The Tell-Tale Heart - process and first pages

Finally I'm actually at the stage where I'm producing some finished pages. Here's my studio while I'm working on the text. I've got a (very) makeshift lighttable, consisting of glass leaning against some books with a little lamp under it because I'm broke and can't make a proper one right now. Oh well.

It's got the template for the entire book taped to it, on tracing paper, and on top of that is the individual page all penciled out, so I basically trace what I want onto the finished product.

Pages that are side by side get taped and done together so that they will look as seamless as possible once they are bound. I may got back through once it's all done to make sure, but that could be asking for trouble.

But let's get to the good stuff. The book is small enough to fit in my scanner, so the images are quite nice.

Opening page, just a bloody thumbprint. I like starting slowly.

Title page.

First page of the story. There's more red on here than I had planned. I used it to fill in the opening letter and emphasized words (anything in italic in the text is in those capital letters, as are the first letters in each sentance) and I guess I got carried away with all the large letters, 'I's, and filling in the background. It works for the first page, since that's usually got something to set it apart, but I may tone it down for the rest. The words didn't go on as smoothly as a would have liked. Partially my own fault, and partially because I'm using waterproof ink (so that I can paint on top) and it just doesn't flow very nicely in the nibs.

There's some paper cutting on the bottom right corner. I put the page underneath it for the scan, but that will look a little different with the words on, because you'll see through and really notice the outline of the cut paper.