How I Created The Cover Illustration To The Little People Part II

After getting my final sketches to a point that I was happy with all of the designs, I started thinking about the setting and overall scene for The Little People. I wanted it to be an outdoor, natural scene so I began looking for large trees in open areas during the summer that had limbs large enough that a person could be perched on them.

I finally settled on a small grove next to a local cemetery not far from my home. There were a lot of large oak trees with limbs at horizontal angles, perfect to have a small person sitting or kneeling upon. I took a lot of digital pictures of the trees, limbs and closeups of the leaves, then went through them and selected the limbs and leaves that worked the best. I then began putting them together in Photoshop and started painting over them.

Once the background was fairly complete I began painting in the animals. There were many layers of leaves, limbs and animals. After completing the animals, I then imported one of the 3D models I had used for my sketches and then began painting in all of the details for Daya using a combination of airbrush and paintbrush in Photoshop.

Once Daya was completed I worked on cleaning up all of the different layers making sure they blended well and touched up a lot of little details. What you see here is the final result.

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Giants Battle Illustration

Color illustration of the giants battling: http://www.michaelpaulhoward.com/thelittlepeople.html

Color illustration of Uktena. http://www.michaelpaulhoward.com/thelittlepeople.html

Color illustration of the giant turtle DuGa-Si.
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Color version of my ink illustration of when Daya first met Adam in the forest behind his home.

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How I Created The Cover Illustration To The Little People Part I

Once the final written draft to the Little People was complete, and as my family and friends began helping me proof it, I began the process of trying to come up with the cover illustration. I knew that I wanted to include at least one of the main characters as well as several of the animal spirits mentioned in the book.

My initial thought was to show Daya and Adam together so I began doing sketches of various scenes from within the book. Besides doing sketches, I also went into several 3D animation programs. These programs allowed me to take 3D human figures and place them into assorted poses to help created different scenes. One rough scene I did included several of the Little People, animals and Uktena in a large battle scene. I eventually decided it was too busy. After many attempts, I finally settled on a rough sketch that I was happy with. This sketch depicted Daya along with two of the animals perched on a limb in the trees.

I next began doing sketches of Daya’s clothing and ornaments. I went through several designs before settling on what was used in the final rendition. I was looking for something that was recognizable as Native American, but had an original look. I also wanted it to appear to be made of natural elements such as animal hides, bone and stone. I tried to keep the colors somewhat muted so they would appear to be made from natural pigments.

Once Daya’s costume was complete, I then began doing more detailed sketches. I used my 3D program to design a human female figure pose and incorporated that into the design. The final sketch was a composite of several sketches that I put together in Photoshop.

Once the sketches were complete I began looking at how I wanted to illustrate it in color

More in part II

The Change Of Seasons

Lately we’ve seen quite a fluctuation in the weather. One day it is sunny and in the 60’s, the next 10 degrees with snow, sleet and freezing rain, all in the same day. A favorite saying here in the south is all you have to do I wait and the weather will change.

One of the things I tried to incorporate into The Little People while I was writing it, were the changes in the seasons and the weather. Growing up in the south, we were use to extreme changes. The seasons also tied nicely into events such as holidays, school events, birthdays and more.

At the beginning of the story, it is summer. Summers were always a great time for me as a child. Right after my family moved to the south, the time I spent with my grandparents up in the mountains on the river during the summers are some of my fondest memories. Even though the summers were hot and humid, the things a child could do far outweighed the heat. Other than the occasional storm with a chance of tornadoes, summers weren’t bad.

There was always an adventure to be had, some place to explore, and something new to learn. My grandfather taught me how to fish. My grandmother taught me how to cook. There was nothing better than sitting in a lawn chair down on the riverbank with a pole and a line in the water.

Exploring the woods was a favorite pastime. Seeing wild animals in nature was always exciting fun. Of course the insects were never welcome. Mosquitoes, chiggers and ticks were not any fun.

Summer always ended too soon. When school started and fall came around it was always back to business. Of course then there was always winter break to look forward to. We were always happy to get a snow day. Funny how as children we had no idea how stressful and dangerous the snow and ice could be. We were just happy to be out of school.

I could never think of winter and not think about the holidays. The three biggies were Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Halloween was always cool outside and by Thanksgiving we were getting a lots of rain. By Christmas we were hoping for a little snow. Very seldom did we ever actually seem to get any.

We always knew when Thanksgiving was getting close because my father and older brother would begin practicing their duck calls. That’s all we heard around the house for a month up until duck season. It was worth putting up with the noise to get to taste my grandmother’s duck and dressing however. It was always one of my favorites at that time of year.

