The Making Of: A YamPuff Coloring Book

I’m one of those people that starts loads of projects but never finishes them. Over the years I’ve tried my hand at just about everything – with the same results. Half-written novels, half-finished cross-stitch patterns, incomplete knitwear, and abandoned webcomics. The only exception to that rule has been making coloring books. Something about the process of starting from nothing but a concept and ending with a book in your hand is just magical to me. When I started on my first coloring book project (YamPuff’s Stuff), I was incredibly intimidated and I didn’t know if I would be able to do it. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get through without the help of some amazing Facebook groups! (Shoot me a message if you’d like an invite to the Facebook group I’m a part of that’s all about supporting coloring book authors).

In any case, I’ve decided to share my process and workflow for anyone interested in the creative process that goes behind my books, or for those perhaps interested in self-publishing. I’ll also include some info on the resources and software I use.

First: The Concept

It may sound obvious, but having a strong concept is key to making a strong product! In my first coloring book, YamPuff’s Stuff, all I knew is that I wanted to try making a coloring book. I just started haphazardly drawing whatever crossed my mind. When I ran out of ideas I decided it was ready for publishing. The result was fairly successful, but I wasn’t totally happy with it. For my next coloring books I was more organized. Carousel Dreams and Sugary Dreams both had clear themes: carousel horses and sweet things respectively. Both books had a much smoother production phase and were better coloring books overall.

To gather inspiration during the conceptual phase, I find Pinterest boards to be indispensable. Plus, once you’ve put together a board and made some pins, Pinterest starts popping new ideas in your feed, which is really useful and an awesome way to discover new content!

My inspiration board for Sugary Dreams on Pinterest

When coming up with the concept for Sugary Dreams, I discovered Kira Imari, an artist for Angelic Pretty. Her lolita art was a huge inspiration for me, so much so that I went and bought all her artbooks.

I also enjoy brainstorming by making To-Do Lists. It keeps me organized and gives me a good idea of what I’ve done so far and what’s left to go. I use a to-do-list notebook because I love the sensation of ticking things off the list and having a visual representation of how much I have left to go.

Second: The Ground Work

Once I’ve decided on a concept and gathered enough information, the real work begins!

I’ve been using MangaStudio 4.0 for the longest time but I have gradually transferred to its newer version; ClipStudio Paint EX. It’s an excellent tool with an incredibly responsive pen tool feature. I set up a story file, which allows me to see at a glance how many linearts I’ve done and how many still need to be completed. I can also arrange and rearrange them as needed.

I used to depend on traditional sketching for my linearts but ever since purchasing a Cintiq 13hd, I tend to default to digital. I’ll talk a little bit more about pen tablets and the Cintiq in an upcoming blog post, but suffice to say the Cintiq completely changed my workflow and, alongside my DSLR camera, is one of the most important purchases of my art career.

Once I’m done with my linearts, I export them and convert them to vectors on Adobe Illustrator. I have also used vectormagic.com and Inkscape, a free and open-source vector graphics editor. Vectors are the easiest way for me to get perfectly crisp lines during printing.

I also make and design a copyright page, title page, front and back covers, choose the perfect fonts for the title and text, proofread it all, among other little miscellaneous things. Once I’ve compiled everything into one PDF, I’m ready to upload it to Createspace!

Third: The Publishing

We’re nearly there, but the road is still a long one! There are a bunch of print-on-demand services out there, including but not limited to Createspace, Ingram Sparks and Lulu. I have always used Createspace until know although I have created an Ingram Sparks account for potential future use. Createspace is in my opinion the most user-friendly and with the best assets – great royalties that you yourself control, as well as direct access to amazon.com’s marketplace. That is a HUGE benefit. That means your self-published work is sitting (in a virtual sense) right across the shelf from books by huge publishers. And it has the potential to be seen by millions!

The Createspace Dashboard

I won’t go into the full details of self-publishing through Createspace just now – but if I get enough interest I’ll certainly consider making a walkthrough of the process! There’s a lot of info provided by Createspace itself, not to mention lots of help to be found on the forums. There’s a lot to take in – page margins, bleed lines and more. I found the best way to become acquainted with it all is to make a test book and fiddle with the settings from there. There is no fee for uploading a book and making changes to it, so it’s a risk-free way to get a handle on it all.

My first PDF almost never works – there’s always some pesky pages that are too close to the margins, or not aligned/ formatted properly. This is the worst part of the whole process for me – it can be stressful and time-consuming!

When I’ve finally formatted everything properly and made any last-minute changes, I order a proof copy. Since I live in Egypt currently, this definitely puts a dent in my budget! The shipping costs are not pretty. But getting proofs are a must. Seeing the digital copy is just not the same as holding the book in your hand. I usually have a few things to fix in the first copy, so I normally order two proofs per book. Once all that is over, I put my book up for sale! Easy as pie.

Fourth and Final: Promoting

So you would think that once the book is published, you’re basically done, right? How I wish. Unfortunately, it’s just another step in the process! Although I have to admit, this is a step I quite enjoy: promoting the book! I start off with a little book photoshoot for initial promoting. I also color in linearts from the book, take photos of them and post them online in various Facebook coloring groups and on my own social media pages.

I didn’t know a thing about photography a few years back. Below you can see a photo I took in 2015 with a camera phone and no photography knowledge, the lower photo taken in 2017 with my DSLR.

How I have grown

I had no idea what a DSLR even was, back then. When I started tackling my art career seriously I knew I’d have to work on my photography skills. I learned a lot from this blog post (which is technically about taking photos for a food blog but who says we can’t gain knowledge from varied sources?) I purchased my first DSLR, a used Canon 5100, off ebay. Ebay is my go-to place when I need a tool that’s way out of my budget. I learned how to use a white balance filter, what aperture is, how to adjust my camera’s setting on manual mode and more. I still have a lot to learn about photography but I’m much more confident in my ability now!

One of the biggest things I had to learn on my art journey is that you are not at a disadvantage if you started your art career later in life (mine picked up in my late twenties) or if you didn’t go to fancy art school or can’t afford art courses. You can learn practically anything you want online – and usually for free! I usually start out new skills by feeling overwhelmed and confident I will fail. But I always get through them somehow.

And that’s about it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into my process for creating coloring books. Let me know in the comments below if you found any of the resources I linked helpful!

Take a look at my coloring books here!

Till next post!

-Yams

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