Reader!! I finally received it!!

I got my book :D

I’m so excited today and I have so much to talk about in this Newsletter: above all, I’m gonna explain to you how you could get my upcoming book completely for free!

How to get my book for free (and how the test print went!)

Like I said at the very beginning, I just received my first ever copy of “Susie & The Blue Roof Witch,” the book I’ve been working on since almost the beginning of this Newsletter.

It was very special to finally be able to hold it in my hands and flip through the pages, I can tell you that :)

It’s the very first time I’m seeing those illustrations in real life, I was so happy!

However, I think there are a few things I’d like to improve before release:

First of all, the colors were really muted once printed; it’s clearly visible in person, and that made me decide to tweak the book to pick a higher quality print. Thankfully it’s only one setting to change, but this means I will make a bit less money on each copy.

But at this point, I just want to have a good product that does justice to the amount of work I put into it. This will be the perfect occasion to also adjust the margins and the font size: it’s really hard to tell how big something is when it’s only on your screen!

Like I said, my goal is a good product: I want to be proud of the final result before moving on to something new, even if that means a tiny bit more delay while I wait for the new print copy to arrive.

But rest assured, I’ll have a lot of fun things to share in the meantime!

Join the book giveaway!

I promised you that this week will be very special, and here is the reason: I’ll be giving away the book to a lucky winner :)

This giveaway is opt-in only, this means you need to click this button in order to get a chance to participate:

Once you click it, you’ll get a chance to receive the next version of the book with all the improvements we talked about.

So please join! Don’t wait for the official launch, I want to give you a chance to win the book even if you planned to buy it instead.

Click this button and you’ll automatically be registered ✨ You have only a few days so do it now! 🔥

I’m preparing for the convention!

I announced last week that I finally will table at multiple conventions this year, and the next one will be on the 12th of April! That’s only two weeks away, and right before my birthday (oops).

I’m super excited to show Susie’s book there, but also all the illustrations I’ve worked on over the past year :)

Remember how I told you that receiving the book was the first time I ever saw the book illustrations in real life? Well that was true for about 5 hours, since the same day I also picked up my order for 20 prints that I will be offering at the convention!

I’m absolutely pleased with the colors! I decided to change printers for the occasion: I usually work with a print shop based in Warsaw, for their fast delivery and large choice, but this time I went with a local printer in Krakow, just a few blocks away from where I live. And they did a great job!

The colors are extremely vibrant, the price decent (since I don’t pay for shipping), and the paper is way thicker as well (250g paper, that will hopefully make them very durable). I think this is what I’ll be using their services for from now on, especially for my monthly print giveaway :)

Now, that’s not all! For the convention, I’m also preparing zines!

First off, I decided to make a zine version of Susie & The Blue Roof Witch, to allow people to enjoy it without committing to a bigger purchase. Here is a test print I made (on blue paper, of course). This one needs a bit of tweaking with the settings, but that should make a very cute booklet in the end!

I also printed for the very first time a short comic I did exactly 2 years ago, in March 2023: “The Escape.” It’s a short gag with a few typos and some of my early art, but I like it :) I think I’ll give it away for free!

I’m excited to share with you all the preparation before the event!

Bonus: Illustration progress!

Ah I almost forgot! I teased last week about my next illustration (the first standalone one since months), and I have some progress to show you :)

First of all, I’ve completed the sketch and even done some value work: making blocks of shadows to visualize the colors and shapes better.

It’s super useful when you have a metric ton of details like here!

I started the ink work, and I can tell it’s gonna take a while: these bushes alone almost took me an entire morning:

But I feel like I understand better how to draw them now! I’m looking forward to share my progress with you in the coming weeks 🌸

And this is it for the week!

Once again, I urge you to click here and join the book giveaway. I’m always happy to give something back as a thank you for following this journey, and I don’t want you to miss out on this one :)

The winner of the monthly print and the winner of the book will receive an extra email next week! In the meantime, I can’t wait to see you then. Bye now!

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Take care,
- Nighten