An art book collecting the works of world-renowned illustrator Todd Lockwood To purchase prints and copies of Found Worlds—the Art of Todd Lockwood—visit toddlockwood.com
In the meantime, this girl finally found her voice. She won't be the cover for the book, and it's too late to put her in the book, so the best thing, I think, will be to offer The Sea Queen as an exclusive giclee, with the run determined by sales in the initial release after the surveys are sent. How does that sound?
Hi, everybody!
I wanted to touch base with current events and an idea.
First, the body of the book is FINISHED. The contract is signed. All that remains on the big book is the cover typography and layout. Meanwhile, I have no idea what the coronavirus is doing to production schedules for the printers in China. I expect there to be delays. We are all sort of waiting for herd immunity to emerge.
With that in mind, it occurred to me that I might host an online preview of the book, via twitch or something more interactive. I have a pdf of the book, and I'd love for you to see how great it looks. I've never done twitch. I tried Zoom over the weekend and found it lacking. I don't know how many people can join a Skype conference at once, but I know how it functions. GoToMeeting might work best; you can download the app for free and join in on a one-time basis, so there's no cost involved. Let me know if that interests you, and what time of day/week would work best. Also, if you have experience with large-crowd interactive web apps, I'd love to hear your insights.
You are all the wind in my sails! Stay safe!
All the scans are in, the layout is 99.6% finalized—just a few minor edits remain. Then we have to complete the cover. The image I posted in the last update won't be the official cover. I decided that it's too risqué for most coffee tables. I'm not sure what the fate of that image will be—since I showed it to you all I feel obligated to do something with it. I've considered an alternate dust jacket in the add-ons, full wrap, no cover copy, but we'll see how that plays out. For one thing, I'd have to add more illustration to the left. The narrative of this piece keeps evolving. What do you think?
Meanwhile, the delays caused by missing transparencies and other issues may have worked to our advantage. The coronavirus has production in China at a standstill. If we had turned in all our files when we planned, we'd now be sitting on pins and needles wondering where our books were. As it is, we get extra time to tweak and polish. We've got one of the sketchbooks completed. This ship is almost ready to set sail...
It has been too long since I checked in with all of you. Things are moving, though we got slowed down a little by the holidays and book logistics. For example, many older paintings needed new scans, since the ones remaining from my first art book weren't big enough. Yesterday my scanner broke, with a dozen scans to go, so I have to scramble to get that done. Meanwhile, I have two covers to paint, two books to write, and yet I found myself caught up in an unexpected project. Having fun pouring myself into something I haven't done for a long time—a painting just for the hell of it. There's a chance I might make it the new true cover of FOUND WORLDS. Here's a sneak peek. What do you think? Imagine her surrounded by tiny flying reptiles...
I know we had settled on the Drizzt image, but I'd love something new, if it's worthy.
In between the eating and the visiting, we have been working diligently on FOUND WORLDS. The design is 95% done. I edited the text for the umpteenth time, but I think—I think—the index is finalized. A few widows and hyphens to round up, a handful of bigger image files to find and/or clean up, and we'll be ready to send my baby to the printers!
One more weekend of eating and visiting (and maybe some drinking), and we'll start on the sketchbooks and surveys. Everything else is ready to go once we have books.
I knew this was going to be a huuuge project, and it didn't disappoint. Thanks again to everyone who jumped aboard! Do you know someone who missed the Kickstarter? It's not too late! The pre-order store at BackerKit is open!
A belated Merry and Happy for the holidays, and a BIG Happy to you for the coming year. Good stuff yet to come...