Update on the Publishing Layout

 

   The photos here represent two of the five work-stations that are dedicated to publishing and artwork. I'll add more photos later.

 

   As I have repeatedly said "It's almost done". Well, relatively speaking that is true. I have two binders of artwork that yet needs to be prepared and inserted, but the volume of those binders is largely due to the fact that there are multiple paintings that make up the illustrations for the few remaining pages requiring artwork. 

   It is most interesting that my prep work for making the paintings ready to be inserted into the books takes five times more work than actually creating the sketches and paintings. But that's just the way it is.

   So now we are going back to "placeholder" artwork and redoing it. Some paintings were not of the caliber that I wanted, but we used it anyway so we could move on. My goal is to keep Jency working on other aspects (sculpting & animation in particular) so I am addressing redrawing/painting some of the artwork, mostly to make sure that the look of the character's faces is consistent. Sometime it is hard to keep the look "right" when one is drawing the characters from different angles and trying to express an assortment of emotions. So some of it needs to be redrawn.

   But also, I inserted characters into the pages, in numerous instances, without backgrounds. So I am now crafting more backgrounds for the scenes. I figure we will need those backgrounds for the animation, but also, they will be used as backdrops for the stage show.

   In regard to the stage show; I have it in my mind to secure an LED (or digital) backdrop as part of the hard supplies for the stage show. My intention is to put a stage in my studio, wherever my final location ends up being. I started building the stage, but difficulties at my present location has prevented me from advancing with that. I will address the studio on the IMS Virtual Studio. This link takes you to my "main portal". Other links will be present there.

    I am also crafting a more functional Business Plan. It is based on all the other elements that have been discussed, but now I have decided to sell options for the major markets. Ownership of "The Gnomes..." And other projects will always remain with IMS, but I do expect to sell the studio outright when I am too old to be effective. (That's creeping up on me, ugh)

   So, the options will be for, production in the four primary arenas (Publishing, Theatre, Film, Television), distribution in those markets (contracted to a degree through production), and merchandizing individual Ancillary Markets. Marketing will be largely contracted, but supervised by The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture.

   I will be turning over 40% of all rights (and management) to The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture, who will hold the rights for a set renewable term, but not ownership. Ownership remains with Image of the Mind Studios, ad infinum. To possess ownership, it is contingent upon buying IMS outright. As I have mentioned, I will be posting the details to this Business Plan on the IMS Management or Producing Partners blogs (after the publishing layout is done, done.) 

   In the meanwhile, I am open to discussing any of this with persons interested in these affairs. I do expect to secure a Literary and/or Theatrical Agent, once the books are ready for distribution to Industry Professionals. 

   The licensing of any rights will be contingent final upon negotiations through my agent, although we can set the groundwork ahead of time and I can discuss the terms of a straight-forward and simple Option. However, I will not engage in legal manipulation or rhetoric in this regard and any final agreements must be cleared with the appropriate legal or other representatives. (sad to say). I do expect that legitimate business dialogue can take place in an environment free from complexity, given the right circumstances.

AG

Contact re; Purchasing Books

The full collection of "Big People Books" is actually nearing completion. Even though I have said this before, this time it is very close to being a reality, finally!

I will be setting up a print shop, so that we will have complete control over quality and quantity.

The "Gnome Sized Books" will be worked on after all the registrations are complete.

The registrations are pending, although have been started. So all of this will determine the actual release of the books to the public.

However, since my main email is deluged with nonsense emails, I have another email for use in communicating regarding purchase of the books. It is:

imagemindag.publishing@gmail.com

Any email sent to the above address that addresses any subject other than the books or publishing activities will be deleted and blocked.

I also have purchased numerous domains for IMS and the portal for those sites is;

imageofthemindstudios.org

There is a contact form there, but I have not begun using that on a regular basis yet, but it should work.

AG

Status Report 3/26/26

Most Recent Activity:

   For the last month there have been activities surrounding facilities that have interfered with the work on completing the layout. But I managed to relocate my workstation and archives and proceeded to prepared the finished artwork for insertion into the layout. This has prompted me to seek to duplicate my workstation to avoid this in the future.

