Once upon a time, and without further rhyme, I decided to write and illustrate my own picture book for children.

But how?

Personally, I decided to use the Procreate app for Apple’s Ipad Pro for all my illustrative work. When it came to compiling all the pages and adding the text, I transferred everything over to my PC and use Affinity Publisher. The reason for choosing these programs is because they don’t work off of a subscription model, and have all the tools I considered necessary.

Procreate

I came across Procreate a few years ago and it was the reason that I completed the transition from traditional art to digital art. Digital art is not only a great way to save money on paper and paint but also a way to experiment with relative freedom. It’s a powerful and versatile art program that has been a crucial tool in creating the illustrations found within my books.

Affinity

The Affinity software suite has been invaluable when it comes to assembling and writing the book. Affinity Publisher has an excellent page creation tool that, if set up correctly, can provide you with accurate margins and bleed.

In further blogs, I will explain how to set up a canvas in Procreate as well as setting up your Affinity document in a way that will save you from many headaches.