Hi everyone! It's nice to stay connected to all you artists on the forums. I finished this today. This is my holiday card for 2020, both for friends/family and to sell to the retailers that carry my greeting cards. "Gingerbird House"

Here's a photo of my sketchbook - currently I'm studying Botanical Illustration in colored pencil, and doing one drawing every day in July. The first was an orange day lily using a reference photo I took in a field of flowers. July 2nd (today) was "Dancing Cherries" from a tutorial by Ann Swan. Generally to do a good drawing in realism, I should spend a week on it (or longer). But this is just to practice daily discipline, so the challenge is to draw these faster but not uglier, and to still learn how to create better drawings, which is working for me in this challenge. Yay!

I LOVE everyone's "Love" entries! So much humor and talent. This is my first ever contest entry.

I'm a greeting card artist by trade, and I use old-fashioned things like paper. So my goal for this submission was to just learn how to submit! I didn't have access to a scanner so I took a photograph of the drawing on paper and used GIMP to sorta make the white areas not-grey. This is totally different from the kind of art I usually do, but I got sick this month and couldn't begin working on my first idea (which would've been time-consuming) - so I came up with a new idea and had fun with it. "Finished, Not Perfect," right?

This is a Christmas gift for my best friend. I just finished today, been working on it for about two weeks. It's also the piece I enjoyed doing most this year, coincidentally! This is my first drawing of a furry animal on drafting film using colored pencils, so it was new territory, I had so many skills to learn and feel like I leveled up (sometimes I'd think, no way is it possible to do the white hairs without paint, and then I watched tutorials, experimented, and did them!). 14 hours drawing the final piece, 5x7 inches in size.

It's great to see so many mice in March! haha which reminds me I have not yet done mice for the new art "key" notebook I started last month. This month I've been working on filling it in. Since I work traditionally, this key helps me remember which medium and which color and the process I used to create results, so when I take artwork to finish, I don't have to remember, I just look things up in the key notebook. Does anyone else do this?

"Pumpkin Panda" just putting finishing touches on this week (drew the face in 2019 and now the full scene is complete). 5x7 drawing on drafting film with colored pencils and pastels.

I'm thankful for SVS and the forums because I work from home in an off-grid cabin (it's a tiny house on wheels) in Arkansas, so I'm isolated from other people and artists. Without SVS it would be more difficult for me to keep myself accountable to my art, because the challenges of keeping our home going plus the day-to-day busy-ness of business (I own a greeting card business) would drown out the little voice inside me that says "Make great art!" SVS amplifies that voice. I've gained so much knowledge and new skills since joining a few years ago.

THANK YOU SVS!

@eriberart Finally, I got around to redrawing an older piece "Cupful of Bunnies" from 2016 (at left) and 2020 (at right).

Not 10 years but more of a 5 years challenge. Still I really like the idea of seeing progress and having the chance to redo something. I had to rush at the end, because of deadlines, so I'm not 100% satisfied that the redraw is my current best effort, but Finished Not Perfect right?

@AustinShurtliff good ideas! I use open source free GIMP, if that answers your question. But since I work mainly traditionally, back in 2016 when I first joined, I needed a big warning label on certain SVS courses hahaha "If you haven't decided on a medium(s) or explored it enough to be in the driver's seat, go and do that first, then take this class and do the homework in your chosen medium(s). Know enough about your medium(s) to be able to translate things in this class into what works for you. You may need to pursue outside tutorials and instructors who have mastered your medium(s)." I was too inexperienced to know that I could not just think the concept and apply it without controlling my medium.

Update:

Thanks to the information you all provided to me, my friend and I were able to chat online about it very calmly and politely. @NessIllustration you were right after all! We just had a misunderstanding that was quickly cleared up, and actually it was good we discussed it because we were able to share a lot more information than just about who owns copyright. This positive experience helped counteract my past negative experiences explaining copyright. Also I recorded notes from this thread so if the issue comes up again I'll have the information quick at hand and will know to discuss copyright up front with either the gift recipient or buyer. I feel much better about gifting artwork now! Thanks!

@Braden-Hallett this is awesome, kinda reminds me of Teddy Ruxpin's Land of Grundo map with the airship.

I was so excited to see our own SVS licensing courses instructor Gina Jane (mentioned in this podcast) featured in the latest Leanin' Tree stationery catalog, did anyone else notice? She has a whole boxed set for the holidays! Festive, fun work you can see here: boxed set by Gina Jane I also took her class and highly recommend it, I'll take it again once I'm closer to being ready for licensing.

Hi @xin-li, I have been having this same problem since 2016 and am now trying to solve it. Let's try together! Ergonomics is very important, I agree. My back pain is a problem too.

I have used a very old drafting table and didn't like the instability of the table and the slant causing items to roll off, but modern tables have much better features and design.

