T+2 days (T=28)

Decoration continues. This is one of the more complex pages, its almost finished but I'll need to see a large scale print to identify the last few problem areas.

That goes for all, or nearly all of the pages but as the complexity of the images increases it becomes more important to help push it the last few feet to completion.

I'm afraid that this is where things start to get tedious, smaller and smaller changes are required to finish the project. You'll have to bear with me, sometimes it may look like I'm not going anywhere, but at the resolutions that I can safely upload to blogger you could barely (if at all) make them out.

More later...

Aces baby, yeah I know. That is a big pot I'm just about to win.

Woohoo!

This is the rough flames and decoration on the LAST PAGE.

Not really, but its the last page to have the rough flames added in any form.

And so after a brief break its back to decorating the Highway book.

Thats Full Tilt open in the background.

So there it is, this is taken from the pdf.

I should point out that these things rarely go so smoothly. I think because the idea was good it came together so fast. Maybe thats how it works.

One final check in Indesign and I'm ready to output the first pdf test.

I'm looking at a lo-rez placeholder in Indesign again. The idea for the page was suggested by my brother, he mentioned hitch-hiking which I thought was a pretty good idea.

I'm adding in the final few details missing from the first pass before checking the positions in Indesign again.

When the position is correct I go back in to the image in Illustrator and refine the image at larger and larger magnifications until I'm happy with the basic look and color.

This is just me doing a trial placement in Indesign to get a sense of where the pages need to go to work.

I have most of the lines drawn in at this point, there are areas, like the hands, that have barely been touched. The lines for the hands are just for position.

Just starting to add color for the lines, playing around with the shapes and textures.

Decided to take a break and play with a page from my last project that my brother didn't like.

I usually have a policy of 'give me something better' when I get suggestions so I don't get stuck changing things for the sake of change. It sometimes works out, sometimes not.

Anyway, hes in hawaii for the week, lucky bastard.

Anyway, another workspace shot in which I'm just starting after placing a sketch on the artboard.

Working my way through the pages.

On the bright side, I think I may never have to draw flames in Illustrator ever again after this is finished.

I have three more pages to play with to get at least something down before the end of day. After that I'll do a large scale print and start to correct the problem areas.

From that point on its just a gradual push, layer upon layer of final tweaking, to the finish.

I hope to be there in a couple of days, fingers crossed.

Working on flames and decorations.

I missed my self imposed deadline, so its officially T+1 days (T=28).

This is another couple of screen grabs. I've resigned to myself that I'm not going to finish today. I don't feel bad about it at all. I can finish the pinstriping tomorrow morning when I'm fresh.

The air conditioning broke, its got to be about 96 in here.

Just going to post this snapshot of my workspace real quick while Blogger is back on.

More Later...

LAST DAY!!!!

I'm busy pinstriping and adding flames and decorations.

Blogger is acting up so I'm not sure what I'm going to get to post...

FINAL DAY!!!!

Blogger is giving me crap, can't seem to upload anything. I'm working my way through the pages using the pen tool in Illustrator to outline my flames and pinstripes.

I pulled some screenshots to show you the desktop and my MO within Indesign/Illustrator. I'll have to post them later when Blogger starts to behave again.

I have some ideas for calligraphic brushes which I'll apply to the strokes and outlines as soon as I make my way through the pages.

Tedious, but I'm getting faster at laying down the kind of lines I'm looking for. I'll have more ideas on that later I think.

Two days left.

I'm setting myself a fairly relaxed workload for the weekend, because I'm burned out.

I've already marked out the flames and pinstripes on a new small scale print of the book taken from a near final pdf I generated yesterday. I'll scan this in today and tomorrow will be ready to go on with the final stage of decoration.

I've been having a blast with this project, its got everything I love. Racing cars and hell and the devil and flames and crashes, oh my.

More tomorrow...

And Alonso wiggles his ass in Schumachers face for the last fourteen laps of the Turkish Grand Prix. Woohoo! Take that you red bastardo!

Sorry about that unrestrained enthusiasm, but it was a great race. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing.

Brilliant.

PS Fuck Ferrari...