Update:

It's bizarre what 28 days can do to change your life. 28 days ago, my colon surgeon was worried my cancer had returned there from the colonoscopy pictures she took in December. Those came back negative, but she wanted to be sure. So she did another one in January around the surrounding area, and she told me 2 weeks ago... " I biopsied the heck out of that! " And it came back negative for sure, though she did catch some polyps both times, she has cleared me for at least 6 months if not longer... she even hinted at 5 years if I was a normal patient. I suspect it will be a yearly or bi-yearly thing to be safe.

But because my levels were still high, was the original reason she did the first one. Something was happening somewhere. And as I mentioned 28 days ago, it had returned in my liver. Which was evident in my exterior as I was quite jaundice, even in the yellows of my eyes as a matter of fact. So they scheduled the 12 chemos in sets of 4. After the 1st one, my teeth already loose up front were getting worse, so I had to endure a day at the dentist that was right out of the movie Marathon Man.

Last year when this had happened, I went to a dental surgeon who put me out, and removed 4 teeth total. This time, I was completely awake for each needle, and they took out 5 and 1/2, as the dental surgeon had failed to take all of it the first time. SO yeah, that day sucked eggs. And I am putting it nicely... that was all done in a week that I had chemo treatment #2, in order to stay on schedule.

Happily today, my liver function has returned to normal. I just got a call from my oncologist at my home... so he is gonna up my dosage this Thursday for chemo #3, and if I can handle that, by chemo# 4 in 2 weeks, I will have a new scan to see how I am responding over all. If all goes well, I could have my new TACE procedure (explained above 28 days ago) sooner. Though I suspect I might have to have at least 4 more treatments to play it safe.

But in either case, today I am celebrating. I've earned it. It's been a LONG 28 days for me. I hope I am this jovial 28 days from now. I just wanted to share my good news with my SVS friends, and that while I haven't been around as much as I like, I have been lurking as much as my body will let me. This place keeps me going with all the amazing art done here. I consider it to be a factor in my healing, and many of you have my thanks because of that.

Have a great week SVS!

Charlie: my watercolor teacher started us on an ice cube tray filled with water and various drops of black ink.

After we got the basics of wash done in black and greys down, we moved on to a single monochromatic study, then finally to full color.

You might want to give that a try before diving feet first into straight watercolor. I find that learning from ink and its different intensities, gives you a better understanding of how water flows on paper. And the various techniques you can use, which are similar to watercolor - stuff like full flat washes,dry brush strokes, splattering, and salt.

Then when you move on to a single color, you'll know that color by heart by the time you move to full color. My favorite single tube has always been Paynes Gray.

Here are some examples of my work: in Ink, single Sepia tone and 2 full color watercolors...

Okay so as promised, here are some different art programs you can use... the links are up above in my last post, except for Painter Essentials 5 currently $35 but most of these programs have trials versions as well... In the interest of consistency I only spent 10-20 minutes on each of these.

SO play around, see what hits you, and hopefully you get some cool results.

EDIT: please do not download or share this picture, as it is for Client work. I know no one will, but its better to be safe than sorry. Thank you.

What I spent the day drawing yesterday and today for my wife... she will turn these into a repeating pattern for one of those bound notebooks (for a client of hers) that everyone used to write homework in when we were kids, and the only choices was that weird black speckled cover.

I've done work like this for her before, lol oddly enough drawing meats and cheeses... this time out it was spices: this was done in Adobe Illustrator with custom brushes I made a while back, and about 3 new ones just for this project.

Can you name the spices?

Here's a clue, one is disproportionately large compared to the others, remember each was done separately, I just pieced them here together. The top left was the first one I did, and they got considerably more detailed as I went on, cause I just started drawing with more texture. Lastly one of them is upside down...

Bobby Chiu Live Stream about to go live as we speak, from 10-11am this morning, the 17th... enjoy and give a listen while you're working.

Those new to him, can find his work here at Bobby Chiu.