   Truthfully, I am beginning to feel burned out on trying to complete these books. It is SO close to being finished that I must fight the urge to just quit and work on my cars.

   I was very happy to see that Book Five looks to be complete. Two days ago, rather that work on the art, I was reviewing the technical details of the page layout and making corrections to assure that the pages all matched. I figured discover (again) that the earlier artwork I had installed was not properly prepared and needed to be gone over to be trimmed in order to accommodate the effects that are now being used (but we're not at the time the art was installed). I found this situation has occurred on many pages. With the more recently prepared artwork I have been much more detail oriented. This is in large part because we have been thinking in terms of 3D animation and the paintings must not have artifacts that will translate into the animation.

     The First Page of Book One

ARCHIVE:

  You will note that below I posted video conversations that took place three years ago. Overall that still applies. What has been happening since then you can see in other posts below. Let me just say that in all this time we have been both designing and redesigning (when necessary) the artwork. Just yesterday, I asked Jency to redo the illustration for a particular page, because in looking at the proceeding and following pages, I felt that we needed a greater diversity in the posture of the characters. In fact, there are a few illustrations that will need to be done over because the characters drawn do not have the kind of consistency and detail that I feel is needed. So in those instances, the artwork is just place holding, while the collection is completed.

§   Five Binders of finished artwork that has been inserted into the layout. There are more.

§    I'm pretty well certain that there are around a dozen pages left to do. Some pages are half finished, the ones that use multiple paintings to create the illustration panel. Once the last page is illustrated with the characters, then we will be going back to review and assess the backgrounds. Along the way I decided to make sure the characters were placed, even without a background. In some instances no background is necessary. But for diversity's sake, and depending on the shift of environment in the story, a backdrop is appropriate or required. But in order to complete the layout, insertion of the characters has had to have taken precedence over the background. Indeed, we have an excellent collection of quite detailed paintings of the environments where the story taken place, but I discovered (after creating those paintings) that there really isn't enough room in the books to show those backdrops to the story. In some instances there is room, but by the time those environments are reduced to the slotted space on the page, the detail is lost. So this collection of art will really be shown in the context of the exhibition.

§   Work has been done on these exhibition panels, but the significant progress on assembling the Exhibition must wait for the book layout to be completed. I will discuss the exhibition at another time and, in fact, will assemble the exhibition as an online presentation, for those that cannot travel to where it is physically presented. That online exhibition will be generally (in part) available for publicity, but in whole will be available by subscription. Sort of an entrance fee, like a ticket to the show. I will discuss this as it proceeds.

That's all for now.  AG

Parade Float Update

§   This year's Southampton Days Parade, which takes place on July Fourth, is in the planning stages. As much as I had hoped that this Parade Float would have been ready, sadly, that's not going to happen.

§   The truck that was acquired for this purpose was in very much more poor condition than I had expected. That means the rebuild will be more extensive and costly than I had anticipated. Components of the truck which I had planned on reusing will have to be replaced, in particular, the entire front suspension. But also, all the control cables and braking systems. It gets down to a complete rebuild, to the point of pulling the power train and rear suspension. All of this bring more complexity, time and cost. But it needs to be done if the end product will be safe, trouble free and serve a long term functionality.

§.   I have a source of numerous additional trucks if it turns out that more than one self-propelled parade floats needs to be built.

ARCHIVE:

   The templets for repair panels have been made and those panel are being quoted. 

   Here are the drawings for the Parade Float. Current activity is preparing the chassis for paint and reinforcement. The initial goal was to have the Parade Float functional in time for the Fourth iof July Parade. Truthfully however, I doubt that that will be possible. In addition to finishing the technicalities of the float itself, there is the issue of designing and constructing a presentation for the parade and then producing it (ie: actors costuming sets, materials etc,). So our goal is to just get the Parade Float/Portable stage constructed and functional (mainly for use with The Gnomes of New Hope).

    When the Parade Presentation for the Gnomes is under way, then plan is for Animatronic characters to be part of the Parade Float. We'll see how that goes. One step at a time. For now we need to finish the Parade Float and to assure that it is functional as imagined.

 In regard to Animatronics, we have advanced with building the parade float.

