@Gabby-Correia great piece!! love seeing the process of your designs and how it developed 🙂

@ChloeGreenbergArt I like how you used warmer colors for the girl/harp/music to make her stand out fro her cooler surroundings. Great way to bring her to focus with all the textures and movement around her!

i have always been a fan of the hobbit so this is what i did to bring it into my life!!! any advice would be great!!!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vd0Qwxwnltc

@Yogita-Chawdhary I feel like it can be a skill learned. I really love going to the library and just picking out a big haul, and pore over details. I love looking at endpapers, cover art, the whole gamut. Lately I've been finding myself looking even closer at everyday happenings and if they'd make a good character design. LOL! People watching! Love it 😁

@Reb-Erlik You're very welcome!

@Yogita-Chawdhary This is sooo good. I was going the harder way by creating an adjustment layer! Thank you for this tip!!! 🙂 🙂

@Kristen-Lango thanks so much! This feedback is very helpful

@StudioHannah to be honest with you, I wouldn’t have guessed that this was done on a 4x5 paper given how detailed everything else. But this is your piece, so do what you think is best.

@mag Super helpful!! Yeah, that sketch is definitely what I was going for, I just don't have a strong enough grasp on perspective to achieve that yet haha. Adding the foreground elements help a ton, makes the space feel more like an actually lived-in space as well.

I did have the guy with the fork facing to the right intentionally, it's a bit of a piece on sharing new foods between cultures, so it's meant to be as if he's hiding the fact that he's struggling to eat the food, but that's a good point about it being thrown off the page.

@Mariana-B yeah it is the word bubble icon next to the notification bell. press it and then hit all chats, then enter my name in the search bar to start a chat 🙂

@AthenaBeana if you didn't know about the chat function, that is an option, i understand it is nerve-racking to share stuff! i'm nice though and if you tell me what you are going for and what sort of feedback you want I promise not to get intense!

This was a concept I was noodling with for the October prompt, but ended up chickening out at the idea of illustrating robots to be critiqued by Jake 😂

Saying_Goodbye.jpg

This month I'll be drawing creatures from the Harry Potter series, and then witches (famous characters and/or an original character).

So far I've finished 2:

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Oct_2.jpeg

@Mimi-Simon Hey Mimi! Wow! I'm so glad that Invisible Ink was helpful to you! and I am really impressed with your artwork! I especially love the design of Witch Sorrel and I love love love the full-page concept art you have there at the end!! I am definitely on board to see this thing finished because it will be stunning!

Some questions that come to mind when I thought about how you would be using this to pitch your story to someone who has an attention span of 30 seconds, and if they decide to keep reading after that they probably only have 2-5 minutes :

On the first page (after the cover) can the reader know everything that is most important about my story in the first 30 seconds of opening my proposal?
This would be like putting your elevator pitch first, assuming this is your one chance to sell them on the story.

If they like what they see, but only have 2 minutes to be really convinced, what are the 3 most important things they need to see to be convinced? how can I show them these things with the most economy of time?
This would be like being careful not to repeat information in character introductions that is explored and explained in larger synopsis.

How can I instill them with maximum confidence in my ability to do this project well?
this might be integrating the finished artwork into the sketchy/refined sample of the story like you would in a book dummy.

I got to submit my children's book story and dummy to an editor and some agents as a part of an scbwi event, and from the feedback I got, I realized that as an illustrator who has never published a project before, anyone I approach needs extra convincing that I can do the project--they always want the sure thing after all.

Another thought--I have read several children's books that are formatted like comic books or short graphic novels, (like Dan Santat's book Lift) so there is an in-between option, you don't have to go all in on a 200-page project, you could tell your whole story in a slightly longer than usual children's book that is formatted more like a comic/graphic novel, but doesn't have the 200-page commitment.

Another mindset thing about graphic novels is an idea I heard from Brian McDonald's podcast "You are a storyteller." He said that the graphic novel experience is a lot closer to the movies experience than to the book experience--he has actually published several graphic novels that were originally screenplays. So, If you feel daunted by the format, just ask yourself how whatever problem might be solved in your favorite movie, and see if a similar thing might work in your book.

And if you want to check out the pitch artwork of a graphic novel that is going to be released next year, this is inside the graphic novel pitch from my art hero, Gus Gordon (Into the Bewilderness)

I'm really excited to see where this project takes you! it is already beautiful

I am working on a graphic novel project myself in preparation for Graphic Novel Pro (supposed to happen in March) and I am using the "You are a Storyteller" podcast like a mentor-- I am doing story homework and analyzing movies and story stuff based on the podcast in these two threads (my journey) (our journey together) If you want to join me in that journey!

Cheers 🙂

The cover looks so beautiful! Congratulations! 🙂

@kayleenartlover thank you!

@chrisaakins Congratulations, that's fantastic! Love the cute cover.

Hi everyone!

One of my portfolio pieces - Duck-tective and Bear-vestigator -
have discovered a clue in the library. In terms of storytelling, I kept the reasoning behind 'why is there slime in the library?' a bit vague as a play on the whole mystery theme.
In terms of visuals, what looks better?

Option 1: Non-glowy slime with both bear and duck standing near each other.
Option 2: Glowy, where duck is closer to the slime? I was having trouble figuring out the areas where the 'glow' would hit the face/body of the duck and/or bear so if it's off let me know!

Ducktective.jpg
Ducktective2.jpg

This thread turned to by just my own WIP, so I'll add here the final result too. I did my best to make the characters read well over the background, feel like it is still a bit muddled but pfeeew... I will stop now. Big thanks for the feedback received!!

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Hi! I like the title, for me "adventuring" feels like a fun word, and I like the font with the little gnome hat too. I also like the general graphic look of the composition. I would think it is a good base. As pointed out, feels too bland for a cover though. I think a cover might relay just on a very simple strong graphic, or be a rich detailed image and I think yours is too inbetween. And being a children's book cover you probably want to go more towards the "rich"? Maybe by adding some more personality to the dragon and textures? Now the dragon looks a bit nondescript and there is too much blank space everywhere. By "nondescript" I think I mean he does not have any expression, he is not fierce, not cute either... If you don't want to depict the hero in the image, at least the dragon should have some character... Or the dragon could be just a graphic suggestion but Ii think in this case you should show the hero... The spiral around the title is too simple and brown... I think it stands for "the adventure," so it might have a forest texture or some interesting light.. Some detail...I hope what I said makes sense and is helpful! Good luck! :)))

Congratulations @braden-H !!! I have book 1, love it!