I have used a wooden tabletop easel similar to the ones in your links. I think they're OK but they didn't work for me for reasons that are specific to my traditional medium (colored pencil and pan pastels on drafting film which is transparent). They can be great for "plein air" painting outdoors and some have a drawer with storage for supplies, and a handle to carry them!

I needed a white smooth surface so I purchased this one and so far am happy with the ergonomic improvement and design features. They say there is science to show that this angle is ideal, but artists do well with a variety of angles while working.

https://visualedgesb.com/product/writing-slant-board/

But the biggest tip I can offer is to try to modify your studio setup with whatever you have available that produces better posture based on best practices. So I'm using pillows behind my back, and a yoga mat rolled up under my feet as a foot stool, things that can help me achieve better posture until we can afford to remodel and make room for an actual desk and actual chair. Currently, I have to work at the kitchen table and sit upon a cushion placed on top of a wooden box filled with solar batteries for our off-grid tiny house electricity system. It's a messy solution but I hope it helps.

@Janette I had a request a few years ago to do a dog portrait after someone saw the children's picture book I illustrated which happened to feature dogs. I also did the portrait in colored pencils and charged $250 just like you did. I see you used Faber-Castel Polychromos (oil-based) colored pencils which is better than what I knew - I used only Prismacolor Premier (wax-based) and didn't know about wax bloom, for a portrait of a mostly black dog which I did not spray with fixative, oh yikes! Haha. But the client was very happy. Sharing in case this saves someone my past mistake (@Pinky). I no longer do portraits because I'm focused on my greeting card business for mostly retailers (wholesale), and licensing. I hope everything worked out the way you wanted it to Pinky!

@Melissa-Bailey-0 this is one of my favorite character designs I've ever seen on the forums, if it were in a store I'd buy the book! Nice work!

@AustinShurtliff good ideas! I use open source free GIMP, if that answers your question. But since I work mainly traditionally, back in 2016 when I first joined, I needed a big warning label on certain SVS courses hahaha "If you haven't decided on a medium(s) or explored it enough to be in the driver's seat, go and do that first, then take this class and do the homework in your chosen medium(s). Know enough about your medium(s) to be able to translate things in this class into what works for you. You may need to pursue outside tutorials and instructors who have mastered your medium(s)." I was too inexperienced to know that I could not just think the concept and apply it without controlling my medium.

@Oana I totally agree, this is an ideal fit for OP's style for sure! I think given your time constraints, not talking about your age because I agree that should not stop you, it may be better to think of licensing your artwork for games, magazines, products catering to kids/middle grade...rather than dedicating 6-9 months or longer for a children's picture book.

And two weeks later, I figured out my black-streaks shading problems! It was awkward revisiting fundamentals but I highly recommend it Here's the finished birthday card post-customer-feedback-incorporated:

@Coreyartus it may be the green tea talking but SUPER HAPPY DANCE excited to see your long-term project completed, and looking this great!

@Coreyartus yes I agree, your list and suggestions that you articulated are exactly what I've been thinking since 2016 when I joined. (My subscription was supposed to auto-renew and be paid annually but it then one year it didn't renew itself and I didn't bother to chase it down because while I have illustrated children's books, I decided my passion was greeting cards.) I like the idea of either focusing in hard on the message that this is for picture book illustrators, or broadening it up a lot...and if SVS decides to broaden, let me add another item to Coreyartus' list:

The greeting card industry! Whether you're aiming for a big licensing deal(s) or just owning your own business and selling wholesale to stores, SVS could incorporate some things. IP's like Care Bears, Precious Moments, Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit), Holly Pond Hill (Susan Wheeler), Mary Engelbreit all got their start with the humble greeting card. For those who don't know those examples, it's like if Spider Man or Mickey Mouse would have been (they were not) introduced to the public through greeting cards!

I've applied some of the things that I learned at SVS to my business and some things in the classes have really helped! However, the greeting card industry stuff (jobs, licensing, back stories, artists, composition must-dos, limitations, so many details I could go on and on...) I have sought other sources to learn. Any artist should naturally learn from a variety of sources but I think SVS would be a better place to learn these industry skills.

Edited to add:
Ironically, Mary Englebreit and many other artists could not break into picture book illustration until after their success with greeting cards, then other licensing, and then they started illustrating picture books (sometimes with that IP or with classic children's stories depending). So, conceivably, greeting cards are another doorway into children's books, sometimes. I know a former Hallmark artist very successful with cards who got her first book deal to illustrate The Land of the Blue Flower (by Frances Hodgson Burnett) and decided that she'd never do it again because it was too much work haha! This happened to me also. Customers thought some of my cards would make great stories, and eventually one of them paid me very well to illustrate his self-published book, which led me to join SVS in a hurry, and then I got several more offers from such like Elf on the Shelf (I declined) and so on.