Some ideas just scream to be realized, and I can finish the manuscript, from conceptualization, through numerous revisions, to submission in 6 weeks. I usually put the manuscript aside for a few days between revisions so that I can edit more objectively. I sometimes prepare a dummy for submission, first by creating a storyboard. A storyboard consists of thumbnail sketches plotting out the 32 pages of the picture book. After the manuscript is accepted, it's time to move on to the artwork.
Conceptualization is fun.
Writing and storyboarding are liberating and oftentimes, agonizing. Painting is quiet and methodical. There's a lot of sketching and re-sketching, using tracing paper and lightboxes to help me configure a composition. Finishing 32 pages of artwork, plus a cover, can take me 3 months. I use watercolor, water-soluble pencils and pen on hot or cold pressed watercolor block.