  

    Here you see the chassis that is being used for the parade float. It will be strengthened and rebuilt. It is the chassis of a Corvair truck the section in the back contains the power-plant and the section in front (center) will contain a cockpit for the operator. The operator will be seated under the stage. We are working on designing an animatronic puppetry presentation for the parade float.

     I was in Ohio recently and while there I bought a new front suspension for the parade float. The existing suspension is unusable due to rust, however, it will stay in place until the frame is strengthened in the critical areas, which likewise have severe corrosion that have cause the integrity of the chassis to fail. Even so, strengthening of the frame would be required in any event, because the chassis was part of the unibody, which depended upon other body panels for strength. The frame area need to be boxed and other support modification need to be made. Preparations to effect those changes are being made over the winter, with welding to taken place after the weather lets up and becomes warmer. 

Here is the Meadow Amphitheater, where we performed as  The Shakespeareans of Tamanend Park

   I have begun prepping the chassis for paint and welding support struts. As you can see above, the chassis will accommodate standard 4x8 stage platforms and not only serve as a Parade Float, but also the core of a mobile stage which can be set up in a festival or park environment.  Thinking in that direction is a result of what happened with the stage that was built in Tamanend Park, being destroyed by vandals. With this portable stage, we can take the stage with us and not leave it exposed to nefarious deeds.

Conversations about the Gnomes

    I did this three years ago! 

I took these from my YouTube page, which I am only now starting to use.

 The Seven books in the collection are actually 768 pages long, not 900.

Part Two;

Part Three;

Sorry for the colorful language at one point.

 Since these videos were done three years ago, we are very much further along by now.

I believe I am down to the last dozen pages or so that need to be finished.

The next stage is to prepare the layout for the printer.

Now, contrary to what I said in the last video, I am considering setting up IMS Publishing with a print shop. I went thru a lot of difficulty in trying to set a MSRP for the books. Numerous printers were interested in the project, but I need the price per page to be a fixed amount in order to set the project up with proper wholesale pricing that locks in a margin for each step along the production pathway. Well, I am no finding printers willing to give me the right price. So that mens we have two choices; web printing or setting up an on-demand print shop. Considering the amount of printing that is needed for other items, Libretto, music score, other publishing projects... setting up a print shop seems like the best option. We'll see what happens. I'm leaning toward licensing the machine bound books to a reputable organization, but the licensing fees will need to be paid up front, based on a minimum quantity. I'll get into the detail of that later and post that on the IMS Management Page, which is a private page for business parters as is IMS Producing Partners, where other details are posted.

That' all for now... folks !

AG

Publishing Update

  NOTE: a few keys on my laptop do not work, so letters are missing or tyyyping the wrong character. I will have to fix this on a different computer.

As I have so often said "It's almost finished" and what I also sayid is "Almost doesn't count". So I won't do that. But I am satisfied about the progress.

   All the illustrations in this collection of Seven Books are watercolors that have taken a great deal of effort to achieve. Taking a guess at it, I'd estimate that the total number of paintings exceeds two thousand, I think more when the backgrounds are added in. 

   I won't go into detail about the paintings here, since I have discussed the process before. But I will say that it's possible that we have, less that 20 to do. I have eight or ten sketches that need to be painted, but I know that there are some illustrations that I would like to do over, because I want, either a different design, or better detail.

   

    This is an old version of the page layout, showing one of the product lines "Gnome Gnog". There have been quite a few improvements in the layout since this was done, but this gives an idea of the look of the art. The page background is now different than this. You can see below that a twine edge has been added.

   So, what are we up to? Well, I have two three inch binders with finished watercolors and I have been slowly scanning, prepping and inserting that art into the layout. I'm happy that this stage of the process is going more quickly than creating the art. I also have a binder of unfinished pages that give a quick view of what needs to be finished. That binder contains little over a dozen pages in it. But I also am using the digital files, which are color coded, to comprehend what pages are unfinished. The entire collection amounts to about 768 pages (give or take). I pages in the books that are not part of the page numbers, which are basically inserts. (Such as below)

   Now, after all the artwork has been installed, I will need to review the entire layout to make sure the effects used in the latter (improved) pages is also used on all the other pages. To explain this statement; I have used a stroke and a drop shadow on certain paintings, in particular, the illustrations that are built out of numerous paintings. The effect this has is to make the characters "pop" out of the page. But when I started doing this I did not have these effects refined for the proper balance. So, I need to go back and inspect the pages so they all match. After that is achieved, I can then build the files for the printing press.

