Tuesday 29 September 2009

The Bears Are On Their Way!!!!


Yes, my bears have left home and are off into the Big Wide World.

I spent yesterday mounting everything up, which takes ages.

Each piece of artwork first needs to be trimmed (I cut my pastel paper 10mm wider than I need all round, so I can trim it back to a nice, crisp edge). The ruler has to be wiped with a bit of loo-roll after every single cut, as it picks up chalk from the illustration.

Here comes a quite unnecessary, arty shot of my waste bin full of trimmings...


I lay the trimmed artwork face down on the overlay paper (cut by my dear hubby) to stick masking tape loops on the back, then flip it over and position it on the mount card.


I wipe any blotted-off chalk from the overlay with more loo-roll (so handy), then position the overlay paper on top of the illustration, to press the artwork in place, so I never touch the surface of the chalk.

The overlay is secured with magic-tape along the top edge:


I've learned to use a steel rule to weight the overlay paper down at this point, or the tape's static sucks the paper up and makes a right old mess (requiring much swearing, scrunching up, binning and re-cutting).

Once mounted, I give each illustration a last once-over, a final check for missing buttons, whiskers, teeth etc. In this case it was missing pussy-cat eyebrow hairs:

I label each mount with the project info and my details, but also with a BIG RED WARNING for printers to alert them to the perils of pastels!

Then it's all sandwiched between two huge and very stiff sheets of cardboard, before being wrapped in brown paper and lots of sellotape for good measure. It ended up over 2.5 feet long:


I struggled with it to my local post office: it weighed a ton and cost £21 to post, but you should have seen the wide grin on my face as I walked back home.

I do have mixed feelings about this bit though: huge relief that it's all done, but vague terror in case it gets damaged or lost in transit. And I still can't quite believe it's gone. You can tell I'm over-excited by the length of this post! A glass of wine (or two) tonight I think...

14 comments:

cassia said...

hooray! Uber congrats, dear gal! cxxx

Coralie Colorie said...

I really imagine you are over excited !!! That is great !!!!

Coralie Colorie said...

Champagne !
;-) ;-)

granny grimble said...

Congratulation on a job well done(as usual) I'm very excited about this one because I've seen it through every stage of production. Thank you for so much information and fun along the way. Can't wait for the next book!
Mum X

Carrie said...

Hi Lynne,
Thankyou so much for sharing this fantastic progress of your work!
Although I haven't commented before, I've really enjoyed every post, and your characters and style are really wonderful. I am full of admiration!
As an aspiring illustrator/writer myself, it has been a great insight and inspiration...
Hope it all arrives safely, can't wait to see it published...
Carrie...

Julie Dunion said...

Congratulations Lynne, you'll have to let us know when it's published. I'm going to miss those guys until the book is available ;-)Thanks so much for sharing the journey.

Alicia Padrón said...

Congratulations Lynn!! Here, here for an amazing job done!! :o)

Jill said...

Thank goodness it is in the post - now I feel I can relax, and all I have done is read your blog!! Congratulations - a wonderful adventure from beginning to end

Nina Seven N7 said...

Yay for you! It looks like an awesome book and I really enjoyed all your posts about the Bears!

jack purvis said...

Being a nocturnalist I found you at 4am today. A brilliant blog which I shall revisit time and time again. May your efforts be hapily rewarded.

M J Muir said...

Get out the bubbly and have an extra treat or two. Congratulations on the completion of your beautiful work for Bears On The Stairs.
Thanks for the blog. It is my daily treat.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on completing the bears project. I have really enjoyed following your progress and seeing the scenes evolve into the brilliant final pieces!

Catch up soon

Phil

Tomás Serrano said...

It´s a great ending of the bears´serie.

Emily said...

How wonderful and scary to see the work done and on its way into the big world! a heartfelt congratulations! And again, thanks for sharing so much of the process!