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I have finished the digital version of my masthead. *self high-five*

...and this is it. It turned out much like my sketch, as I wanted it, but I've got to say that it took much more than I expected. I thought I could do some funky, crazy things with the image and turned it into a logo... well, I couldn't. So I downloaded Illustrator and got to work. It was a hard, meticulous, and painful job, and that's sugarcoating it. (Okay, it wasn't THAT hard, but I took a long time because I'm a perfectionist, as I've mentioned 352 times already). I had never used Illustrator before, so most of the time spent was me trying to figure out how to use it.

It is crazy how many buttons this thing has; if you look closely, there is an arrow on some buttons that leads to more buttons. But I got over it, and did it -in two hours, but I did it. My biggest struggle was the six, because making it look like my sketch require the use of many many tools and tools within tools. But after all the hardship, Illustrator kind of grew on me. It made me realize that graphic design is something I'm very interested in -as it is further proved by my work with the table of contents. It's a very tiring process, but it is also rewarding.

And with all this design talk, I'm getting more and more excited to finish my TOC and get to work on my two page spread. Actually, I should say some things about my two page spread. I have decided to use the last piece I posted, "Thralldom", because it's the one I like the most and it'll be the most challenging. Fitting three pages of short story on a two page spread while making it aesthetically pleasing will require much of me, but I am ready and PUMPED. I met with Mrs. Stoklosa this past week to ask for some advice, and she suggested that I do TWO two page spreads if the whole story doesn't fit on one. I think that's gonna be the way to go, especially because I'll have more space to play around and be creative.

Yes, I'm leaving my cover page for last. No, I don't think that's a good decision, but I don't know what else I can do. I have no idea what to do, except where the masthead is gonna be placed. I'm pressuring myself to have a sketch by Tuesday, so I can finish the magazine by THURSDAY -ideally I'd finish it by Wednesday, but I need a day to stare at everything I created to notice all the imperfections and perfect them; can't say this is the final masthead, for example.

I'll leave it at that because Illustrator is calling me. I've got to say that the call makes me cry a bit, but I know that in the end I'll wipe out the tears with pride.