   

Now, I did publish a prototype run of books one thru four, but stalled on book five, because that book is bigger than all the others. The reason for that is that Book Five contains references to "The Gnomic Tales" and those tales comprise five other stories. 

   "The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure" 

is one story that spans seven books. Each book consists of between 90 and 160 pages, depending on the segment. The chapters in the books match the scenes in the stage musical, upon which the Illustrated Storybooks are based. 

   Now these Illustrated Storybooks are designed to also serve as "storyboards" for a film version of the story. So the publishing layout is an adaptation of the storyboard concept used in filmmaking.

   The intention is to produce an animated film using the illustrations in the Storybooks. The beginning of this process is to produce the illustrations as GIFs, which will be used in the e-Storybook. These GIFs will be the foundation of larger scenes in the animated film.

  

  After the books are in distribution, producing income, the effort to advance animation and a theatrical production will advance. In the meanwhile, sample and prototype materials will be generated as best as possible, given resources available.

That's all for now.

AG

Happy Thanksgiving

An Animation Test

Here is an AMAZING test.

Created using Ai.

The test above was made from this artwork.

(which was not thoroughly detailed)

We will be moving forward with this animation project

once the publishing work is finished.

The Artwork used in the books is being far more detailed that the image used for this test.

If you expand the image, you will see that I did not fully detail the artwork,

which I am now doing for the publications.

I only wish I detailed this image further before doing this test

but even so, it is amazing.

AG

Approach to Publishing the Books

I have said this elsewhere, mostly in passing reference. 

The First Editions of the Storybook Collection will be hand-stitched, custom made to order.  I will be inventorying 100 copies of each book, so that I can meet  prepaid orders at the full MSRP for individual books in a timely manner.  Signed editions are an additional 25%. Contact us by email or use the contact form in the right column. 

Retail Wholesale Pricing (still under review) will require a minimum order of 12 copies of each book and a retailer will be required to stock the full collection of seven books.  A full Keystone will require an initial order of one gross of each book and a commitment of 100 copies of each book per month for one year.  Books to meet these orders will have a turn-around time that has yet to have been determined.  Orders will be prepaid for the first year, after which a deposit of 50% will be required with 30 days on the balance.  Larger orders are possible. No books will be provided if there is an outstanding invoice.

Further, we are seeking to exploit the numerous Ancillary Markets as a means of funding the Stage Production. Hence, I am open to dialogue in this regard. I do expect to job out numerous production aspects and welcome inquiry in this regard.  

We have begun working on the Parade Float (trying to have it ready for a separate Fourth of July presentation) and expect to craft Animatronics for our Gnome presentation and for use in the Gallery Exhibition Walk-thru. We are also evaluation our mission to implement Puppetry and what the extent of that will be, in part, because of the desire to implement a cyclorama walk-thru.  Portions of the Cyclorama will be present in the Gallery Exhibition.  These things are taking precedence over the Stage Presentation, because they require less cost, logistics and will result in hard assets for use in promotion.  However, set construction for the Stage is moving forward with models that will be part of the Gallery Exhibition.

An AD for a Playbill

    Last month I placed a full page Ad in the Playbill for an excellent production of "Man of LaMancha" at MPAC (The Mitchell Performing Arts Center) in Bryn Athyn.  That AD was a B&W, but here is the color AD that was prepared for that Playbill;

I'll add the B&W Advertisement in the near future;

The Impending Release of the Books

The Books are getting closer to Release

 I am finalizing the remaining Illustration Panels

there is still much to do, but relatively speaking,

we are almost done.

The Cover of the e-Storybook

UPDATE (10/8/25);

   I keep thinking the books will be done very soon, but it keeps taking longer that I expect. If I were able to dedicate full time to working on the layout, then in might be very close to being ready, but I cannot. I am building the studio and advancing assorted projects.

