The Making of Stingy Jack

     It's September - Time for corn mazes, apple cider, pumpkin everything, and of course, Halloween! 

   I have always loved Halloween.  When I was a kid I would put on my previous year's costume and practice Trick-or-Treating... in July.  One of my favorite things was when my mom, who is a school teacher, would pull out the stack of Halloween books for me to read.  I was entranced by the spooky stories and enthralled with the illustrations.  Years later I was finally able to realize my dream of writing and illustrating a book of my own - about Halloween, of course.  Inspired by the beautiful books of my childhood I wanted to replicate the magic of printing with limited colors and capture the graphic style of books printed before the digital age.

     First came the story.  Jack o'Lanterns are one of my favorite things about Halloween so exploring the origin of the first Jack o'Lantern seemed like a natural choice.  The theme of the story is a simple trickster tale; but with a twist.  I love the idea that the devil was now a character with whom we sympathize, and the human in the tale becomes the villain.

    The next step was to conceptualize the look of the book.  I chose a simple color palette of three colors(plus tints and shades), reminiscent of the 70's.  Avocado green, orange, and dark brown

Then I began the conceptual sketches.  It's always neat to see the evolution of characters from beginning to end.

The illustrations are then drawn and painted directly on the computer using an Intuos Pro tablet and Adobe Photo Shop.

Once the illustrations are compete, the book is assembled in Adobe InDesign where text is added and the files are prepared for transfer to the printer.

Before going to press, a proof is sent to ensure that everything has been laid out correctly and to double check for any grammatical, spelling, or typographic mistakes.

It's not late to order you own copy, signed and personalized just for you!