@Jeremy-Ross Hey, thanks Jeremey! That was a good read, and it’s great to hear from you.

it was a strange tea party

"For children in their most impressionable years, there is, in fantasy, the highest of stimulating and educational powers."
—Arthur Rackham

@Jason-Crowley That's great, thank you!

Congratulations Xin! That's awesome!

I run a sketchbook group in Bracebridge Ontario, every Wednesday night. So far it's going well!

I host it at the library when the weather is crappy and in the park adjacent to the library when the weather is nice. If the weather is bad than I bring in a collection of cool objects for people to draw inspiration from. If we're outside we do more of a plein air thing.

It was important to me to keep the club free to participate. It's also a casual drop in format from 6-8, so people can filter in and out as their schedules require. I run it under the premise that I will be there sketching whether I am alone or have company, but so far I've always had company. Every one is welcome, anyone can bring a friend, and so far everyone seems to really enjoy it.

I also always bring a couple extra sketchbooks in case someone is running late and can't stop home , or brings a friend etc.

It has been super fun! I you should definitely start up a group if you're inclined!

Hi @Sara-Therese-Art ! Dates have not been finalized yet, but we hope to run Self Publishing Pro again this fall😁

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Congratulations Nyrryl!!!! That's my decision also! Pester them. @Laurel-Aylesworth would you mind posting your pester letter when you have put together? I may need it! 🙂

So I scrapped the Casting call idea, and went with mayhem in the classroom. I want to show this teacher, maybe a little inept or brand new to teaching, turns his back for a few seconds and comes back to crazy.

Should I add anything further to demonstrate my story here? Do the elements read well and make sense? Trying to make sure dynamic reads left to right, my orthogonals make sense, etc.

One thing I am wondering about: should I make the focal point bigger and shift it closer to the front of the image?

Thank you!!!

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Good plan @Jason-Crowley !

@willicreate I disagree that you'd have to change it to virtual world to make it appeal for modern audiences. There are still plenty of books being published about fantastical worlds and imagination just like there used to be stories about virtual reality 20+ years ago. I see the comment referring more to the fact that it's much harder to sell long novels dealing with difficult sad themes to middle schoolers nowadays because the market is leaning more towards shorter lighthearted formats (which makes sense imo).

And it's so true there are so many different types of readers even between kids. I loved reading about paranormal as a kid even books which weren't dedicated to kids hehe. But I also loved fantastical stories and adventures, but also quieter stories as well and I read a lot of mysteries growing up, for some reason. Now as an adult I haven't read one in years.

Gesture drawings of photos, drawing something using a photo reference, like an animal, vehicle, hands, etc. or still life like a household item, or that house out your window. I recommend specifically drawing on paper with a pen, pencil, or sharpie.
Or even paint to canvas like doing some “plein air” if you’re feeling fanciful/whimsical on a beautiful day and and want to do something spontaneous.

Pick something and do it for however short or long you want, and do it repeatedly if it gets ideas flowing and is relaxing, or if you want to improve in something small and specific.

If it’s sketches, avoid the eraser/undo button and work with a timer. Allow yourself to make crappy sketches 💕

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(The digital ones were “draw this in your style” challenges as I learned how to use Procreate)

@jenn I second that! Great to check out the video!

I'm super familiar with Watterson's Calving and Hobbes. Not familiar at all with Kascht's work, but I can absolutely see how this book is a departure from each's "usual" style and how satisfying that must have been.

To be fair Watterson has been away from C&H for so long now, and it sounds like his recent work is actually in line with this more raw and abstracted image making he advocates for in the video.

Super interesting. Even more so for the "behind-the-scenes" information.

@tiffatsea Welcome Tiff. I am originally from the LA area, but I don't live near there anymore, so I wouldn't be able to join you. 🙂 You will no doubt have a huge pool of illustrators in the LA area.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Fun video, keep up the good work!

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Oh, Fae Feb? Haven't heard of that one, but that does sound like fun!

@Jason-Crowley Yes... I love the story about Dan Santat signing with an agent at his first SCBWI conference! So inspiring 🙂

Photoshop should work well enough on most bigger iPads, and that might be a viable choice for you if you have a lot of custom settings/brushes that you want to transfer. Procreate is definitely good since there's a large ecosystem around the resources for that, especially brushes.

If you aren't thinking particularly on iPads, some PC/Android tablets might also be good. I'm personally using a surface pro 6 and I installed linux on it. It's doable, and it helped me kickstart learning digital painting. The pen isn't as good (but I heard good words on surface pro 8 and their improved pen), doable for practicing and painting, not very good for drawing. If you are going for a PC tablet, make sure they use wacom EMR tech for the pen display (I believe most does, only MS and some rare pen tablets uses different tech).

Android tablets seems to be more on trend than PC, and the good thing about non-apple devices is that it's much easier to manage files at least. You could use Krita/Medibang for digital painting on android if not strictly limited to PS, Sketchbook is good too. Krita works really well generally, there's a lot of convenience feature optimized for painting compared to PS. I'd suggest you go to some dealerships and try out those physical devices and feel the pen first, and use some painting programs on their machines before you purchase.

Huion also have a 16 inch drawing computer that's kinda designed like a surface... I hear very good words about huion's pen tech as well, so that might be worth considering, since it's much more economical to go with a PC.

Hi @Laurel-Aylesworth , welcome back and congratulations on your books! They look great!