It's definitely because of the maximum brightness of your iPad. You think the color you picked is light, but it's actually really dark and only appears light because your iPad be shining like a lighthouse! I had the same problem and lowered the brightness of my screen. BOOM, fixed! My eyes also get less tired now, win-win!

I use PortfolioBox.net for all three of my sites. I'm very happy with them. They even have a limited storefront you can use.

On their Lite package, you can get a portfolio website for $3.50/month if you pay annually ($5.50 monthly). 50 images, 10 pages... At the Pro level (9.50/month annual payment) you can get/transfer a pre-existing domain name.

https://www.portfoliobox.net/

Nice. Thank you. 🙂

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Hopefully they will fix all the 404s but design wise it's still a big downgrade in how the images are displayed. First image is supposed to be the guidelines for featured illustrators. Second is ugly big black bars when viewing illustrations and third is the tiny cropped illustration gallery. The old website had such a beautiful light box with nice white borders it made all the illustrations look better than normal and the gallery view took up most of the page so this is what I mean when I said downgrade.

@TheresaMuth thank you. That actually makes sense. If all else fails, I’ll just take my pencils and sketch books only. Don’t want to have my copics and Windsor newton markers blocked at the airport lol

@lpetiti i'd say give the author a call for courtesy sake and get this over with. But don't agree to anything yet. Just say you'd like to know about the project first. After which, you can decide whether to take it or not.

@kayleenartlover if you're an SCBWI member, there is a chapter about how to create book dummies in their Essential Guide to Publishing For Children, a free digital download for all members. There is also a chapter about query letters.

Jane Friedman and Upstart Crow Literary have also written good articles about writing query letters.

@xin-li This is a great topic, thank you! Unfortunately I don't have anything to add, but I'm watching it!

I wish you all the best with your book! 💓

@AngelinaKizz Very nice concept!

I agree with Robyn that there may be a more "extreme" quietness to express here. I also agree with Miram that the view of the character could be more dynamic. The combination of these brings to mind images of a girl lounging in bed with headphones on, eyes closed, totally chilled out, or maybe the same view of her reading, but zoomed out a little with her off center and showing her environment.
The loud side could similarly be shown in a more dynamic light - maybe she's jumping on the bed, totally rocking out.

Also might be neat to show her in her bedroom in both images at the same angle and everything, but it's only her pose that has changed.

This all depends on the intent of the images of course - it's totally different to design a spot illo over a full spread, for example. My suggestions probably are more applicable to a full spread.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

@jvartandillustration I actually really appreciate that, because I was thinking the same thing. What percentage of people will actually put out money when you start the campaign? I was getting pretty stressed about it not funding and telling my husband he might have to swoop in at the last minute. I think I’m leaning toward making a physical copy of the book for my dad. (That’s all it was going to be in the first place anyway. ) And then doing a soft or hard cover “print on demand” through Ingram Spark. It’s lower risk for me, but still makes it available if people actually want to buy it. I could tell my local book store too. I’ve been friends with them forever and they have some of my art in the store anyway. They might want a couple copies on their local authors table. 🙂

@NessIllustration Agreed that storage is less important, as there are alternatives to where you can keep your artwork. RAM is more important for me. That dictates how many layers you can have, and what kind of apps you are able to run. Apple made it so you have to purchase the models with higher storage in order to get the most RAM.
If I were just doing static images, I wouldn’t need to buy a more expensive model because I usually merge my layers as I get closer to the end of a piece, but I opted for the iPad with more RAM this time because I’m trying to do more with animation, and I’ll need more layers.

I'm needing the help of you amazing people. In one of my graphic novel Facebook groups there's a writer looking to collaborate with a cartoonist/illustrator, but they only want someone who lives in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. Anyone interested or know of anyone in the area?

@StudioLooong Thanks! And thanks for the suggestion!

@agathe Is there an update on this? Was it legit?

@kirsten-mcg your mood board is actually shockingly close to what mine would be 🤯
I also wasn't allowed to watch tv but also watched all the movies on your board (except my little pony)

Have any of you done professional work for Bunny Studio before? Looks like they connect artists and professionals with clients who need work. I just found out about them today, so I don’t know what their reputation is or how they treat their artists. I’m hoping some of you will have some insight! Here’s the url to the website, if that helps. https://bunnystudio.com/

@Blitz55 Haha! It's like a test... Who's going to mention the ones on your list... 😆
Yes! I'd forgotten about Into the Spiderverse. Must watch it again.

@Michael-Angelo-Go haha yeah, I had the same thought. I'm pretty sure when we're communicating via email they would't even need to mention being hearing impaired lol!