Character designs and some fancy books

I’ve been making some good progress on my picture book recently. During spring break, I completed character designs for almost all my little critters. I’m in the process of painting their final designs now. So far, I’ve finished Rosemary the chipmunk and Sable the black-footed-ferret.

 

I’ve also been making more books as usual. I finished the book I had been planning for my father. My father is the kind of person that loves to make predictions, and remind you of them when and if they come true. So I made him a book where he can write down his various predictions and refer back to them for gloating purposes.

I made another case-bound book with a clasp closure that I’m particularly please with. I’ve always liked the looks of split color covers, and I think the pattern of the Japanese paper goes really well with the overall design. Making clasp closures are also a tedious process, but the effort is definitely worth it.

I’ve also been trying out new Japanese stab-binding patterns using leftover paper scraps. Making hardcover stab bindings is a massive pain, but they look so impressive. Mine are a little messy since they were the first attempt at each pattern with the exception of the blue hemp-leaf binding. My biggest frustration is a tie between determining how much thread I’ll need and making wide enough holes through the thick text blocks. Like most things though, practice makes perfect. So more practicing is in my future.