Making a Dummy Book

Jan 19, 2024 | Courses, Workshops & Education, Picture Book Development

This week was a lot of fun! We learned a lot about the importance of making dummy copies of our books to test out the format, page turns, pacing, etc.

To make mine, I scanned in the thumbnails that I made last week, enlarged them a little, added text in InDesign, then printed them, cut them out and glued them together.

Flip through of my rough book dummy:

Here’s the first draft of finished artwork for one of the interior spreads:

… and the second draft of the artwork for the first spread is below. I heard about an open submission day late last week, so the first version of the artwork was rushed. I deepened some of the colours in Photoshop to meet the deadline since who knows when I’ll have another chance to get my work in front of a respected publisher?

The second image is the same artwork but I added another layer of watercolour, and went over the main characters and foreground elements with a slightly heavier pen to make them stand out from the background. I like this version better!

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Julie Bateman

Hi there! I've been a self employed graphic designer, working from a home office in Barrie, Ontario Canada since 2003.

In the summer of 2022, I decided to start an ink & watercolour travel journal to document an upcoming road trip from Ontario to Prince Edward Island with Rob, my husband, and Bella our Old English Sheepdog.

From there, I fell in love with drawing, painting and documenting my world in sketchbooks. That learning process inspired me to follow the dream of writing and illustrating a picture book for children.

That's where this blog begins.

If you're interested in collaborating or hiring me for freelance projects, please email me at julie@batemandesigngroup.com

 

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Please join our email list if you’re interested in watching my journey to becoming a published picture book author and illustrator progress. If you’re a Kid Lit Agent or Publisher, or if you’re interested in a collaboration, I’d love to hear from you! Please feel free to email me at julie@batemandesigngroup.com if you have a direct inquiry.

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