Haven't watched it yet, but I am sure it's good, as most of his advice is... hope this can help anyone looking for such info.

Marketing for Artists: Bobby Chiu

For those not in the know about the artist, here is his website: Bobby Chiu

Enjoy!

Great video, enjoy!

Sorry I haven't been around, been busy with chemo, healing, etc... won't bore you with the gory details. Cancelled my sub for the time being... hope to be back around August when all is said and done, and I am recovering from my 2nd TACE procedure, which gave me 8 months last year and could possibly give me more or MUCH more, fingers, toes, limbs, eyes crossed!!!

Anyway hope all you have been well. Looking forward to coming back soon, but couldn't resist sharing this with my SVS family.

@Bobby-Aquitania said:

I'm in, I'll do this tomorrow morning for my warm up. I need to step away from my 3T piece, too much elf stuff in my head. I think I will do some fan art piece more to my liking. Hope everyone likes Red Sonja...

Sorry it took 2 days, spent my whole day listening to you tube videos from the Voice (US, UK, Holland, Germany, Australia) and so today I had a lot of inspiring music to work with... in the end I think I used too many colors. I don't usually work this loose, but this is a warm up and not a finished piece, so I just went for mood. I had fun over all though, so thank you Rob and Leotine for the fun!

Line work was done in Mischief, the coloring was done in Photoshop.

Here's a close up...

My blue line under drawing...

Hi Marsha, I think I have an exercise that might help you. For lack of a better title I'll call it " the Right Shot ". I used to teach Art (kindergarten to grade 12), and this is what I tried with my students who had similar problems with their spatial awareness which I think is part of your problem here.

I could give you a lesson on figures, and proportions, but that might not be the best approach. Instead I want you to focus on telling your scene and or story from a point of view that gives you the most oomph.

For this you'll need 3 figurines or toys of 3 distinct sizes. Small, medium and large. Make sure the figures have movable parts and are not of the same type, so not all soldiers or girls, etc...

Okay now arrange those 3 toys on a large flat surface you can walk around, and think of yourself like one of those old time movie cameras on a crane. You can zoom into the figures by moving closer to them, or zoom out by stepping back. It's up to you.

But finding the right angle is the goal here. Now quickly block into a sketch, the 3 figures, with the following:

1. 1 drawing where there is only 1 complete figure.
2. 1 drawing where there are 2 complete figures
3. and lastly 1 drawing with all 3 complete figures.

By leaving out the full figure, you will draw our eye to the complete figure. By having 2 complete figures, you will draw our attention to the incomplete figure. And by having all 3 figures in, you will have to decide which one you want to make the most interesting either by including more details, enlarging of diminishing their size, or giving them more action.

I think the problem with your design in your example is, the top scene is almost identical to the lower scene, so our eye is already in conflict about where to focus. If we minimize the scene to Santa and the 3 elves in the foreground, you can tell a more direct story.

But my figurine exercise can also be done with a camera phone if you don't want to draw, the idea is to find interesting shapes and relationships of light and movement in the 3 figures in relation to each other. If you want to get overly creative you can light the scene with a bright lamp, or flashlights held at close distances, or even candle light.

The idea is to make your brain think about what makes a scene interesting? Is it the action? The details? The mood? Or all of the above...

Now try drawing your Santa and elves over thinking in the same terms of the exercise. In your head move each figure around like you did the toys, and look for the perfect shot, that makes you the most excited to draw.

Good luck, I hope that helps...

Bobby

Great video, enjoy!

Sorry I haven't been around, been busy with chemo, healing, etc... won't bore you with the gory details. Cancelled my sub for the time being... hope to be back around August when all is said and done, and I am recovering from my 2nd TACE procedure, which gave me 8 months last year and could possibly give me more or MUCH more, fingers, toes, limbs, eyes crossed!!!

Anyway hope all you have been well. Looking forward to coming back soon, but couldn't resist sharing this with my SVS family.

running out the door, but I live in Ontario, and will research this for you more extensively when I get back, off the top of my head, also look into Bobby Chiu's online school, Schoolism... a great source for illustration of all kinds. ttyl...

