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?

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!

@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.

@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.

This character design is so cute AND so funny! It caught my attention right away!

This month I completed a new birthday card design for the retailers who sell my cards (I work traditionally on not-very-traditional Grafix Dura-lar .005 double-sided matte drafting film using mostly colored pencils and pan pastels) I also finally made a template for my social media page banner so I can change it up from time to time. Added the latest birthday card, Teacupcake, to the banner. I discovered that I need to go back and re-learn some art fundamentals (as applied to film) because I still struggle with things like basic shading (I sometimes get black uncontrollable streaks etc). That's what I'll be focusing on for the rest of June.

"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.

This happens to be one of the few things on the forums in which I have lots of experience LOL so happy to share! Greeted cards, as a rule in the industry, sell more than non-greeted or blank, something to keep in mind. However, I produce my own cards and local customers say they prefer blank, so it's no guarantee that the customer wants a greeting, especially if you go with a fine art card market.

Most companies only expect artists to submit artwork and they have their own in-house writers for greetings. Leanin' Tree's vice president Susan January says if you think your greeting is good enough feel free to submit it. Be careful to use a font that's available for commercial use, or draw the text yourself. There are no points against you if you don't include words. Like @jimsz said, depends on company. I've found it difficult to know what most greeting-card-specific companies want you to submit, though. Would love to hear if anyone has insight about companies other than Leanin' Tree (LT posts submission guidelines on their website).