Final story:
I am pretty proud of my final story. Although I am deeply dissatisfied with the writing at beginning and the end, the story on the whole and the writing everywhere else more than makes up for it. I have surpassed my expectations as I haven't written in years and I was rusty at first, but it all turned out better than expected.
I didn't like the beginning as it felt stilted and rushed, I was trying to get as much character development in as I could in a short amount of time and it was very difficult. The end was far more rushed than I intended it to be, as although I wanted it to be a sudden and unexpected short ending it just ended up being rushed. I think having such a rigid page-plan really didn't help with these but if I didn't have a page plan I would have probably written way too much.
Fortunately the story on a whole came out well, and I am very pleased with the characters. My writing is also greatly improved in chapters 3 to 9 and it flows a lot easier.
If I could do this again, I'd start earlier or make the story shorter so I could have more freedom while writing and the sort out how many pages and such after.
Final Illustrations:
I am happy with my illustrations, they aren't up to my usual standards at all, but I think they look effective with the book, and I am just being too perfectionist about my art.
The illustrations are simple and not very imaginative with poses, also some look a lot better than others which is disorientating.
Mostly though they are acceptable and I do admit the sepia really adds to the feel of the work.
If I could do this again I would give myself less illustrations so I could spend more time on them and make them to a higher standard.
Final Book:
I really like how the book came out, the fake leather binding looks really great and the cream paper with the sepia adds to the fantasy feel. Unfortunately there were a few problems with the binding.
The pages were too wide and poke out a little, and when sticking down the covering pages I left a bit too much fabric free.
All in all I really think it looks great and quite impressive. If could do it again I would practice more with binding until I was a lot more skilled at it, unfortunately I didn't really have time for it here as I had a few problems with printing.
