Today I began the final round of checking the illustrations for Backbeard before sending them off. I printed every single picture from the book and tacked them up on my drafting table so I could see them side by side and spot mistakes.

In the process I ran through an entire color ink cartridge and entirely too much paper. It seems like no matter how carefully I check a picture, there’s always another mistake that I don’t notice until too late. If it weren’t for the ink cartridge finally running dry, I would have been there for days.