Daisyween
G’day Friends,
I wanted to share DAISYWEEN with you!
YEARS ago, I developed an idea of a character named “Daisy”, who was not really specified - I think it was my way of giving myself permission to experiment with style and not feel like she would only ever look one way. I love to experiment with art styles and try everything, so she’s a chameleon made for that purpose I guess.
She does have a few certain features though, a small set of details that would serve to identify her even through artistic interpretation;
Originally, she was also a community project I put out to my Facebook group “The Burkemates Creative Outlet”. I wanted to create a physical book for us to illustrate in - a beautiful, hardcover, watercolor paper journal with the Daisy prompts printed inside. I got quotes back from manufacturers starting at $80 per book and decided to let that idea marinate a little longer, hahaha. This was 2018, and I did a whole month of the prompts on YouTube and created a book - one of my works and another collaborative version of work submitted to the challenge on Facebook! It was so amazing to see everyone dream up such wonderful renditions of Daisy and now she is a beloved character for me in the jlbCREATIVE multiverse, hahaha. Oh, and Amazon KDP (self-publishing through Amazon) now offers HARDCOVER options so now we have an option to make a prompts book!
Here are some of my favorite pieces I did for the 2018 Daisy prompts list
Anyway, Daisy comes and goes - she’s wild. But she’s back for 2022! And this year I’ve written a Seussicalesque prompts list of Halloween (Daisyween) costumes. I’m so excited to finally offer a prompts book to illustrate in, I feel like my original dream for Daisy is coming true. Before we get to that though, I thought you might like seeing a little look at all the notes and (failed) attempts I made making this story… DO NOT read anything with lines through it, I cannot handle the embarrassment haha.
All my work in the 2nd half of my 2022 Hobonichi Techo Avec (my abandoned planner)
I don’t fancy myself a children’s book author (or children’s book illustrator for that matter!) BUT, I am passionate about my passion projects - and I will ENJOY faking it! I’m most excited to have a whole bunch of us around the world with physical copies of Daisyween, all uniquely illustrated.
I decided to order a few author copies and test the different print options Amazon KDP offers. For this run I can offer 4 different options for the book: 2 paperback and 2 hardcover options, a standard and premium version of each. Both paperback options are approx. composition notebook size (7.44 x 9.69 inches) and both hardcover options are 8.25 x 11 inches, all are printed black and white with a glossy cover.
Below is a video unboxing and paper testing the author copies I purchased. It’s pretty long and chatty, but I really didn’t want to skip showing you any parts of the process haha.
Unboxing and testing the author proofs
Below are direct from the scanner results of the front and back of each test page from the standard and premium paper options. Personally, the differences don’t make a HUGE difference for me, but I still want to do mine in the premium hardcover option.
TOP: standard paper option BOTTOM: premium paper option
You can see that the premium is slightly better, but both will ghost and bleed, so I’ve formatted the book so that each prompt is on it’s own page and there’s nothing on the back of that page. I got to playing with mine on IG LIVE as soon as the author copies arrived!
I worked through some changes I wanted to make and did the “Usarabbibun” prompt on IG Live
Also, probably should have led with this, but you don’t have to purchase one of the books to play along with us! I have made a printable version of the prompts (including the intro and outro).
Click the button below for a PDF version of the prompts list.
Oh, also, I made a repeat pattern for the background of the cover. Here it is, and there’s a download of the image tile if you’d like to use it to make your own repeat patterns :)
I would love to share my work with you throughout October 2022 and hopefully we can enjoy sharing all of our interpretations with each other like in Daisy’s gone by.
I’m anticipating filming some of my work on it, possibly live streaming some? Not quiet sure I’ll commit to anything just yet - I actually have to wait a little bit until my Hardcover option arrives (it won’t be here for October 1st so… I’ll think about that later haha).
When I think about the finished book I imagine reading it to my nephew Elijah and niece Savannah (both mentioned in the prompts - “Jijijuju” and “Hootiebootiebell”). I hope they laugh at the ridiculous sound of the words and are taken by all the images of Daisy I can conjure up. I want to take mine to Australia in November and get my family (especially Liji Lulu) to color it in at South West Rocks :) Just like if Gran were still here.
All of that being said, I wanted to remind you that we ALL own Daisy and I want you to feel encouraged to CREATE!
You have my 100% permission to make original and derivative works - literally follow along and directly reference the Daisy work that I share with you if you would like. If you’re making books, stickers, washi, spin-off’s - all I ask is that you share a photo with me so I can enjoy her journey with you as well (my email is jameslukeburke@msn.com). I have extended my copyright to include “The Burkemates”, so hopefully that’s all the permission you need to feel as creative and as entrepreneurial as you want to be. I just want you to enjoy getting involved and share in all the ways you feel inspired to do so :)
You have everything you need now, so go grab one of the books from Amazon if you’re creating a physical book, or print out the prompts list and I’ll see you on social media with my Daisyween pieces soon!
- James.
PS. I use the hashtags
#jlbcreativedaisy
#jlbdaisy
#daisyween
CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SHOP DAISYWEEN ON AMAZON.COM
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