@tessaw This is a great concept!

@braden-hallett I love seeing how your concept evolved!

@jae I like the characters, especially the pose of the main character which really expresses her wonder at the world. I also like the way that you set up her room to show her personality. The textures of the objects make them look very warm and inviting which is difficult to do in a dark room. I just had a suggestion regarding the light source. I was confused about it until I looked back at your previous version where it was more apparent that the light came from outside the window. I think what confuses me might be the area under the window sill which should be shaded by the sill itself if the light is coming in at an angle. Right now it looks like the light could be coming from somewhere inside the room, as if a lamp was on the bench in front of the girl. I do love the cast shadow on the floor and the girl's slipper half-off. The girl doesn't read as "adult" proportioned to me at all by the way - maybe you already changed that though.

@navya-raju congrats!!!!

@demotlj what kind of printer do you have? I use an inkjet and learned the hard way that it does weird things on real wc paper because of how absorbent it is. I have used Avery business card paper with an inkjet and had good experience with it. Looks like Avery also makes greeting card/note card paper. You might also try a matte photo paper that is compatible with your printer.

I don't have experience with laser printers but I imagine that the type of paper isn't as much of an issue.

This is my 2nd submission. I had fun applying the custom brush tutorial and various other svs tutorials for this image. It started with scanned pencil then digitally painted. Originally I had the family lying on flat ground with a swingset where the houses are. I changed it to a slope and added the houses in the background to improve the dynamism and depth of the composition. I was inspired by all the stargazing my family did during COVID shutdown. We observed the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, comet NEOWISE and shooting stars. ❤

jenn-desautels-november.jpg

@xin-li I agree - most authors are inexperienced and relying on us to tell them how to publish their books, so we receive little guidance and end up guiding THEM! Honestly some Google research would be a better use of your time, @donnamakesart You're a very good artist and your worth is worth so much more.

@jae I think this is a much stronger story and illustration!

@jeremy-ross thanks that makes more sense than my rainy light

HIDE

3f60963a-9eee-4348-80aa-f3c0ef89e7a1-image.png

@isabel-reyes-feeney , great question. I love your examples. Can you please credit them so we can go check them out? I don't recognize the 1st & last. And thank you to all for the thoughtful, detailed responses.

Christmas_Card_Star_Maker 4.jpg

Here is the final art. thanks for the feedback. I liked the moon off centre a lot better. Thanks @Neha-Rawat
I fiddle a bit with the snow. I hope it looks more convincing as snow. I will let it sit over the weekend. Maybe sending out the card sometime next week. let me know if you have any more comments.

@chrisaakins hahaha yeah it happens 😄 .

@Adam-Thornton-0 here is my hastily done done draw over. If it helps, rejoice! If not please feel free to disregard!

I blurred the tree in the background. I deblurred the snowflake. I would even make more contrast if you had time to create more of a focal point.
982060EC-973D-4AF6-8D4B-40CAFEF6E3C9.jpeg

@Jake-Parker , @Lee-White , I really loved this podcast, especially the humility and lightning round of questions at the end!

Looking forward to more interviews!

Laying in flat colors before taking it into Photoshop.

Jae_Star_SVS.jpg

I'm not sure if this is relevant but I had 'How to think when you Write' included in my Etherington Brothers 'How to think When you Draw' Kickstarter bundle.

I am dyslexic so I have never really read books unless forced to at school (seems a bit of a weird thing to say on a children's book forum I know) so I'm afraid I cannot recommend any good stories to read to help but this book is really visual and it's exactly what I need to be able to process information so could be good as a book to dip in and out of if you are short on time. I don't think the tutorials will give you much structured learning but worth a look.

I'm not 100% sure it can be bought on its own and not just through Kickstarter but Etherington Brothers put all of their tutorials that are in the books online for free on their blog, IG and twitter. The books are just all of them collated into one place. You can look through the posts to pick them out. Here is one of the tutorials on their blog. http://theetheringtonbrothers.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-think-when-you-write-emergent.html

IMG_1218.jpg
IMG_1222.jpg
IMG_1220.jpg
IMG_1223.jpg

Thank you everyone. I wasn't sure if I had clouded the concept a bit so that has really helped before I went into cleaning it up. I'm excited to get on with this now, but there's a lot to do!!! (and it's my own fault! 😂 ) You're all stars 🌟 🌟

Great stuff.

@mag with the light, definitely. In fact, my personal opinion is that there should be more light.

Hope you don't mind, I did a quick draw over, knocking back the value of the stars surrounding the two main characters. I also lightened the elf's pants because her bottom half was disappearing into the background. Finally, I tried to darken the clouds -- for me, the scribbly detail on the clouds was distracting the eye and making the piece appear busier than it was. The scribbly detail is adorable, but you may want to try a version without (hopefully it's on a separate layer!) and see if that helps the composition.

See what you think ... of course, this is only one way to approach the values and composition. Looking forward to seeing this in Critique Arena!

698e3ea9-599c-4c95-a96b-7bfe50fb328c-mt-star-drawover.jpg

41fdc66e-ac96-4404-a582-e662dfbc9cdf-mt adjusted value.jpg

P.S. -- one more nitpicky thing: is the star drinking the tea/coffee too distracting? Would it be more effective to take away the mug and have the star look at the two main figures? Or if you want to keep the mug, none of the other stars have arms -- what if its arms were its two side points? Just another thought to think about!