   The final Illustrations are being assembled with numerous parts, as we started to create the components of the illustration panels as individual paintings for the sake of having higher detail in the work. This causes more work for me to assemble, but it results in a better finished product.  Also, we are moving toward the 3D animation and the paintings of the characters needs to be more detailed for that. 

   I have concluded that it would be best if we sculpted the characters and then scanned the sculptures for the 3D. That way, we will have consistency and the Garden Gnomes/figurines will match the animated characters. So on that basis, I am looking for people who would like to sculpt our characters (in clay).

    Other work is being done on the Gallery Exhibition. I'm trying to finish the design of the panels, after deciding how to do so. I will be constructing frames for the panels from old fencing so it looks very rustic. I have just decided to add stage models to the exhibition. We will need them anyway for the set construction, so we might as well design the models to be used in the exhibition and integrate a few more panels that have a model stage as part of it's design. But further than that, I have been intending on producing a cyclorama walk-thru presentation.   In one way the exhibition can add to that concept, or we might integrate the puppetry into the exhibition as an enhancement by including a few stops that act as an animatronic cyclorama.  So these are design elements that are being addressed, but they do change the work that needs to be done and the time-frame.  There are numerous degrees of puppetry involved and this needs to be considered as well.

   Practically speaking, these elements and components need to be completed in such a way as to support one another. The Exhibition needs to take place in synchronization with the release of the books, just as the parade float needs to support the stage play and even those elements should be well along or even completed as well. I am now engaged in building the parade float, which will ultimately use animatronics to convey a promotional scene from the Gnomes.

   So, all said, it's not easy to synchronize and implement these components of the overall project.

AG

UPDATE (6/14/25) :

 

   I have the prototypes of books one through four printed and bound.   We have nearly completed all the watercolors for the entire series, with only a dozen of so needing to be painted.  There are Illustration Panels that still need to be assembled from numerous paintings and there are two three inch binders of art that is ready to be installed into the layout. When we do complete the painting for the Illustrations, we will shift over to painting drops for the "Little Theatre" stage show.

   Little Theatre; Definition - in this context, this refers to the size of the Green Screen/Sound Stage that is being set-up in the studio. That is 20" wide by 18" deep by 14' high. This will serve a number of theatres available for the try-out run.  The size is expandable (within IMS space) to 30" wide by 25' deep if necessary, but my opinion is the smaller version will be suitable for workshopping this show, since there must be smaller productions available, within the context of the entire scope of possible venues. Certainly a larger production could be produced, but that is outside of my immediate scope at this time.

   My mission has now become printing Book Five, which is the longest of the books, because that book contains "The Gnomic Tales". These are not the full version of the tales, but only summaries of the stories that are used to serve the storyline of "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure".   Publishing of the prototype books continues; Five, then Six and finally Seven, with only a small amount of work remaining to be completed.

   So now, I have enough of the book series finished that I can talk turkey with another publisher and or distributor. But since I am finishing up the final layout. I will not be soliciting that dialogue, but I will be open to discuss the project if I receive inquiries.

  Even after I finish the books, the only publication I will be doing is in-house, which amounts to limited quantities. My efforts will shift over to Theatre Production, Animation, Literary Representation and Cinema.  The larger Publication and Distribution activities will take place within the context of an organized production structure that is external from the development environment of Image of the Mind Studios. That means that the rights to all markets will need to be negotiated with my literary Representative, if and when I secure that agreement. Until the entire series is fully published in it's completed form that agreement will not be implemented.

   If you are an Industry Professional, I am certainly willing to discuss the possibility of licensing any market, and I will be able to accept an Option of First Refusal, contingent upon the proper contract structure being put in place for Union Operations if that Option is implemented into a Production Contract. I have to say that, contrary to the Writer's & Dramatist's Guild Contracts, I will not permit any other writers or any producer to modify what I have written.  I will remain open to enhancing what has already been written, in fact I created opportunities for that to happen within the material, but I retain sole authority over the Core Creative Material ad infimum, in all markets.

   "The Gnomic Tales", five at this point, can be constructed by a writing team, but I will supervise and direct that if it occurs.

