If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember that last week I tackled the first page of A Bright Ass Idea! using royalty-free artwork. We broke down the process of finding the right images, making necessary edits, and assembling the final illustration. I ended the article by setting a goal: to download all of the royalty-free images needed for the book’s 10 pages.

Finding all the images for 10 pages in one week turned out to be more time-consuming than expected. Instead of spending all my time searching, I pivoted—I downloaded the images for Pages 2, 3, and 4 and immediately got to work editing and assembling them. A minor shift in my goal, but still a win since it meant making actual progress on the illustrations.

This week, I followed the same editing approach as Page 1, preparing to grind through each image to make sure they work for the story. And honestly? It was definitely easier using AI-generated artwork in Sh*t, I Need a Job! than doing all this with royalty-free artwork.

Let’s take a look at Pages 2, 3, and 4 to see how they turned out.

Page 2: Searching, Editing, and Assembling the Final Artwork

Text from Page 2:

“One of these dudes, named Humphry Davy, figured out that if you hooked a thin piece of platinum up to a battery, it would glow really bright. But here’s the catch: platinum was fucking expensive, so nobody could afford to light their house with it. Over the next few decades, a whole bunch of jackasses tried to make a better light bulb.”

My Vision for the Illustration: I imagined a cartoon portrait of Humphry Davy holding an early electric lamp with an exaggeratedly expensive price tag hanging from it.

The Images I Needed:

1. A background of an old-fashioned room.
2. An image of Humphry Davy.
3. An old electric lamp.
4. A price tag to show how expensive platinum was.

The Search:

• Finding the background was easy, but I had to remove a modern light hanging in the middle of the room.
• Humphry Davy’s image took some extra work—I had to go through a lot of royalty-free images to find one that closely resembled him.
• The lamp and price tag were simple to find.

Edits Made:

1. Combined Davy’s head with a different body (wearing a brown vest and tie) to fit the setting.
2. Removed the hanging lamp from the background.
3. Placed the old electric lamp in Davy’s hand.
4. Attached a price tag to the lamp.

Time Needed: 1 hour to find and edit everything.

Final Illustration for Page 2:

Page 3: Searching, Editing, and Assembling the Final Artwork

Text from Page 3:

“Some tried using carbon, which was cheaper than platinum, but burned out pretty quickly. Others tried filling the bulbs with different gases, hoping to make the filament last longer. These guys were all pretty damn smart, but none of them could quite crack the code.”

My Vision for the Illustration: I wanted to show a scientist looking frustrated at a pile of burnt-out light bulbs on his desk.

The Images I Needed:

1. A background of a lab.
2. A scientist in a lab coat working.
3. Broken light bulbs to emphasize failure.

The Search:

• Finding the lab background was easy.
• I lucked out and found a scientist already sitting at a desk with glass beakers.
• Finding broken light bulbs was simple.

Edits Made:

1. Removed a working light from the background (since they were inventing the light bulb, it didn’t make sense to have a functional one there).
2. Added broken light bulbs on the desk to show failed attempts.

Time Needed:  45 minutes to find and edit everything.

Final Illustration for Page 3:

Page 4: Searching, Editing, and Assembling the Final Artwork

Text from Page 4:

“Now, let’s talk about this motherfucker named Thomas Edison. You’ve probably heard of him, right? Well, he wasn’t exactly the saint history makes him out to be.”

My Vision for the Illustration: I pictured Edison standing with his arms crossed next to a glowing light bulb, looking smug.

The Images I Needed:

1. A background of a candlelit room.
2. A character resembling Thomas Edison (ideally with arms crossed).
3. A glowing light bulb.
4. Possibly some people in awe of his invention.

The Search:

• I found the perfect candlelit room by searching for a medieval-style room.
• I got lucky again and found a royalty-free image of Thomas Edison holding a light bulb.
• Finding people with “surprised expressions” took a bit of effort.

Edits Made:

1. Cropped the background to remove the tavern look.
2. Resized the table and chair to make the room appear larger.
3. Placed Edison in the scene with his hand in his pocket—not with his arms crossed.
4. Added more glow to the light bulb to make it stand out.
5. Inserted two people looking up at Edison’s light bulb in awe.

Time Needed: 1 hour to find and edit everything.

Final Illustration for Page 4:

Moving Forward: Continuing with the Illustrations

This week, even though I did not achieve my goal of downloading all 10 images needed for A Bright Ass Idea!, I was able to pivot and make some actual progress by working on the first few pages.

Next Goal: This week, I plan to edit and finalize Pages 5 through 8. Depending on the complexity of the edits, I’m hoping to knock out at least these four pages.