I think for most of us, the seasons always bring back memories that connect us to important times in our lives. 

Michael Howard

10 Ways To Spread The Gospel

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” Matthew 28:18-19

Jesus commanded his disciples to teach all nations. Christians have a responsibility while here on this earth to reach out and teach the lost, unbelievers and erring members alike. There is no retirement from being a Christian. Revelation 2:10: "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Here are ten ways we can spread the gospel of Christ, help the church grow and save the lost.

10. Study God’s word. II Timothy 2:15: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We must first have knowledge of God’s word before we can adequately share it with others and the only way to do that is to study the Bible regularly.

9. Pray daily. 1 Peter 3:12: For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Prayer strengthens us and God hears the prayers of the faithful.

8. Do good and help others. 1 John 3:17; But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? By helping others we show God’s love.

7. Participate in and support the works of the church. Reach out to church leaders and finds ways to help with current church programs and events such as gospel meetings and mission works.

6. Invite people to come to church. It could be to regular services, for a gospel meeting, vacation Bible school or any other church event or activity.

5. Speak to people about your Christianity in person or by phone. Romans 10:14: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? We should always be on the lookout for opportunities to speak with people about God’s word.

4. Reach out to erring members, let them know you care about them and encourage them to repent and return to God.

3. Hand out books, tracks, flyers, DVD’s, Bibles or other materials and tell people about works of the church such as the Speaking The Truth In Love television program. We can keep Bible material with us at all times and if an opportunity presents itself, give it to someone in person or leave it somewhere that it might be found.

2. Share God’s word online. God’s word can effectively be shared on the internet. Here are a few examples:
    a. We can send emails to people in our list with articles, letters, and links to assorted Biblical content.
    b. Facebook – Create Biblical posts or like and share posts from sources such as Apologetics press, GBN, or Nettleton’s Facebook page. If every member that uses Facebook shared God’s word regularly, how many people might be reached?
    c. We can also tell people about and share YouTube and other online Bible videos from places such as World Video Bible School.

1. Be a living Christian example. Matthew 5:16: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. When people see God’s light shining through us, then they will want to know more about us and who we are – Christians.

My Top Ten Authors Reading List

When I was around ten or eleven, my father gave me a copy of John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the first time I had ever read a novel. It was with Burrough’s Mars series that I obtained my love for reading fantasy novels. These author’s novels later influenced me to begin writing my own stories. If any of you ever get the chance, I encourage you to read some or all of their works. Out of all of the author’s works I have read, I would have to say that Robert E. Howard’s Conan and Edger Rice Burrough’s Mars series are still my favorites.

1.     Piers Anthony

2.     Robert Jordan

3.     Joel Rosenberg

4.     Marion Zimmer Bradley

5.     David Eddings

6.     Anne McCaffrey

7.     Terry Brooks

8.     J. R. R. Tolken

9.     Edgar Rice Burroughs

10.  Robert E. Howard

The Little People Excerpt #1

Excited at this new discovery, Adam eased forward to get a better look. The turtle was a giant of it’s kind. Adam thought it must have been three feet across and weighed at least a hundred pounds. It had a large brown, dome shaped shell, with yellow spots all over it. Adam remembered his father saying they were called box turtles or terrapins. He didn’t know they grew to be so big.

The turtle’s head was out and it seemed to be looking right at him. Curious, Adam eased his stick forward to poke it to see if it would move. As he did so the giant turtle quickly reached out and grabbed the end of his stick with its mouth. This caught Adam by surprise and he almost let go of his stick.

Adam grabbed the end of his stick with both hands and tugged on it, several times. He tried to get it to let go, but has no luck. The turtle hissed loudly at Adam as it pulled back on the stick. He was surprised at how strong the turtle was. Back and forth they went for several moments until there was a loud snap and the stick broke in two. With the sudden release of his end of the stick, Adam stumbled back, lost his balance and then fell.

As Adam hit the ground he thought he heard someone say, “Humph, pesky human!”

Adam quickly stood up and looked around, but he didn’t see anyone else in the area. As he dusted himself off he looked back at the turtle. It had come out from under the brush and was slowly making its way along the edge of the stream toward the back edge of their property. The turtle stopped once and looked right at Adam. It then slowly set off again. Adam followed the large reptile until it eventually crossed a gap in the fence at the edge of their property. He watched it make its way across the woods, heading toward the distant lake. It eventually disappeared in the forest beyond the fence line.

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