For those of you wondering what’s going on with the books… well they really are almost finished. As far as I can see, all the artwork required for the illustrations is finished.
There are a few pieces which might be redone, because some of the early sketches were used for the sake of expediency, but they are not of a quality equal to the better illustrations.
I can say that; less than a dozen pages need to be done. However, the entire layout needs to inspected (again for the fiftieth time) to make sure everything matches.
I can say that the overall layout will need to have each page adjusted to match the quality control required for color balance and saturation which is provided by the printing press used. Because of this, setting up a printing operation in-house is under consideration. Experience with publishing prototype runs shows that, not only quality control, but also production expenses, will be easier to monitor and control either an on-demand press in the studio. Doing this will consolidate operations for printing, binding, inventory, sales and shipping. Sadly, jobbing out smaller quantities is prohibitive because of inconsistent quality (between multiple printers and the press operators) compounded markups, travel, handling and, frankly, lack of security over controlling publication and hence, the actual quantity of books produced.
So, the current efforts are both creating the last few illustrations (which often require multiple painting to achieve, due to the detail required) and the effort to inspect and correct the pages that were not properly prepared. I am surprised how many painting were not detailed properly to accommodate the effects, that later on, were added into the layout. Those paintings/illustrations need to be properly detailed in order to match the current quality specifications.
All in all, the entire series is truly almost finished and I am beginning to work on the boxes for the boxed set, but the specification as to dimensions cannot be finalized until the entire set is properly finished and bound. The reason for this is that each book is a different width, depending on the number of pages per book. Since the books published in the first run are hand stitched, that is a factor as well.
That all for now. AG
