Purchasing the Books

Update, 7/24/25

Pre-Ordering Books

The Illustrated Storybook Collection is not yet fully in production.

Books one through Four are finished and ready to be produced.

Book Five through Seven, although mostly completed, 

still need to have some artwork installed, which is underway.

All the Artwork is completed, just not installed in the layout.

I am still setting up the payment systems, 

along with production lines for publishing
So at this time, I will not be accepting payment,
I only seek to know if you are interested.

Once payment is set-up, I will accept Sales of individual books

and Pre-Orders the entire collection of seven books.

If you are interested in securing the entire collection of books,
let me know, as I will be offering a discount to persons
who pre-order all seven books.

Terms for a pre-order for the entire collection will be forthcoming.

You may choose to purchase Book One,

since Book One is an introduction to the collection and the actual story of

"Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure"

begins with Book Two

Here's a Graphic from one of the songs,
just to show you the titles.

If you would like to order Book One, the whole collection
 or have other interests in the book series,
send an email to my attention Arthur Greisiger at;
imagemindag.publishing@gmail.com

I will let you know when payment systems are in place.

I may release each book at an interval, once the artwork is installed
that hasn't been decided yet.

Archive;

Here is a Flyer that was produced years ago

 (when I had no idea just how long it would take to build these books)

It is still valid.

I am building this page to be the online shopping cart for book sales

and will connect via PayPal.

This order form below is outdated as to pricing, but the rest of it is legit.

I will modify the above order form to reflect the accurate pricing.

As of my last production run of prototype books

the MSRP for the books was 

$34.95 

(per book, plus shipping and sales tax) 

 Look for updates to make this page your portal to buy the books.

They will become available after I build the inventory 

and finish setting up the production line.

If you would like to pre-order, you may do so without sending any money

I will inform you when the books are ready for purchase.

Use the contact form in the sidebar or the above email.

If you would like a hard copy order form that is easier to read

please provide a mailing address.

Initial production runs of the books, will only be available by direct purchase 

through this web page.  As it stands now,  all books will be MSRP without any discounts, 

because the books are all hand-stitched and they take time to bind this way.

Delivery times will be according how quickly we can make the books.

We do expect to maintain at least 100 books in inventory before we release them

and wholesale orders will not be permitted to deplete that inventory.

AG

Exhibition

Update 7/19/25

   We spend a time yesterday reviewing the lighting needs for the exhibition panels and what needs to be done to complete the actual display panels. I was hung u on a few aspects of the panels for some time, being unable to decide how to approach hanging the artwork and other exhibition items.  I have finally concluded what the finish will be on the surface of the panels and how I will implement framing the exhibition items. I was experimenting with aged wood for the framing and I realized that I have a surplus of aged stockage fencing, which, as it turns out, would be perfect for constructing framesThere are a few variations on what can and should be done, but since there are 32 panels, there can be a variety of layouts that will accommodate assorted exhibitions.

   Here's a view of the last section of panels. In the foreground you can see a wallpaper that I have, which I may be using to cover the panels with. I tried staining the panel, but it doesn't really look the way I want it to. The wallpaper achieves the look but poses challenges in regard to hanging the artwork. Since now I can create frames from the aged fencing this will work well thematically.  I will be setting up different panels with a different framing layout (as to position and size).  There are a number of design selections with this aged wood look, so I may mix and match, just to give the exhibition diversity.  Plus, I have at least three (or more) exhibitions on different subjects that these panels can be used for. (in addition to renting it out for other artists to use.)

   In the background you can see an early stage model and one of the (unpainted) Garden Gnome Statues  in the far back, the curtains were used on the outdoor stage we used for the Shakespeareans and around the corner is a larger stage model, (which I expect to refine).

  Since the publication of the Gnomes of New Hope Illustrated Storybook is nearing completion, I can turn my attention to finishing the exhibition, since that will go along with the stage show in the theatre  lobby and in other promotional opportunities.

Archive

   

    Since we are down to the last few Watercolor Illustrations for the books, we are now thinking in terms of a Gallery Exhibition of the artwork. I still have quite a bit of work to do to assemble and install the artwork into the book layout, but it appears that most of the artwork is finished being painted. There may be pages where I will want to replace artwork that was used more than once or twice, but I won't know that until the last of what we have is installed.

    

    Here's a view of the exhibition panels, which are still being refined. (along with my other stuff tht came out of the office when we set it up)  I'm trying to come up with an aesthetic design that works with how the artwork is presented. I'm thinking now that we need to carpet the floor under the exhibition.

    I'm still building the exhibition panels and the lighting for the setup. There are 32 panels which are designed to travel, but I am struggling to figure out how to make the artwork affix to the panels. I've tried a half-a-dozen methods, none of which really worked. I wanted the setup to be flexible for the needs, thinking of a number of shows the panels can be used for, but I think I'm going to have to build the frames into the panels, not the artwork. Only in that way will they be properly affixed. I guess I'll add more when I get down to working on finishing the panels up 

   It will be interesting to see how the Exhibition turns out, we have so much material to select from. We discussed what we will want to do and one component will be showing the progression from a description through rough sketches to final sketches to watercolor printout to painting to page. I also want to take the stage model up to a condition where it can be included. As it stands now, we have an opportunity to assemble a display for Charter Day in the fall at ANC. Jency is looking into that. I may have to pursue that opportunity more aggressively though.

ACT ONE ∞ Timing Breakdown

 Here is a 

Summary and Timing breakdown 

of the Music in Act One

As Publishing work nears completion, 

theatrical production elements will begin appearing on this blog

I do expect to be getting back to working on the music 

after the publishing materials are fully locked in

and some book inventory has been established.

This Breakdown identifies the Timing of the Songs, but also contains timing 

for the blocking in order to identify the length of the show variations.

You can see at the top that there are five different time frames

depending on which version of the show will be produced.

I was working on this to assist in a Breakdown for another theatrical project

I'll add ACT TWO, when I consolidate that.

Artwork for Illustrations

   

    These binders contain the watercolor paintings that are finished and await being installed into the books. There are a dozen or so more paintings to be included in these binders, but that is it for the illustrations. I have eleven more binders like these, containing the all artwork that has been used in this Illustrated Storybook Collection.

 

   Installing this artwork involves;  first defining the sketches requires, then once they are composed properly, scanning the sketches and filing the scans away properly, then opening the digital sketches in Photoshop and proceeding to prepare the digital copy to be painted (cleaning up the extraneous lines, fixing rough edges and lines),  then printing the digital B&W sketch out on watercolor paper.  The sketches are then painted with watercolors, rescanned, cleaned up again, removed from the background, and processed to enhance the color, brilliance, contrast & exposure.  Then the individual drawings are assembled into a composite illustration, that illustration is reduced and inserted on the appropriate page.

    Whew! It's a lot of work !

   Just taking a wild guess, I'd say each of the 768 pages of the collection uses, on average, six paintings for the illustration, often times more than that, sometimes many more.  That's at least 5,000 watercolor paintings that cost around $500 a piece to produce.  In other words, the paintings used in this collection of books has cost approximately $2.5m and around fifteen years to produce.

   I better sell a lot of books to make up for that expenditure!

   When the books are finished and published, we will be moving to convert these paintings (of the characters) into 3D files for animation.  

   To say nothing of the stage production!

   Does it ever end ?  I hope so, I want to work on my cars.  AG