   I will add more to this discussion as necessary, as time allows. AG

Notes regarding Distribution

    I have a number of versions of the books.  Above you see a cover for the e-Storybook. The e-Storybook, which will be a subscription, includes not only the Audio Book,  but the watercolor illustrations contained within it will (gradually) become animations, meaning most of the page illustration panels will be converted to GIFs.   Eventually, this will lead to an Animated feature film or television series.  The books were in fact, designed to serve as Storyboards for a film.

   There are the Gnome-sized books; a small version that is about 3.5" square. There are the Big People's books that are about 9"x10".  There is the "Hand-stitched" version and a "machine bound version".  Both of these editions will be presented in boxed set editions.

  I will be keeping the "Hand-Stitched" and Boxed set versions as in-house production, at least for the time being,  because they will become the signed and numbered editions and I have yet to have found a production house willing to make Hand-Stitched Editions who is willing to adhere to my design specifications and do so at a price that works. As it stands now, the MSRP is $34.95 per book. There are seven books in the collection.

   I may release the Hand-Stitched (as well as all other ancillary markets) at some point, to another publisher/producer if the design elements are maintained and the down payment is sufficient.  Contact me to discuss terms.  Basically my terms are; a deposit against a guarantee, plus 10% of the gross on all markets. That applies to every market. That's firm.

   For now,  I am looking to find partners for publishing and distributing these books.  I am publishing in-house but those quantities are very limited. This is because I need to focus on the details of producing the stage musical and not assembling and selling books.  After all, the whole point is the stage musical and I can't focus on that - if I have to be making books.

   I will be making Hand-Stitched books on a regular basis and they can be ordered directly by contacting me via email. I will be setting up a Shopping Cart and selling the books direct using PayPal. 

   I will not be concerned with mass production, unless I receive bulk orders exceeding for 25K books.  If that occurs,  it will be contingent upon available personnel and/or publishing partners.

   Just some recent thoughts. 

Contact me via email if this business opportunity interests you.

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

AG

Sculpting

   I've concluded that the best approach to creating 3D characters is to sculpt them. We started on the puppetry and the Garden Gnomes, only to get distracted back to publishing work. 

   Now that the paintings for the Illustrated Storybooks is mostly finished, we started painting some of the characters to create a 360° view. But this is easier said than done. I'm finding that getting an accurate perspective with separate drawings/paintings is not so easy to do. 

  This leads me to realize that the best way to create a 360° view is to sculpt the character and then scan that sculpture. I know that there is an Ai program that can convert a 2D image into a 3D image file, but from what I understand the character needs to be referenced from all four sides. It might be best to take at least eight slices. By the time we go through all that, we might as well sculpt it.

   I have a kiln, so we can fire the clay. After that we scan the sculpture for 3D. I'm thinking that might be the best approach, mainly because then the characters will be consistent.

   There are "details" to a computerized scan of artwork that seem to make a sculpture highly desirable. Of course, a sculpted Garden Gnomes, not only gives us a master, but also allows mold making. I considered 3D printing, and I hope to explore that, but I think sculptures advance our overall cause more effectively for now.

   That being said, I am looking for persons who may like to sculpt some Gnomes. Let me know if you are interested. If I can find the time, I may try my hand at it. I did some sculpting in the past and I really liked doing that and seeing the results of my efforts.

  I'll post photos if I do.

AG

Animation Studio

    Below is a skeleton laid out on top of an enlarged sketch of Zach. This gives us an idea of the ratio of the bones required. The bones are modified to match the limbs of our drawings. You can see that the upper arms are so modified and adjustable, depending on which character thy are used for. 

 This guides our work in building puppets, both manual and animatronic. 

Animatronics depends somewhat on whether or not IMS buys the machine shop; R.C. Kletzing Inc.

  This also leads me to the subject of Animation. The intention is to incorporate animations into the e-Storybook. For the storybook, the animations can start out to be 2D and transition into 3D, but one of the efforts underway is to convert our characters from 2D to 3D and to set up a work station for that effort, This leads me to believe that we need to establish the IMS Animation Studio. 

So that will be happening. 

