Alright, I'm done with my thumbnails, finally. I started drawing the thumbnails for this new book on 14th of March of this year, 2021, and I was actually on a roll right up until July. Because that was when something dropped on my lap and things got really busy, and so I had to slow down quite a bit. I tried to pick up the pace from July to November, but it was tough. It was really hard, and so it wasn't until the last two weeks that I was able to really pick up the pace and sprint at it, because I only had one chapter left, and so it's finally done and ready to be shown to a few people. Now the next part will be to start laying down the under drawings in preparation for the best part of the Convocation process. This is my reward. This part, where I get to paint. When I was a kid, I thought this was the thing that I would be doing as an adult in a way it is, but it's not the main thing that I do. It's just something that I do on the side, but it works out well because when I create picture books that I wrote myself, I noticed that I'm still tapping into that same kid that was in third grade, and so when I write these stories, I take the same outlook as a kid, wherein I don't write these stories in order to produce a product. This is not a product, although it will be, because that's how the system is. We would have to use up resources in order to print the book disseminate, and so people would have to purchase it in order to read it. But my motivation doesn't come from producing a product. My motivation comes from the creation process, the part where I get to paint and draw. It's like a gift, literally. I'm creating a gift, using my gifts. When you give somebody a gift, you don't really expect anything in particular that you would get in return, but nonetheless, you put everything into it, just out of your love of sharing something. And so I take the same approach with these stories, and that's also why you won't really see me aggressively marketing these books, because yeah, they're not products for me. So that part of the Congo creation process, the part where it gets printed and thrown out there into the world to be consumed and read, it's not really the most rewarding part for me, although that is a very nice celebratory event. But to me, the most rewarding part, the most pleasurable part, is the part where I get to paint. But before I even get to that stage, I would have to redraw everything onto the final sheet of paper. Now I don't know how other comic book artists would do it themselves, but I think some of them follow the same process, wherein they would scan their thumbnails or their rough sketches and blow it up to the actual size, print it, and then trace it onto the final sheet of paper, where they get to color it. That's exactly what I plan to do, so that I can preserve that energy and spirit of the original sketch, the initial sketches. And also, to make it more straightforward and easy for me to just trace my own drawings using my light box. But this time, I'll be drawing it in a cleaner manner without the shading, because the tones would have to be rendered through the paint or through the colors that I'll be using. That was actually the intention of rendering my thumbnails so intricately. It was meant to be a visual note for my future self, for when I start painting to give me a clue or to cue me in to knowing which areas of the composition would be colored in more darkly or more lightly. And so that's what I plan to do. But I don't know just how quickly I would be able to knock this out. I'm just looking forward to getting painting and to savor that process. So in the meantime, let me just leave you with a little sneak peek of the first two chapters of my thumbnails. Way way out there. Chapter 1. Whitecliff. You see that light over there? That's where I was born. Up on Whitecliff, it's a small rock in the middle of big ocean. They say Whitecliff is held up by a great giant. I've never seen, but this is what I've been told. This is what I believed. Until the day I heard about the place, way way out there, where actual giants lived. Way way out there is where big things reside. They're so big, they often have to travel out just so they can stretch their legs. I met one of them when I was little. Joe was her name. I met Joe when she was 12, and I was 8. She was still too young to grab too much attention from everyone, but I found her presence irresistible because she would always cast a shadow on my way. After two, the shadow. I tried talking to her, but she didn't speak my tongue, so she just watched as I played. Then one day, she started to describe what I was doing in her own words. She kept doing this until I figured it out and learned how to speak like her. Where do you come from? Was the question I've been wanting to ask? Way way out there, she said, with the rest of the giants. Why are you always playing out here on your own? Don't you have friends? They're not allowed here on Whitecliff. Why not? Well, Whitecliff is a jumping off place. At the time, I couldn't explain myself so well. Whenever I ran out of words, I would change the topic and talk about something else. Why are you so big? Was another question I've been wanting to ask? Joe laughed. Well, why are you so small? Sometimes I like to take the fastest way down the shore. I almost lost my grip. Joe had a laugh that could cut through chalk and flint. You think I'm big? Wait until you see my siblings. I have brothers twice my height and a sister with a girth thrice as mine. This made my imagination run wild. They're big because we do big things. They view from the shore mighter look even larger. Are they as terrific as you look, I asked. You'd have to see for yourself. Way way out there, she pointed west and splashed the ocean with her leg. Oops, I got drenched. How do I get there? She took out a red book from her pocket and tore a page. You will need a boat with a sail. The paper had markings on it. Follow it westward and there you will find it.