Thank you! Here is finally some progress (I started a new course, but I try to finish the Jeep in between). I had a lot of difficulties with the perspective, and especially with the machine gun; try to attach it to the car in a coherent way. But I think it looks cool now, it does not look too off. The backgroung still needs some work. Ideally I wanted to add a driver and someone using the gun, but not sure if I should start a new piece or continue this one...

@xin-li Really great to read your thoughts on this! Honestly I'm amazed that you saw the mother and child on that last spread so fast. I think you can simply claim really sharp eyes! I just checked the US Amazon and there's a copy available (also used) for a very reasonable $77! (Yikes!) Does feel like this book is ready for a reprint. It's not even that old! If you make it happen with your publisher please keep us posted. I would love to claim that this discussion somehow had a part in bringing a book back into print!

@LauraA My thoughts on this Cintiq are typically quite well calibrated right out of the box. But there can a shift in brightness/hues over time. I have a guy here in Portland Or who I hire every two years to come out and recalibrate my Cintiq and my printer so that they match. Unfortunately you will never get an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT match unless you are in the building where the print is being made and can make adjustment in real time. That said, I've been doing this for years. Ages ago the difference between printers was huge. These days (especially with professional printers) not so much. I have work printed at a place here in PDX Gango Editions I send them digital files and then pick up the color prints. Always look great! A good general color profile to work in is Adobe RGB 1998. Everyone (at least in US) seem to calibrate to that as a baseline. I create files in my home studio using this profile. Print them at Gango Editions and I'm always happy. BTW, I've also used three other professional print services in PDX over the years using the same profile and process. Always looks good. Can't speak to a print service in NYC. I will go ahead and recommend Gango Editions I've had them print my images on large canvases and then ship them to various clients around the country. Gango handles all the shipping. Because they are local to me I went down to look at the prints before they were shipped, but I never had any changes. (and it's fun to see your work printed on 4' x 6' giant canvases!) Because it's an existing image I would charge just for the print (your printing and shipping costs plus a reasonable profit margin) I wouldn't charge her for the time spent creating the image as it is a pre-existing portfolio image. You took a gamble on yourself, and made all the creative decisions personally. I would feel differently if this client called you up and wanted you to create a custom image, but still only wanted a print. In that case you are actively saying "no" to other paying clients, or working on promotional images, so you could make specifically what this client wanted. In that case I would price the project hourly (keeping in mind that all reproduction rights would remain with you) and add in the cost of the print + shipping. As for how pricing a print sale works, the pricing is based on the cost of printing (usually this differs based on size and/or substrate and is dictated by the print service company you use.) along with demand for your work. An 8 x 10 might cost $10 to print, but a popular artist could get $100 per print (a $90 profit). While a less popular artist might only be able to command $15 per print. The less popular artist might be thrilled with a $5 profit -- or they might figure it's not worth the effort and personally feel that a $15 profit make the time and effort worth it. So then an 8 x 10 print would need to sell for $25. This last bit is really about market demand and artist incentive.

good. I think there is a second part to that one also. I think its called creative composition 2.0

@baileyvidler @Jeremy-Ross Thank u!!!

@willicreate Thanks very much ! I had the intention of them all working in the same kitchen in a mediterranean setting like Italy or south of France, so I guess they could be brothers. I'll perhaps put some text on the page explaining that or change the title to make it more obvious. Thank you

@Katherine Like the character a lot but I'm having difficulty reading the face.

I think that having a pet otter would very much be like a pet ferret except that it could fish for you

@Moana-Maureen I'm also waiting for the upload of the newest critque arena

Here is my entry for this month. I wish all of the monthly prompts were inktober themed. I can literally ink all day. I usually do traditional inks but I discovered the Kyle's Inkbox Classic Cartoonist Brush in Photoshop and I loooooooove it!

