this project – and they became my inspiration as well. This is Paris and This is San Francisco are two of dozens of children’s books created by the incomparable architect-illustrator Miroslav Sasek in the 1950s and 60s.  They are delightful romps through famous cities of the world, with a dizzying number of beautiful illustrations drawn by Sasek, with the skill of a master but a child’s eye for fun.

They made me eager to do a book in this same vein, for our lovely local town of New Hope. The authors and I needed first to rough out a timeline for its production.

The authors had notes for the book but not a finished manuscript, and they planned to approach the New Hope Historical Society and other resources for grants or donations to pay for the art and production of the book.  From their typewritten manuscript, I would lay out the book from page 1 to 32, deciding which text and what art would go on each page.  I would sketch the illustrations and paint the finished art. And then the whole piece would be turned over to Createspace for printing – Roy had used Createspace for his other books and found good customer service and easy navigation. So basically we had to estimate the time needed to write the manuscript, gather donors, lay out the book, create the illustrations and have it printed.

Our ballpark estimations were developed: a couple weeks for the manuscript to be written; a month to lay out the book; 3 months to create the art; and a month to get it printed.  The task of soliciting donors, we decided, would come after I laid out the manuscript as a dummy book with pencil sketches.  We felt it would be a big selling point for donors if we could show them an approximation of what the book would look like, and also, having a 32-page dummy book would prove that we were serious about getting this book made.

Art (c) Pat Achilles

While we initially hoped to have the book ready for sale in December for holiday gift-giving, this was unrealistic for a full-color 32-page book. Instead we targeted March 1, which is Benjamin Parry Day in New Hope, as our hoped-for launch date.

In discussing the events and family-friendly places to include in the book, Roy suggested the idea of having Ben Parry himself – known as the Father of New Hope – be the narrator of the book, leading the reader through the town’s history and culture.  The Historical Society celebrates Parry’s birthday on March 1 at his historic home in the center of the boro, so Benjamin Parry Day was indeed the perfect time to aim for in introducing our book.

‘Let’s Visit New Hope’ is available at http://www.newhopehs.org. My next post coming soon: The Manuscript and Thumbnails. Please write questions in the comment box below the post and I will answer them asap. If you want to read future posts as they are published, subscribe to my blog by clicking on the +Follow box at the lower right of your screen and you will get email notifications when I have posted the next article.

My new children’s book about New Hope, Pennsylvania

Since last September I’ve been working on the illustrations for a new children’s book, Let’s Visit New Hope by Gayle Goodman and Roy Ziegler. The authors, who live in New Hope, found no children’s book anywhere devoted to this unique, culturally rich river town, and so set out to create a book that would highlight its history and family-friendly sites and events.  I’m honored they asked me to provide the artwork!

I’ll be writing more posts about the process of developing the book and my illustrations here in my blog, and I’ll be happy to answer questions if you’d like to leave comments. We used Amazon’s Createspace to self-publish the book, and I can answer questions about self-publishing too since I’ve worked with other authors to self-publish.

Our book launch is on Sunday March 1, at the Parry Mansion in New Hope, and the public is invited.  It’s the perfect place for the launch since Benjamin Parry, the man who built the first ‘Hope Mill’ after which the town is named, is our narrator for the book.