I spent the past week working on stylistic edits for PETER o'Meter.
These edits focus mainly on choosing words and phrases that fit the metre I began with while still conveying the same meaning.
It's a fun bit of problem-solving like the way it feels to solve a math problem. You know when you get it right because everything works.
I went through the manuscript and made changes on almost every line. Some were tiny some were story altering. Some took a second to decide, some took a time, consulting, thinking, and play.
What began as a blurry idea has shaped up into a story with rich characters, playful details, interesting personalities, thoughtful purpose, and childlike magic. For example, Here is one of the first sketches I made of PETER's bedroom after I landed on the style of Retro Futurism. I drew the bedroom I would have wanted, a place to dream, work, sleep, play, and cuddle your teddy bear. It's lavish. Why not? We don't have to have a low budget bedroom for a robot family.
After the sketch, comes the details. That's when you are forced to ask yourself what? How? Where? Why? As the illustrator and author, I have the answers inside me. I needed time to pull them out. Here you see PETER fully envisioned petting his robot cat, Mega Bytes while watching an episode of Lost in Space. What other details are you seeing?
What is missing? Please comment with your ideas. I may weave them in as I go.
NEXT: I have one more round of edits to polish off the text and make it as clean and clear as possible. Since the story has come into focus, I have begun moving from sketch to final illustrations. I'm looking for ways to creatively tell the story through shot variety and interesting page layouts. I've worked through my thumbnail sketches and started diving in. I've been sharing some of the process on twitter and instagram. Here is a peek of a few posts.
Did you make it all the way to the end of the post?
Then YOU are definitely someone I need on my launch team. Please consider helping me make PETER o'Meter a success.