Was wondering if any fellow SVS ers were going to Planet Comicon in Kansas City this weekend and wanted to do some kind of meet up!

I understand why everyone is choosing the first one (energetic concept that gets the wackiness of the story, reads clearly), but I just wanted to say that I love the color scheme in the second! I would make Alice bolder, simpler, and more firmly rooted to the path, though. Just a suggestion in case you decide to tweak it.

Hey! I was just wondering who else is working mostly in traditional (non-digital) art mediums on here? Any advice, especially when it comes to creating a portfolio?

(I do graphite, colored pencil, ink & markers, and watercolor.)

Edit: I'd also like to know if there are any particular classes on SVS that are really helpful for artists and illustrators who work in traditional mediums?

I have a tough time creating backgrounds for my web comics. something that is informative yet subtle enough to fade into the background... using a color palette that fade into the background... -connotes has depth

Are there any tutorials at SVS that you could recommend?

@jasondmcintosh 's all right. I figured it out 😉

@NessIllustration I’m very excited now 😃

@Whitney-Simms awww. I am glad it was a blessing to you.

@NessIllustration & @burvantill thanks very much for the comments, yeah totally agree with you both. I’ve tried to quickly change the image to incorporate what you advise, hopefully going more in the right direction
Father_&_Son.jpg

I've got no watercolours to test the pencils with. But I did draw a page of lizards with the GrafCube pencils (3B, 6B, 9B)and Grafwood (6B, 9B).

lizards1300.jpg

I know a number of you sell your art as either originals or prints. A question I get asked a lot as a digital marketer is "how can I rank my art store in Google?".

You have probably searched "SEO for artists" or something similar, but the results you have gotten have likely been mediocre. However, you need to think of your art store as an e-commerce store (because, really, it is).

If you were to search "E-Commerce SEO" the results would be far more valuable.

What prompted this new thread, was a recent blog post by a prominent digital marketer I follow. The blog post is on E-Commerce SEO, and it goes into a TON of detail.

You can find it here: https://backlinko.com/ecommerce-seo

Now this article is targeting people like me with an SEO background. But there is a ton of really interesting tips and information that I think could really help artists who have their own store.

I am aware that there will be A LOT of stuff you might not understand, and might not be applicable to you. I thought I would use this opportunity to answer any questions either regarding SEO, or something mentioned in this article.

Fire away.

Nathan

Me like mountain one too 🙂

@DLArmantrout Really interesting! I am always amazed by how specialized each industry can be. Not that I should be surprised -- illustration is full of all kinds of niches.

My knowledge on copyrights is due to a personal/professional interest in it. No formal training, just a lot of late night reading of IP law blogs. With that in mind I always want to be careful to note that mine are only opinions.

As for the Boldly Go case -- from what I gathered CBS/Star Trek have deemed this a tolerated infringement. They haven't issued a takedown notice for the book.

I do wonder about defending mash-ups under the Fair Use Defense though. The judge felt in this case that it was "sufficiently" creative. But that is arguably a personal judgment call. Would that same judge always think mashups of two IP's are creative enough to warrant protection under the Fair Use Defense?

@Kat, @SketchyArtish @MichaelaH
Thank you all-and through you I've found some new online photographic sites.

Alas-my question wasn't clear--I'm looking for any recommendations for a mannequin-a posable thing in 3D that I can adjust, and handle, and turn around, etc.

Anyone know of anything like that-that is good? 8-10" tall or so?

Hi Twiggy,
I think the site is cute and the about me page is really fun! I would add few pictures into the gallery, but that's not necessary I think. 🙂

@AnnaDaviscourt There's always next time, I suppose 🙂

@HeatherBouteneff You made some good changes from the first one. I'm glad that you changed the sky, the clouds really soften up the vibrant cyan. I think that you can go a bit farther with the value of the ground. Watch the saturation though, the red brown of the ground is competing with the red brown of the cows. Go duller with the dirt and the cows and flowers should start to pop. 🙂

@QTariq Absolutely-this is quite informal, and open to any who are interested.
I'm going to head over and start a new thread. I'll tag those from this thread who were interested.

k guys, results are IN! Check 'em out!

It should be fine as long as you do not intend to sell them, but even then, doing a commission would be fine as well as long as you do not copy another artists work.

And definitely do them if you want to get a job as a book cover artist as an editor will NOT hire you just on your word, you will have to prove that you can do what you can do with samples.

Great Question!