Those Facts About Snacks

 

If you want to educate yourself about all the fun treats you love to munch, then pick up my fun comic called Snack Facts.

You can get your very own copy of Snack Facts in many different forms at http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/buy.htm

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 12

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 12 all about cookies.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 11

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 11 all about ice cream.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 10

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 10 all about marshmallows.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 9

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 9 all about chocolate Easter bunnies.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 8

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 8 all about lollipops.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 7

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 7 all about Valentine's Day chocolates.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 6

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 6 all about theaters snacks.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 5

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 5 all about candy canes.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 4

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 4 all about potato chips(crisps).

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 3

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 3 all about Halloween.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 2

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 02 all about bubble gum.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 1

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 1 all about Gummy Bears.

If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Reading Snack Facts - Issue 0

Sit back and relax while I read you every issue of Snack Facts. Today I'm reading issue number 0 all about the origins of Sir Francis Sweetums and Barbara. If you want to pick up your own copy of Snack Facts in either the micro edition or the full sized edition visit http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - A Few Problems

In past entries in this blog I've mentioned that there were a few problems making this book. The one that people ask me first and foremost every time I tell them about the concept for this book is "how did you mange with the letter X". I won't lie, for the animal in this case I had to do some research. This was probably the only animal in the book that I can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it exists. The candy however was actually fairly easy, in fact that reason I felt comfortable using candy in this book was because I knew I had a candy for the letter x.

The next problem came about when I started thinking about making this project into a book, or selling it in any way. I realized that I couldn't use brand names for candy without either paying out companies or risking breaking some kind of copyright. Once I started working on these drawings I started to have to update a few pieces in order to make sure the beast was enjoying a generic treat. I actually enjoyed this challenge. I did use some research material for finding generic candies, but thankfully it was almost entirely my own website candycritic.org. I also decided that it would be okay to use the names of candies from outside North America.

I would be lying if I told you that turning these drawings into a book was not filled with some other frustrations. I had to double check spelling and grammar at least a dozen times. I also had to figure out how to format my drawings to they could be printed into a book. I've worked on books and comic books in the past, but frankly someone else almost always did the pre-press work for me. I learned a lot and it actually left me confident enough that I made a second book quickly after (the complete Snack Facts).

I hope you enjoyed my tales of putting together Treats and Beasts. As always, if you want to pick up your own copy, check it out right now on Amazon.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - The Cover

The other piece of art and design I had to think about when I decided to make this a book was the cover. While working on the animal drawings I had zero thought about if this was going to be a book, and less about details like covers. When I started working on colouring the drawings I realized that this book is probably going to need a cover. I'll admit that my first thought was just to collage a few of the drawings together and see if that worked out.

Then I was doodling in a my sketchbook and I decided to start with a circle. I thought that maybe I could make a circle (which is a common shape themed in this book) and randomly scatter a few drawings around it. I thought maybe the drawings could be held up using trees. Then I started thinking about decorating those trees with candy. Finally I thought that maybe instead of just reusing a few of the animal drawings, I could put some nice text in the trees.

Next thing I knew I had a rough concept for the cover. I used some pencil crayons to see how it might work in colour. I made a few mistakes on my rough attempt, but I feel like the overall concept worked. Now that I knew I was going this direction, I knew I had to ink it up and get it under the camera to shoot.

It took a few attempts to ink it up. I'm actually not very confident with my inking, particularly when it comes to letters. I feel like this worked pretty well, and the next phase was to colour it up. Fortunately that wasn't too hard as I already had a rough drawing in colour to reference. I probably should have done that with all the animal drawings, but live and learn.

Next, some of the challenges I had with this book.

If you want to have your own copy of Treats and Beasts, be sure to pick up a copy on Amazon right now.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - The Inks Turn Into A Book

As I mentioned before, I really had no direct plan to turn this collection of drawings into a book. In fact I wasn't even sure that I would finish all of the drawings. I figured I might loose interest at some point and just move onto something else. The thing is, I didn't. I really wanted to try and finish each and every drawing in the collection, and near the last few drawings I realized that I think it would make a really fun collection, maybe in a book format.

After deciding this, my next phase was to figure out how the book should look. I decided that I would use a few electronic fonts, however I wanted the letter that was showcased to be my own design. Since I had designed the animals and snacks using a rough circle template, I figured the letters should also fit into this template. I found lots of reference online and starting sketching out some font ideas. Eventually I had each letter drawn and inked.

The other choice I made once I decided to make a book was that I wanted the illustrations to be in colour. I don't own a scanner and I didn't want to buy one for this project. I still wasn't convinced it would actually pan out. Since I am a photographer, I decided that I would photograph each drawing. This turned out to be fairly challenging, particularly getting the light just right. I built a setup and had to shoot each and every drawing on the same day. I wanted to make sure they all matched perfectly.

After that I brough everything into various Adobe editing tools and after a few drawings were done I had a system that worked fairly well. The good thing about taking the photos of the art was the fact that many of the sketchy lines and even the texture of the paper came through just a little bit. I feel it gave the art a really nice natural feeling.

The colouring was probably the hardest part of the process for me. I'm not a great expert on colours, and I found parts of this process to be very hard on the eyes. I do however feel that it worked out fairly well and I'm glad I went beyond black and white.

Next the cover idea.

Make sure to get your very own copy of Treats and Beast right now on Amazon.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - Early Sketches and Concept

 

I've always wanted to draw an alphabet book. I've thought about it for a while, but I've never been able to figure out a theme that would work for me. Monsters where always an early thought, but while I really enjoy the look of monsters, I don't really know much about monster history, or at least not enough to find a monster for each letter of the alphabet. That's the first big problem you get when you're coming up with an alphabet book, figuring out a character or idea for the most obscure letters of the alphabet.

Then one day I was sketching in my sketchbook and a thought crossed my mind, I drew a walrus eating wine gums. The idea suddenly crossed my mind, I love animals and I obviously love candy. While I do care for the wellbeing of animals, my main interest is learning about different kinds of animals, this is why the alphabet concept worked well for me in this case. Candy is also an obsession of mine, and once again it's about the variety of candy that I love.

So after sketching out the walrus eating wine gums, I started to sketch and write out animals and candy for each letter of the alphabet. Fairly quickly I had all the animals and treats sorted out. There were a few challenging letters to deal with, but not as many as I was expecting. The bigger problem I had was trying to find treats for each letter. I didn't want to use brand names in this book, so the challenge was to find non brand names for certain letters of the alphabet. Fortunately I've traveled a fair bit and had treats from many places around the world, so in some cases I used more obscure foreign treats to fill in some of the harder letters of the alphabet.

The next step was to design the book and start the rough drawings.

You can pick up your own copy of Treats and Beast right now on Amazon.

CC