I’ve felt the same way, @Jenna-Jenks. I’ve always loved drawing, and got to be pretty adept at realism (in graphite, anyway), but don’t feel like I’m going to end up being a children’s book illustrator unless something really changes. I do feel like I would like to get into editorial illustration though, and the reason I’m going through these courses is to learn how to tell a story. As such I feel like the sessions are helping, and of course the refreshers are fun!

Geez...kind of fell off the face of the earth on this one. Have been working a little bit here and there, but not as much as I should be. I adjusted some of of the line work in an effort to make it less coloring-book style, but here’s where it stands.

Currently:

One of the subjects I was kind of hoping for in the discussion was how do you handle requests, or maybe jobs or even clients, that you just don’t really want to do/work with, but you’re on the hook for? I understand that at the beginning there’s some “paying the dues” work that you just end up doing, mostly for experience, and you just have to power through them, but It’s starting to sound like there may be more of that than I originally thought.

As a designer, many of my peers double down when clients come back with changes to their precious design babies...don’t know if it’s ego or what, but there’s much “which one us went to design school” grumbling. I’ve long subscribed to the “design is a job” mentality, as opposed to design as art, and if the client is paying for my services I feel they deserve to get what they want, even though I may try to steer them a different way. I was kind of hoping that professional illustration was less like that, but the more I am exposed to the business side of illustration, it seems like the same rules apply here? And if you really want to do what you want, you’re looking at gallery work or personal passion projects?

@CosmoglotJay One of my favorite things to do is go to a bar (usually a brewery any more) and draw. Not usually people, but sometimes, but not being creepy is definitely a challenge. The cool thing is that sometimes those places end up becoming clients because they know you!

@KaraDaniel Hah ha! I much prefer seeing his whole body like that...Love his expression! Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

For the December prompt I tried to stick with a style outside of my normal comfort zone, it took forever. I’m tempted to try doing that again with the softer pencil look of the first image since it’s closer to Will Terry’s style, I’m so much faster with the ink and color of the second style. For this concept which would you prefer? The first image was begun before I incorporated the suggestions, so it would be redone.

Now I think we’re getting somewhere!

Of course, if this is a prank....I may not be able to get away with the broken tree in the background...

@Whitney-Simms Thanks for the ideas...they’re talking about using them on social media which wouldn’t be terrible, but not as fun as a whole menu design.

Thanks for the commiseration! Just a little disappointing. @dickdavid Not changing their brand, but it’s more about work and effort to keep up with a constantly-changing inventory. If they end up having to print the whole menu a couple of times a week it will get too complicated to manage, even if it is just a dozen pages each time.