Posts made by Amanda Bancroft

Once again an excellent podcast! I enjoy learning from these while I draw.

Crazy concept on mentorship that I just enacted this season: has anyone ever approached their customers as mentors? I select 10 past customers and ask them to critique my newest work. Customers are rarely artists themselves, and this limits their visual literacy, but, ultimately I am producing art for a particular market and it's surprising how willing that market is to tell me what they don't like or what they really want. For example I drew a friendly bird and one reviewer said it looked "sinister" - that's some important feedback right there! And it's good to see when everyone loves a piece, or laughs or whatever reaction I was hoping to get! I think some of them appreciate being asked their opinion and are happy when I edit the piece with their suggestions incorporated. Plus then they actually want to buy the piece, sometimes.

Another thing I do, instead of directly emailing THE person I wish were my mentor, or the company I wish I could work for, is to find interviews with them online. My mentor creates tutorials, has been on art podcasts, in magazines, and wrote their own books so I buy those and learn from them. I'm surprised but typically she always has a response online somewhere to all those nagging questions in my head.

Also, twice I have Facebook messaged questions to a couple of would-be mentors, and they both got back to me with short but helpful responses, so if you're looking for something real quick and it's not on their FAQ or books, you never know, that famous artist may reply after all!

Well I feel a bit the same way. It is as though here at SVS I am "in the wrong room" because of my medium, style, subject and primary industry. My heros are never mentioned: Karen Hull, Patricia Reeder Eubank, Susan Wheeler, Mary Engelbreit, Jill Barklem etc. I have illustrated a picture book, though, and got paid very well, so that helped. However what I wanted to share is that I also am here biding my time and soaking up all the awesome knowledge at SVS, it is wonderful! And yes I agree, by the time we are ready maybe things will change. I focus on being ready not just for picture books but as an artist in general, creating the content I want skills to create. Plus it may help for you to find a community of artists outside SVS that are in your style or medium, it did really help me to have both SVS and "medium mates" friends colleagues...

Hi! Yes I have a couple of years experience selling greeting cards from my Wordpress website (Paypal or credit card, or, alternatively, customers contact me through Facebook or email and place their order and mail me a check). It's tricky sometimes, I have to remember about shipping variations, sales tax nexus, packaging, and various app updates. It's worth it for me, because only a few people order each month and it's a nice side income. I also enjoy the process of packaging and mailing my art.

Hi! That's great you're thinking about getting a website! Websites can be so tricky but worthwhile. I'm about to go update my art Wordpress website actually. Mine is basic. Here is the link: http://amandabancroftart.com/

Have you thought about what you need the website to do? Because if you need it to get commissions (contact form to vet clients) or an online store (apps to help process Paypal and other payments) or just a portfolio to find work, your goals are important in selecting the kind of website and what features it offers. Good luck and best wishes!

Congrats @Coreyartus! celebrating your first one!
That is awesome to be able to stick to a job for a year and successfully see the finished product.

@Molambo I found a YouTube video showing the cartridges for the multiliner pens, same as I have, and it describes how to change them - I hope this answers your question? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikvT5NPsre0

Well I have not tried it but have the refills for pens. I don't think it would work in the multiliner pens because I'm not sure how you could transfer the black marker ink into the black multiliner pen? The refills are narrow tubes that slot inside the pens. Interesting idea though!

Oooo this looks fun! I'm trying to guess....straw-someone? Hay girl? My husband Ryan would love this. A few days ago, my parents surprised me by mailing me a collection of sketches done by my grandfather in the 1920s when he was a teenager. He died in 2004 but I never knew he was a colored pencil artist like myself! We affectionately called him "Pop-pop" instead of grandpa. My husband said, "So your Pop-pop's father would be Pop-pop Pop-pop and his father Pop-pop Pop-pop Pop-pop and if you go back far enough, you'd get popcorn!" I'll have to show Ryan this visual play on words, he will like it

@K-Flagg What an awesome concept!

@Coley this is just so perfectly cute! In my card line I have sketches for a mouse taking a bubble bath in a teacup (tea themed line) but it may not pass development stage, we'll see. Thanks for sharing your work!

@Chip-Valecek Awesome, thanks Chip! Did you have any luck yet? I still can't see or use the Serious Critique category either.

Hi everyone,

I'd like to know your thoughts on this finished 2020 Christmas/Holiday card for my customers, family & friends (retailers will get it in 2021 locally and/or 2022 depending on licensing). Especially what you think is done well (because I have been looking at what was done poorly, and making edits off and on since December 4, 2019) For example, are any elements working well? I'm not sure what's working. Like color, composition, texture, facial expression of birds, concept, rendering etc? Feel free to also share suggestions for improvement, because I can always learn and apply it to future designs! Thanks!

In case it's useful: I did tons of pencil on sketchbook thumbnails, then drew most of this on drafting film using colored pencils and pastels, except for the gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies which were done in copic marker with colored pencils on paper. I used GIMP to combine layers digitally.

@JoshuaDages cool, it's nice to know others here consider SVS the most formal education they've had - me too! No art school. Style is really difficult for me, too. We're in good company!

@jsnzart Yes I did finish the job, in 2016. Nothing to be proud of, but finished!
I think I just need to study harder about backgrounds, including some SVS courses I took (reviewing those). That's a good idea, I should study other people's backgrounds. I've only been able to find a few greeting card artists that do backgrounds relevant to my current line of work but this is a useful tip, thanks! Yes I did use overlapping, so my gingerbread house is behind the foreground subjects which are also bigger/closer to viewer.

Yes I have overcome many weaknesses at SVS since 2016! It's awesome. I was right in the middle of my first picture book job with a self-publishing author friend when I realized I knew next to nothing about this field of art and that's when I found SVS.

There are lots more skills I must learn to apply, but the biggest one that makes my art the hardest currently - I struggle with backgrounds and scenes, choosing objects to go in the backgrounds, knowing what arrangement of objects is best, how to mute colors of background objects without changing the read of the objects (light background, dark foreground concept). For example, my last piece is for Christmas. How does one make red & white candy canes in the background look less bold / saturated without making them PINK? So much to learn! Ha!

Well to answer your question, I choose colors in the thumbnail / sketch phase once I know I'm getting close to a final rough composition before I even start doing final linework (traditional). That's because I need to think about the objects' colors if they are overlapping or near each other and other factors like that. So I think about a graphite sketch "in color" in my mind. But honestly I think my final artworks are lacking in professional color and light skills, so I need to work on applying concepts asap.

I think all 3 have great design elements so maybe you'll use a little from each, but the bottom one is popping professionally out at me as something I'd see in comics for sure. The title seems the most easy to translate visually in #3 (for example seeing the house silhouette in the mountains quickest).

@Coreyartus I'm drawn to the way you use colors here, it's very appealing! Particularly the books in the background.

@jsnzart have you ever tried to use Pan pastels (powder pastel pure pigment inside clear pans)? These paintings remind me of that medium and it's great for not using line work also. Fun!

@chrisaakins This is so appealing!! Wow! Like @Lovsey suggested, gave me a similar idea that you could put the hoard inside a bird's nest in the leaves, because this creature is the perfect size to do something like that. What a cool piece!