illustrating poetry
I am in the process of creating several books of poetry from the many poems I have written over the years. I am now working on the third book, poems about life on my grandfather’s farm. The title will be ‘blueberries and mink’ since these were the main products of the farm.
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There are about forty poems in this collection. I have decided how I will order the poems and done much of the formatting. Since I illustrate the books I write, the next task is to pair the poems with drawings I have done.
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For some poems, as I wrote, I had an image in my head that my hands could draw. A good example is the poem ‘patience.’ One of the lines describes ‘staring down a cow.’ The drawing was fun to do.
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In some cases, a drawing I did for another purpose will find a home in my ‘blueberries and mink’ manuscript. An example is the drawing of old pop bottles I did for a blog post a few years ago. These bottles look much like the ones that used to sit on a window ledge in a shed at my grandfather’s farm.
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Once I have inserted the formatted drawings into the book, I have to make sure they are distributed evenly through the book. Sometimes a poem and its drawing can be relocated. Sometimes I have to do another drawing to fill a gap.
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Next, from the drawings, I have to pick one for the cover of the book. I want the covers for these books to be similar in style with the book title and author name superimposed.
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A couple of the possible covers I am working on are shown below.
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all my best,
staying home,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 
Very good illustrations, I never got that far with my own. My trees unfortunately fit the mold of stick figure drawings. So much props
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AntonioWestley
June 8, 2020 at 9:02 pm
You need a good art course. Great artists often create images that don’t look much like reality. Your stick figures may be amazing. I love to draw but it is my second choice for a creative endeavour. Writing is the first.
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jane tims
June 8, 2020 at 9:58 pm
I would say my illustration side would be fourth in line since coloring wasn’t one of my strong suites. Plus the perfectionist side of me hated the long process so you can only imagine what I felt when it was all done. Always nice to meet another artist tho. Keep up the great work, it certainly strikes me as one of the original concepts online. You are blending those talents to make your own lane like I have with some of my lesser talents. I feel like it’s a good way to see if you can bring something new to the world. You seem to have found your lane in that way. Congrats 👍
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AntonioWestley
June 9, 2020 at 8:46 am
Thank you! My weakness is the marketing end. Once the COVID measures are over I have two new books to market!
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jane tims
June 9, 2020 at 2:05 pm
If you have twitter, it’s a good place to build up interest
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AntonioWestley
June 9, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Yes. Every time I post about my books, I get a little blip in sales. Thanks.
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jane tims
June 9, 2020 at 6:36 pm
There are plenty of writers and readers on there
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AntonioWestley
June 9, 2020 at 2:13 pm
Perhaps you will know how a NYC story turned out. Up here, we heard about a young man who saw a young woman dancing on the roof of another building. They arranged a distance-dinner but we never heard anything else. Do you, by chance, know what happened in this story? Such a good-news event.
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jane tims
June 9, 2020 at 6:39 pm
No, I am pretty sure it stopped there like a to be continued storyline lol 😁
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AntonioWestley
June 11, 2020 at 9:43 am
thanks!
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jane tims
June 11, 2020 at 10:27 pm
Oh Jane, this sounds like a lovely book and I can’t wait to read it. I find your poetry books so relaxing and I feel right at home wherever you write about. As always, I’m looking forward to your new book.
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Sandy Waite
April 27, 2020 at 8:09 am
Hi Sandy. Thank you so much. I enjoy writing them but most of all I want to be read! This one suits the rural girl in me and, I hope, will remind you of pleasant days on the farm.
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jane tims
April 27, 2020 at 5:27 pm
These are terrific, Jane. You must be getting a lot of enjoyment from this worthy project. One thing the coronavirus is giving us is more time to focus on something if we so choose!
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Jane Fritz
April 24, 2020 at 9:06 am
Yes, the pace of staying at home suits me. I have given myself until the end of the month to work on this and then I have my next Meniscus book to get ready for the editor at the end of May!
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jane tims
April 24, 2020 at 10:10 pm