thank you for your replies! big boost of confidence today
working hard is definitely the plan 
I'm looking forward to taking the subscription as well. happy to have found this site: for people kind of stuck at home, it's a real gold mine
I saw that SVS shared your distinguished gentleman on their facebook feed yesterday. Nice job!
@Rich-Green I saw that this morning, it was a lovely surprise to see it on my feed!
This work is very lovely. If you are building your portfolio, character building is a great way to start.
If I could offer a suggestion, don't use the character design pages as portfolio pages. For your actual 10 portfolio pieces, you need to show story telling, not character design (although that is a part of the process). You can show this development work on your website though.
I'd say this is a good breakdown for a portfolio:
Show three images from the same story. Try to highlight character interaction and get a sense of emotion and story.
Show 2 images that highlight environment. You can have some characters in there, but make sure the environment is the main thing. Will does this extremely well so poke around his website for inspiration.
For the remaining 5, try to vary the stories and how you show the story. Be specific to the type of work you want to get.
Leave room for text in at least 75% of the work. I typically put the text in there. It shows art directors that you understand the business that we are in.
Have fun! Don't put too much pressure to get 10 perfect images right away. Shoot for painting 20 or 30 and then picking the best 10 out of that.
When I was leaving school, I did two things for my work that helped get the all important first book deal. I did half my portfolio on classic fairy tales from around the world which was a blast. Then I did the other half doing images from current magazine articles in kids lit (highlights, Spider, Cricket, etc.). This worked well. On my first trip to NY I landed an agent and a book!
Let me know if you have any questions. : )
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com
@Lee-White thanks for the advice lee, I will take it into account!
Audrey I think your work is incredible and obviously you are on your way to something special! When you get your 10 portfolio pieces done will you share them here?
@Lee-White Wow I wish I had heard all this before now! Going to my first SCBWI regional event in a few weeks and I'm not nearly prepared...
@tallison7 oh thanks! of course, I will share them as I go along 
here's where I am with my illustration.
there has been great progress, but lord it's SO slow!
I can't wait to improve to the stage where I can work faster. My portfolio will be ready in 10 years time at that pace 
any feedback on this, while I'm at it?
Lovely composition! I like it
Ace
Just know that, even if it is (painfully) slow, you are on the right track. I happen to be a pretty slow painter and that's what I have to keep telling myself. Also I have to keep reminding myself that if I don't get up at 5:30am everyday to paint for 1-1.5 hours my portfolio will never ever get done.
This is very good work!
5.30!
I'll go crazy if I sleep any less 
I manage to squeeze some time most afternoons. I wish I had more time (story of my life ^^ )
thanks for the support
I love your work matt
Sweet illustration! I really like how you depicted that bush the bunny is hiding behind with those variations of blue.
My suggestion would be to add a more distinct contact shadow where her legs and bum are making contact with the grass. I think it will give more of the illusion of something heavy kind of pressing the grass down. Not that I think she is heavy...
Also, because I like that blue bush so much, I think it is making the ferns and the leaves in the foreground feel out of place. The intricate linework of the leaves and ferns give it more of a feeling of "exactness" while the bush has more of a feeling of whimsy and playfulness. Hope that kind of makes sense, lol
shinjifujioka.com
https://www.facebook.com/shinjifujiokaart
IG: @shinjifujiokastudio
yes perfect sense I'll take your suggestions into account when I get to these. thanks!
I managed to work a bit on this piece lately, so here's the progression so far
I still have a lot to do on the vegetation and animals, but getting there...
@shinjifujioka I thought about the firm lines versus fuzzy lines of the fern and bush, but the leaves of the trees might give a nice balance to that, so I'll see how it looks when I have done more
@audrey-dowling Actually, I think it's balancing out better now. In the version before, there were darker outlines around the fern leaves which made them look like a different style than the bushes. Since both the bushes and the ferns don't have the dark outline, it feels more unified.
Your piece is really coming together. Really love that bird in her hair!
Hello Audrey - this is a really nice piece - i especially like your owl! - the thing i wanted to mention critique-wise is that to me the warmth of the background is pulling it forward - i did a super quick paint over - not suggesting this is correct - i picked the color of the tree trunks in the color picker and slid the slider up to blue and sprayed a low opacity airbrush over it - i just wanted to see it with a lower color temperature behind the girl - i think it helps push the background back where it belongs - i know i am not exactly the color guy but what do you think? - 
@Kevin-Longueil yes definitely!
I'm not an expert at colours either (yet! ). I wasn't completely satisfied with that background but wanted to experiment again later. I definitely prefer it that way. thanks for that
How about 4 months per illustration for a work pace? ahem...
And this one is not even finished yet, but I WILL get there leaves on the top and a fine tuning and done. what do you think?
thank you for your replies! big boost of confidence today
working hard is definitely the plan
I'm looking forward to taking the subscription as well. happy to have found this site: for people kind of stuck at home, it's a real gold mine
