@jason-bowen thank you 🙂

@benr I think he's just started doing them again, not as many though 😞

Oh, I wasn’t talking about doing all that now. I was speaking more of a “someday down the road” way. I guess I didn’t make that clear.

@sas I'll check them out, thanks so much!!!

I love that image hehe. I used to have geese and ducks and they are amazing and it so captures their way 😃

Rie Cramer is also from the Golden Age, actually in the https://pierangelo-boog.blogspot.com/ website he has a huge long list of illustrators and images that you can browse through from many periods

Have a similar issue... the sketching part, less polish. Where I think you could improve is stepping out of the comfort zone. Something you really struggle with. Tried that a while back with buildings and vehicles. Perspective heavy subjects. after a while i sucked a little bit less at those subjects plus it strenghtened the subjects i was more comfortable with as well. Trying to gain pleasure from the pain and frustration new subject matter can bring.

Also noticed the use of photo refs, I do not know if you use it all the time... for many drawing without is a big step out of their comfort zone. Just a thought... im biased to that way of drawing... im unable to follow reference exactly, dont use it often. Mind wanders off, get bored easily. Something i should remedy...

Veel succes 🙂

@irina Just to add that 50 mm - 85 mm is the best focal range for me, as it achieves sharpness across the whole image. Also less lens distortion - move yourself rather than zooming in and out to get square edges. Although photoshop does a pretty good job of fixing distortion, less post-production the better I say. I try to have it a f11 (smaller aperture) and always use a circular polariser, to stop any glare or reflective surfaces making life difficult. Paint gets shiny. I autofocus then turn off the autofocus once its set pin sharp. And if you have no lights, sunlight diffused behind a cloud is class. You can't beat that big bulb in the sky.

@phil-cullen I recently purchased a huion pen tablet monitor and I love it. 100% recommend. Some people complain about having driver issues but it looks like the major issue is that the huion and wacom drivers do not play nice with each other. You have to delete the wacom drivers in order for the huion ones to work, but as long as you aren't on a machine where you are going to want to switch back and fourth between different pen tablets it's a non-issue. I upgraded from an intuos3 and in terms of pen sensitivity and responsiveness I see no difference. Drawing on the screen as opposed to on a tablet while looking at the screen is a game changer and I was able to afford so much more screen real-estate with the huion than I ever would have with a wacom.

@carriecopa awesome thanks!

Thanks a lot for the link !
Personally I find chat less intimidating than forum somehow (don't ask me why 😃 )
See you around!

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen You are so welcome! 😃 Proko classes look amazing, I've been considering them myself too. I still struggle with the cilinders as well, and like you, especially when it comes to animals! But it gets easier! 😉

@nessillustration said in Personal Branding: how would you describe your Ideal You:

Their artist statement will look like "I'm a professional artist who uses watercolor to create cute illustrations to make children smile." It may seem rather useless to you to put that into words, but for that artist, putting that statement into words and reminded themselves of it often will often determine what they decide to put in their portfolio, what jobs they accept and which ones they refuse, etc. It will help make themselves be the kind of person who that art director is looking for when they search for someone who can do what they want to do.

Goal setting is very important, without it you can wander around without getting any closer to what you want to do in life...

Yes exactly. I think thinking of what the audience or an AD wants to see is important but most important is thinking about what we want to work on and enjoy working on and are good at and choosing what particular niche we want to illustrate in and focus on that. Not everything

I think having a graphics tablet for your laptop would be a great investment. It's better than using a mouse,or track pad, even when not your drawing. I use a Wacom intuos pro medium, love it. I had a 21" cintiq, but its back home in Ireland 😞 The disconnect from drawing on tablet while looking at the screen wasn't a big change for me, but I understand this could be different for some. You may find it uncomfortable if the size difference between your screen and tablet are very different.

If there is a better solution than Paypal or direct bank transfers, I'd love to hear it, because most of my clients use Paypal, and they do take a crazy fee for international payments. And if the fee isn't on me, it's still on my clients.

Other than that though, Paypal has been working really well for me. 🙂

Hi! I just wanted to share that I went to Jan Brett's book signing event last night. If she is going to be in a town near you, try to go. She spoke for 30 minutes and her talk was aimed at children, but as someone pursuing writing/illustration, I found it very inspiring.

She was very animated and entertaining. I had never been to a book signing or talk by an author/illustrator, so it was an educational experience for me. I am not trying to promote my IG in any way, but if you are curious, I streamed a lot of her talk live and it's still in my IG story.

Her big tips for illustration were (remember, she was addressing a bunch of kids sitting right in front of her):

Eyes. To make a character interesting, pay attention to how you draw the eyes. Make sure you put a white spot - it's the sparkle of the eye. If you are feeling stuck with a drawing, look at it in a mirror. She said she feels like that is like looking at it for the first time and uses this trick herself. Keep working and don't get discouraged. Artists often get hung up on perfectionism and to not let that get in the way of creating. Use your artistic license! You have the authority to use your artistic license to change things how you want them to be. For example, she adds eyebrows to her hedgehogs and hedgehogs do not have eyebrows - this was her example.

It was so fun to see one of my childhood art heroes in person. She introduced her husband too, who has played in the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 57!! years. She travels with him when he is on tour and she said that listening to the orchestra is one of her biggest sources of inspiration because when one listens to music it allows your mind to go to places it can't go on its own.
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@daviesdesignated Cheer mate. Yeah, I'm spending about 2 hours a day drawing and refining my craft. I've got a couple of IP ideas, and will likely start them next year.

I'm not 100% sure what area I want to go, but I'm consistently trying stuff, seeing what I like and what I want to pursue. So far, I definitely prefer illustration over traditional fine art (where I started). I love storytelling, evoking emotion and exploring experience.

I definitely want to get studio work, at least at first, but ultimately I want to live off my own IP eventually. With my experience with digital marketing and running my own business, I'm confident I can do this, I just need to refine my art skills.

Next time I'm in Sydney, we should catch up for a coffee. I'd love to hear what you've been up to and where you want to go.

@rcartwright Well, that happens to be the next lesson on Proko so that will be perfect! 🙂 I have another one too that I should probably share. It looks okay to me but...I may be wrong. I'll post it later after I get this one. Thanks!

@chip-valecek Yes it stays in the binary part of the image - although you can check boxes to ignore this info if you want to remove certain data (in preferences menu).
The XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) profile it's called in adobe. So you can embed info across multiple projects.

If you are doing quick exports make sure you have the copyright box checked in preferences
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There is also a menu called IPTC extension where you can name the artwork, creator, SKU inventory numbers and any models you may have used.
Also add a copyright notice.
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I use a program called photo mechanic for doing batch metadata. Where you can store templates so you can copy and paste, if you have a lot of images to label at once. It's reasonably priced too ($150).
It's similar to adobe bridge but exceptionally faster and more intuitive. Built for editorial photographers banging out photos quickly.
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Wow, congrats @Teju-Abiola and @Eric-Castleman ! SVS people do cool stuff. 😃

@sarah-luann I took care of it myself... It's a French Canadian company and they prefer to speak in French with me, so I thought bringing in my UK agent would just complicate matters haha

@Heather-Boyd I don't know how much I'll be able to say, but I'll try cause that would be neat!

@nasvikdraws Thank you!! ❤