@ Bobby Aquitania Ha! Well, I will try to make some progress. I ended up, actually, redoing my picture the old fashioned way but, I will be looking at it again to try and learn some editing for the future 🙂 Time to go paint-my my ink and miskit are dry 🙂

Great job Sharron! I love your style!

Alas I can't commit to anything, my life is too unpredictable right now because of my health. The monthly challenge is good for me because it allows me to skip several days if I have to... 😞

@Dulcie a second piece!! i think I will, but maybe not for 3rd Thursday. Took some pictures of a toy train at work, I think I'll use that as reference.

thanks for the encouragement.

I agree with @dulcie... your original glow from the book is better than the light streaks which are too uniform and evenly spaced. I love the changes to the bottom half! Can't wait to see more!

Hi everyone, this is just a kind of visual how-to for if you want to use a cartridge converter with a Pentel Pocket Brush. (This could be common knowledge to just about everyone here, too, I dunno. I more or less just joined.)

I live near a ton of art supply stores but for some reason, not very many carry this pen, which means they don't have the ink cartridges, either. Also, wouldn't it be fun to use different colors from time to time? 🙂

The cartridge converter I used is a Platinum: http://bit.ly/1lVmFMN
The ink I use is not India Ink, but Noodler's Black (http://amzn.to/1HZu1cP). It's waterproof on paper, and has a slightly longer dry time than the ink inside the Pentel cartridges, but in my experience, it doesn't feather at all, even on copy paper. And you can buy the stuff by the jar, so over time this setup should be a lot cheaper than the cartridge option.

Basically you just have to pop off the metal ring at the end. Afterward the converter should fit on the end of your Pocket Brush, but it'll be snug. That's why I used sandpaper to shave off the lip somewhat. To fill the pen, submerge it into your favorite ink bottle so that the two air holes on the sides are below the surface, and twist the converter to draw up the ink.

Anyway, hope this helps somebody!

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Wow, I feel like a bad student, need to be doing this stuff more. It will improve you from the ground up and there is no better way to build up your skill!

thank you Thrace

Current projects:
Finish 3rd Thursday
Paint at least 20 images that are children orientated before the 23rd of Jan. there is a critique locally here for SCBWI
Get actionable poses and expressions down
Finish up all of the courses currently offered here
Create leave behind sheet/postcard and business cards for illustration vs my design ones now

Milestones:
Created a separate space from my design portfolio to house a blog of my illustrations in progress or complete
Finished 8 courses here
Created a drawing or painting daily for weeks, the first time in 20 years

@Katrina-Fowler Great advice, Katrina! I really appreciate it!

@Rob-Smith Thanks, i just want to make the wolf second read,, but it needs stil lots of rendering!! 😉

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen the way I understand it, it also reflects on your reputation. The total number of up votes on the top right of your post.

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You should be very proud of this piece @kazgirl because it is terrific. Your final additions really pulled it all together. Its a winner!

Thanks to all of you for the nice feedback 🙂

@Bobby-Aquitania Yes you're right, there should be a light on the front. I did think about that before, but it didn't suit the composition with the other light sources I wanted so I left it out. At one point when I was thinking of adding the fairy lights, they were going to be wrapped round the funnel thing at the top, and I thought they could light the way... I also wondered, maybe there could be a third elf sat up there at the front, arms wrapped round, holding a light & looking delighted...but again would that be too much to include.. But fair points, thanks for pointing them out 🙂

@Bobby-Aquitania That solved it! I actually was talking about the eyedropper tool (I guess I think of it like a color picker but you are right, it is different than the color wheel).

I read your response and then quickly deleted my 3 frustrated tweets to @SketchableApp. I guess I'm just not familiar enough with Win 8.1. I never use the "fly out" charm menu.

I was so annoyed but you nailed it! Thank you so much!

Sweet! Always looking for good, free audio books to listen to while working. Thanks!

@mattramsey Thanks for the update. I was thinking about suggesting testing on a copy. 1. test the space, since that area is giving you problems and not the sand area what happens if you delete and paint from scratch. 2. Copy and paste just that square of space into a new file and see what happens there. 3. Play with the type of files you are saving it as. Good luck troubleshooting.