Posts made by Amanda Bancroft

@Coreyartus this alphabet set is really neat! I like it. Got me to Google "Quoll" too! haha

Wow I completely missed April Virtual Studio...but anyway, still working on these from Easter. I was rushed at the end because of greeting card deadlines, so I wasn't thrilled with the outcome but I'm glad that I learned so much working on these two. I'm trying to decide what direction to take with composition and mixed media for my future cards.

@demotlj Eastern Bluebirds are nesting in my bird boxes now, too! I love to watch them and enjoyed seeing your watercolor painting

@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?

My art hours are more like minutes, and they're all over the place instead of scheduled. Husband had surgery the day our city began to shut everything down except hospitals, pharmacies and grocery stores, so I've been spending the past week caring for him and we just got drinking water delivered today. A friend said tonight "Rest is real work, too." Good insight there. We will get back to our art, friends. I have been designing in my imagination during down time. We'll find a way, because we are artists and it's within us just like love.

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?

OH wow! I never got into using Instagram due to not having the right kind of phone for a long time. but it's interesting to know about this shift as I had considered using Instagram someday. Thanks!

I'm thinking about social media and internet distractions too! Great to share in the struggle together on the forums. Yesterday was the 5th work day I completed with zero access to internet, and I also deleted Facebook messenger and Gmail from my phone. Those 3 steps helped immensely! I get to use those sites when I'm off work hours, but it's revolutionary - I'm finding I spend less time online even when I have access after work. I'm training my brain to focus on non-electronic life (exercise, time with friends, reading, basically using work breaks offline) because internet is gone when I'm working so suddenly I have ALL THIS TIME

I also use the StayFocusd extension for Google Chrome browser, but of course lately haven't needed it because I took the nuclear option and got rid of internet during work hours. I do this by sending our wireless hot spot with my husband to his workplace so while he's gone, I have to either be doing art or taking offline breaks. Today I'm ordering art supplies and catching up with SVS so I'm using internet briefly then back to offline.

But -
Getting rid of internet or social media doesn't delete offline distractions, of course. Much of art success depends on the stuff we're made of as artists, to focus or not focus. Plus, life is unavoidable sometimes - I returned to my art table this morning to discover my cat had vomited all over yesterday's art practice papers and, ironically, a page in a library art book describing "how to draw grass realistically"

@Daniel-Grissom This is a really neat scene! Love all the animals. In my opinion to answer your question about the best "haze" I think the one at far left looks best, everything seems to pop better than the other two.

@Kasey-Snow you should totally draw Will into your piece I'd love to see that! haha
@Aleksey that is such a good pun I'd love to see that illustrated! I used cassette tapes LOL

Wow are these January snow images fantastic, or what? There are some awesome scenes on this thread!

@Lee-White yeah this reflects my experiences selling at various retailers too. I've learned to target the ones who take less than 50/50 commission (like, 40/50 or even less) and the best ones pay me upfront upon receipt of a wholesale order, whether the products sell or not. It seems like book stores and grocery stores (and of course art-specific destinations) sell way better than other types of retailers. Plus it builds a community offline like similar to the art fairs. Also it's a slightly different though overlapping demographic in stores vs on social media which may or may not be beneficial depending on the product, as you probably know, but sharing in case it helps others. I love the podcast and can't wait to listen to this one!

@NessIllustration yeah this is so true. To answer the OP's question, I too did not pursue studying art (English B.A.) but now am a working artist and writer. I wish I'd started right out of high school, even part-time during college would have helped a lot had I been producing art and studying more fundamentals earlier on. Art can really generate income! I wish I had known, LOL.

@CLCanadyArts yes me too! The Berenstain Bears written and illustrated by Stan and Jan Berenstain husband & wife duo (and now their son) and also the series Franklin the Turtle illustrated by Brenda Clark are probably the two most influential series of picture books for me. Both with pretty clever illustration styles (B. Bears did some out-of-the-box things I really appreciate with their double-page spreads) and moral lessons of substance not just cute.

My most memorable "bad art lesson" involved one bottom half (legs) of a woman's mannequin upside down in a trash can with a wheel...I don't remember much about that class besides wasting a lot of paper doing speed drawings that we were only given seconds to complete (to capture the sweet lines and spirit of the image or something like that).

That was college. A huge contrast to my middle school art teacher, who was fantastic at critiquing my drawings so they'd improve, helping me really see what I was looking at by pointing out details I missed and explaining important things like sharp pencils and getting darker darks, lighter lights (better value range) and countless other skills she taught me.

@NessIllustration haha I shouldn't read this thread while eating mini chocolate chips, dangerously funny LOL!

I can believe it was college not middle school. My first college art class made me drop my art minor, and SVS brought me back into the artist fold like the lost sheep I was.

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!

Thanks everyone for this awesome advice, insights and suggested wording! I also really appreciate the copyright infographic @CLCanadyArts thank you! OK so I have sent a brief message to my friend just asking for clarification on what he's thinking, and based on his response I can send him this information. I'm hoping it'll be straightforward to clear things up. I'll let you know how it works out.

@NessIllustration I forgot to answer your question, "why you cannot explain...without harming the friendship"? So in my experience, people who have no clue about copyright and art have a strong opinion that they already know everything about it. When I try to explain it, they have sometimes reacted as though I were stepping out of line and should keep to my place as the illustrator, sometimes they have insisted on taking all the original artwork for a children's book and claiming copyright (although that wasn't in the contract they created, just their assumption), so I have had to go through conflict when refusing to hand over my dozens of originals. Several people have equated holding an original artwork with having full rights to use it as well as me giving up all rights if I give them the original, just the act of physically handing it to them, nothing written down. This is just done in ignorance, but educating people about copyright gets tricky. They sometimes feel like the "real" reason I am contradicting them about copyright is because I am being an arrogant artist, or that I'm not educated because I'm young, or I'm emotionally attached to the piece(s) so that's why I don't want to give it up, etc.

In this new case with my best friend, he told me his mother explained to him about copyright and so I will be contradicting his own mother if I explain this to him and how she is wrong actually...tricky business! So in this case, easiest to avoid discussing it. In future cases though, I think labeling the gift with copyright info might be best. I don't have a great source though, I searched online for gifted artwork / copyright and couldn't find something that seemed authoritative.

@NessIllustration This was a great summary dialogue example, thank you! I might just explain it in this way.

@NessIllustration Yes that's true, we didn't have a contract it was merely a gift of original artwork.

@Coley Good question, but nope, this was just an animal drawing I did without using any photo reference from him.

@CLCanadyArts That's another angle I hadn't considered, good to know! But in this case I wasn't using any characters or anything designed by my friend.