   I invite participants interested in this arena to make their voices known.

AG

 

IMS Design Studio

Here's a link to a subject relative to the Gnomes;

IMS Design Studio

Theatrical Game Plan

  The theatrical production of The Gnomes of New Hope has been the ultimate goal since it's inception. Publishing the Illustrated Storybooks was originally intended as a means of building an audience for the stage show. Of course, the books have become an entity unto themselves, but the intent for the musical still exists as the purpose.

   This leads to the fact that once the books are fully put into play (meaning published and distributed) then the focus of attention will return to completing the score for the musical. 

   The Libretto is written sufficiently to work off of and begin building the show. We are considering painted drops vs an LED backdrop. The LED can be used for other film projects on the Sound Stage.

   The Musical Score is partially finished and needs to reach the point of publication. Although, all of the musical numbers have MIDI files outlining the melody lines and the majority of the arrangements. The last section of (maybe seven) songs still need to be arranged. There are a total of 70 musical numbers in the piece, that includes bridges and backdrops. The Overture is only sketched out at this point. Once the Illustrated Storybooks are finished and being distributed, then return to work on the music will occur.

    The Technical Manual for the show is started, but that cannot practically be fully produced until we are in production. Some portions of that can be set-up in pre-production, which will happen as we progress.

 

  Ideally, I would like to partner with other producers who work on Broadway. I prefer not to attempt that arena, simply because I have been involved in the development arena and have been away from that level of production for too long. 

   I have been building the tools, equipment and facilities to mount a try-out production and I have the video and film capabilities to create visual aids in mounting a larger production. Ultimately, I feel as though the larger professional endeavor should be implemented by a larger organization that is already steeped in the First Class Theatrical environment. That goes for the First Run Cinema as well. I think the project would be best served by that approach.

   I can and will continue in the Development process in-house and potentially into the Try-out Scenario, but advancing into a Try-out Tour will be contingent upon Licensing the First Class Production before doing so.

   There is an overall plan that involves conducting the Try-out Tour based on four wall contracts, meaning the First Class Contracts will not be tied to any third party agreements.

More later, AG

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 (actually there turned out to be another binder about 1/4 the thickness of these). 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

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 and the necessary registrations.
So at this time, I will not be accepting payment,
I only seek to know if you are interested.

If you are a distribution outlet, give me an idea of the quantity you might like

and I will get back to you on the details.

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.

Poser Tests

Update:

  One of the people I am talking to tells me that there is a Ai program that can take our 2D artwork and extrapolate the information needed to turn it into 3D.

   It's important to me that we maintain the aesthetic style of the artwork, to keep the watercolor textures. I'm hoping we can do that with animation programs. I would be very happy if we can have a 3D file for each of the characters. Further, if we could initiate action of those files, that would be optimal for creating our animations 

AG

Archive:

Here are a few screen shots from Poser.

The main objective right now is learning how to switch the figure 

from a naked woman into our Gnomic watercolors. 

It's a question of creating skins.

There has been some discussion of using AI to achieve that,

but that is in the early stages of thinking animation through.

Once we achieve that, we can create animated action with our characters.

From there it should not be too difficult to place them into our backgrounds.

But, of course, we will need to animate the backgrounds as well.

I would be interested in discussing this objective with anyone 

who knows how to create skins or work with Poser.

Right now, it is Poser, but is has been suggested the we use Blender.

Either way this is our next objective.

Once the Illustrated Storybooks are in production and being distributed, 

we will be focusing on Animation.

As with everything else,  I am open to discussing business opportunities,

but in the absence of any viable proposals

we will proceed in-house.

As far as animation goes, 

my interest is animating the illustrations for the e-Storybook.

The Stage play will be produced by Image of the Mind Studios

as the principle through

The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture

Board positions in the Elder Gnomes are available,

but there is a substantial buy-in.

There will likely be a Limited Partnership established.

with the Elder Gnome Joint Venture partnering with 

The Gnomes of New Hope Productions

and other Production companies.

A feature film or television series is another matter,

which will be jobbed out and supervised by the Elder Gnomes Joint Venture,

Cinema may be part of The Gnomes of New Hope Productions.

AG