This (subtly) changes EVERYTHING!

Finally! The sample copies of my book that I ordered from lulu.com arrived today (and totally made my day). I had the first 90 or so pages printed so I can show some people, hopefully potential clients, what I've been working on.

Everything instantly looks more convincingly professional when they're printed and bound professionally, but at the same time the pages have a different feel to them that I can't quite describe. The pages get produced on bristol boards or watercolour papers, and then scanned into the computer for minor adjustments, and then finally printed on paper and bound. Through each of these processes, subtle but inignorable (okay I know this is not a real word, but hey it gets my point across better than any real word I can think of right now) changes take place - colours, scale, levels, values, the way the pictures are looked at, etc.

Experienced illustrators eventually learn to anticipate these changes and adapt and adjust to them. As a result some artists' works actually look better in print than in flesh.

I've been working without a descent printer for so long now that it really produced quite a shock when I opened the package and flipped through my own book this morning. Some of the pages turned out pretty well but some pages that looked good on my computer screen ended up looking like turd on paper. Here are some pictures I took of the book.

The first page I drew for this book back in January, 2008. Seeing it finally in print makes me so glad that I want to cry.

My scanner makes EVERYTHING redder.

The mental maelstrom - this is one of my favourite spreads from the book.

Definitely messed with the levels too much in PS.

Same as above. I think these spreads could look really good though, when I make according adjustments.