The First Three Pages

This is a discussion of the first 3 pages of the The Hat Who Lost Its Head children's book. The first is the inside front cover.

This inside front cover includes the copyright statement and book content information that, for some books, is on separate pages.

Note especially the statement about the images being generated with AI image-generating software. It is there for 2 reasons.

One, for disclosure, not that the child would care but because the parent might. Two, for one more statement about the uniqueness of this book. Soon, I expect, more childrens books will be illustrated with AI image-generating software. Until then, this book is unique in that way.

On the next page of the book, the first story page, you'll notice that the hat has eyes. An illustration is further down.

When the eyes were first placed, the hat still had a different-colored section on the band to indicate where the band overlapped and where there might be a buckle. Well, during the first review of the eye placement, it was noticed that the buckle area might be construed as a mouth.

(See this blog's The Children's Book Cover Image for a hat with the buckle area.)

The buckle area had to be removed.

The experience illustrates that fact that the book as described in this series of articles is subject to change before publication of the book. Or even after publication.

The eyes are intended to express an attitude or emotion. I decided to forego eyebrows, nose, and mouth, even though they would make expressions easier to illustrate. The protagonist is the hat. The expressions should support the hat, not take all of the attention.

Here is an illustration of the first page of the story.

That shelf gave me fits, so to speak.

The shelf started as a primitive illustration. It was given to the AI art generator at Night Cafe to make an acceptable image of a shelf.

The images varied. A lot. I ended up with several dozen shelf images. Finally, after deciding on one and changing my mind, twice, I settled on the one you see in these illustrations.

Here is the second story page.

I'm looking forward to making the next pages!

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