@Heather-Boyd that’s very insightful. The intimacy is what’s missing from the kids.
This is the first time I’ve taken thumbnailjng seriously and it took me 9 iterations to get to the close cropped version! I finally see why they are important! I may try one of the kids in a similar close up format & then decide. Thank you!
@demotlj Thank you for your input!
I am working on the November contest. I had the idea of a holiday background with a theme of sharing. I had the idea of one child giving their teddy bear to another while their shopping moms are oblivious. Or then, I had the idea of two kids giving a gift to an alien who came to investigate a Christmas tree. Would you please take a look at my thumbnails and tell me what you think of the designs and the concepts? Thanks!!
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I really appreciated @Lee-White’s 6 steps to a great image! But I have a question...if you’re illustrating a book of say 24 images, are you truly doing 50 thumbnails on each image? That seems so overwhelming to me!
I’ll do some more practice work with the shapes later but I’m catching up! Here’s my work from this week! What do you guys think? I feel like I have a hard time figuring out a middle ground between super heavy and super light lines and where they need to be applied.
@BichonBistro Thank you! I wish I felt the confidence you see! I am soo used to traditional materials & it’s surprisingly different trying to do this digitally! I have to keep myself from cheating and letting the iPad straighten out my lines for me! 
I’m so far behind! But I’m still working at it! Here are my basic strokes & hatching!
@demotlj I’ve actually used white paint for small corrections. It’s worked for me & isn’t very noticeable