Better late than never: This is my June contest character design for Lucky Albert from SVSlearn. Still need to color, but loving this little guy. Love to know your thoughts? Kim Gatto www.designsbygatto.com

I had a Cintiq 24HD and a Bosto 22HD, but since I moved to another country I have been using an XP-Pen artist 15.6 pro for about 2 and half years and it works really great and is as solid as a wacom product, I removed the protective film early on since it does tend to scratch with ease and it got deformed a tiny bit in the summer heat while working with it. Also, some people really hate the smooth glass but I personally don't care either way, though I did notice the pen nibs last forever if you go with the smooth glass. The only thing bothering me a bit is the size, I would love to have one of 22" instead, but even at 15.6" is still a great product and you can work professionally with it (so far I've made a 6 issue graphic novel, several book covers and video game art with it).

Wanted to share a project i did, using my daughter and the family pets as references. They are quite inconsistent but i really learned a lot with the making of these three, i ended up adding color pencils with the last one (dogo) and it really made a difference with the control i had over the texture so im gonna keep experimenting on mixing watercolor with other media.

So, she is an older lady and a space explorer. She is a woman who has many interests and a relentless curiosity drives her. She has pockets full of weird crystals and space mushrooms and chrysalises from which she doesn’t know what will hatch out. She always has a hammer, a magnifying glass and empty jars to hand. Is her hair okay? I mean, she doesn’t care, but I would quite like to know if it overwhelms the rest of the image! Also, does her visor read as a visor? Any and all feedback appreciated!

@ambiirae I really like the chin! There is something uncommon about the face ...not formulaic maybe? She has a regal air about her. For critique i think making the eyes smaller to fit the scale of the head, increasing the forehead length, maybe give a bit of depth around the eyes, and volume and texture to the cape. I feel like the line work of the nose and mouth are very well done... i could not match your light hand in my quick draw over...so it looks kinda funny .. but i wanted to show the scale of the eyes in the way i was imagining them. You've gotten great feedback already but i wanted to give a vote for keeping the chin

The path this took my eye on was quite a ride! I land on the main girl's face (nice contrast around here) then travel along her gaze to the pointing lady who takes me to the fella with the bag and swoops me off his arm up the guy to his left and across the hanging balls at the top. This rolled me along the right market stalls and down the balder guy into his dragon graphic and from his shoulder I'm pointed back to the main girl. Well done! I feel as though I was just jostled around a marketplace on the whim of your frenzied environment. The expressions lean mostly positively too which gives this scene a more welcoming and exciting feel as opposed to an anxious and negatively overwhelming air. I can't thinking of anything that stands out to me as needing revision though.. Hope this helps a little. Thanks for sharing!

@hakepe @lizardillo thank you!

@jthomas I personally think the action could start at around four or five. If the story has a good hook and flow, I flip through pages quick. What troubles me is I don’t know who Jaz is as a person. From the first chapter I get his strong sense of justice and can be headstrong, aka a hero type. But what makes Jaz 'human'? You don’t have to answer all the questions in chapter two. Having a mystery can foster audience retention. It would be better to allow Jaz to have his adventures before reintroducing the mother. To show how the crystal got into the pod, the easiest thing to do is show the antagonist exit the pod bay and then setup the charge. No dialouge needed. Speaking from personal experience, I think you should move on to working on chapter two. It's better to have a draft of a completed story than to risk a project get stuck in development hell.

@NessIllustration Ah, you make a good point! I think that's part of the reason it's a little tricky to define! Re: colors, it seems there's a balance to strike between being colorful enough to appeal as children's art, but not too colorful that it reads as overdone. @Melissa-Bailey-0 Reading too much?? I wasn't aware such a thing existed!! Oh my gosh! I hadn't heard of Jonathan D. Voss, but I'm already in love. I just requested his books from the library so I can take a closer look! Thanks for the suggestion! And sure! Here's the link to my dream portfolio. It's a little scatter-brained (like me, lol!) but I think the general direction is texture-y and watercolor-y. I'm focusing on picture books right now, but I think my plan is to eventually expand into both PB and MG.

@Melissa-Bailey-0 Aw, thanks!