The geography map books are all created in steps that build upon one another (this is going to be terribly interesting so fasten your seatbelts). In their creation we use Photoshop and layers. Each layer is a step that has to be turned on or off depending what step in the book you are on and with each layer there are sub-layers that have to be turned off and on in the correct sequence.
See? I told you this would be interesting.
The problem is, if you miss a step or forget to turn a layer on that should be on or off that should be off and you don’t catch it until you’ve created all the pages for the book, you then end up having to create pages over and over again. This process is somewhat inevitable, but with careful planning can be kept to a minimum.
Mistakes Were Made
Let me show you an example, something I just caught today, that required the recreation of many pages.
In the first sample page above you can see the red Missouri River at the top. We make all our steps red so it’s easy for students to see what they have to draw next. However, in the second photo, which comes several pages after the first, the Missouri River is gone. Take a look at the big horn sheep. When I turned off the red instruction layer, I forgot to turn on the completed layer. There should be a blue Missouri River there. You might be able to imagine how elated and happy I was to notice this. You might. Then again you might not.
Once the disappointment subsides it is actually a good thing. It would be far worse to see this mistake after the book was published (not that it hasn’t happened). Below you can see the corrected page:
All things considered Draw the Natural Wonders of the USA is progressing satisfactorily. We hope to have this book and Draw the Natural Wonders of Europe out before Christmas. We shall see!
Leave a Reply