How about some lights coming from them? Either like a focused ray, or glittering off their hands in sparks... say they're creating an electrical current in the nervous system, or jump starting one.

14 Minute video on Creating a Watercolor Mixing Chart

The first 7 minutes is very basic preparation...

Then SHE really takes off very fast, you will have to watch it more than once, but her process is very effective in making combinations from 2 colors. She only uses a 6 colors total for this chart, but the number of combinations is staggering...

As she does 6 - 8 combos per 2 colors.

At the 11th minute mark, you'll see how it effects her paintings, which was very convincing to see it applied well, she has a cute style.

Here is a video gallery of her time lapsed paintings, about 6 minutes each I think... I only watched the first 2, the 2nd one was better...

Time Lapsed Video Gallery - 27) two - six minute paintings...

I have a professional watercolor mixing book I've bought, but the trouble with those is you have to use the exact paint and paper to achieve the same or even close to same results. This idea of hers personalizes the chart per painting, while it IS a tedious step. It is a much more professional way to work then flowing by the stream of your pants... lol no pun intended.

Just to say, everyone does mix how they please, and over years of any medium becomes a master at what they know works. But if you're not there yet, want to take some of the guess work out, or hey are just a geezer like me, this charting process is a great tool in helping... I definitely plan to use it for the 2 commissioned portraits I have planned this year...

And there you go, use at your discretion.

Enjoy SVS!!!

@Lee-White said:

I wouldn't worry too much about this stuff. These kind of conversations, while interesting, always sort of bummed me out in college. At the end of the day I just couldn't really use anything from the discourse.

I agree with the first part of your post Lee 1,000%. Debates do little to sway me, as my process is " my " process and subject to how I feel it should be approached. Either I agree with what the discussion is or I don't, everything with a grain of salt and moderation.

I feel as artists, we have 2 jobs, the first to satisfy ourselves, which in itself for many artists can never be done, because we're all closet perfectionists that will never be 100% happy with our work, thus the need to keep creating and strive to get better.

The 2nd job I feel, and I agree with @sergio partly on this, is not only to know our audience, but to successfully reach our audience with communication first. If we're drawing a duck, does it read as a duck, or a sickly dolphin? If the latter, we have failed. If we were reaching for realism, and what came out was my 2 year old's refrigerator drawing, then yeah we failed.

Somewhere out there, there's a job that goes with an audience begging for the epitome of duckness. I don't know if I wanna work for that person, but if I ever do. I hope that what I turn out says duck enough for them to go jump in a lake somewhere. Just kidding.

This is what is so great about the 3rd Thursdays and the critiques. They open us up to, if we are successful at problem solving, and dynamic thinking, and striving to get better. Now...

BE the duck, you ARE the duck!!!

Now draw the shizzle out of that duck!!!

If you've never tried this exercise, turn a photograph upside down, and only copy the shapes you see, and not worry about a likeness. Keep the reference upside down, do not turn it or your piece until you're done. You'll find by concentrating only on the shapes, you get a very tight likeness. So the trick is to repeat the same thing right side up, see shapes and not elements of a face, ears, nose, eyes, mouth.

As to a caricature it is the exact opposite, concentrate on what makes the person's face unique. A larger than perfect nose. A crooked smile. Eyes that are large or small. Juxtapose that exaggeration with other normal proportions, or exaggerate 2-3 and keep the rest normal.

Good luck, if you want videos, I can hunt some down for you... but am feeling a little tired tonight, so will edit this as soon as I find you some.

A if I had to chose, B doesn't add much more than saturation to me, and c is too pink for my tastes... does it have to be 1 of these 3? Can the Dragon be blue or purple?

Welcome, I think SVS is a step in the right direction for you... so much to learn. Without sounding bias because I am a subscriber, I find that is the best way to get the most from this site, because it gives you access to all the classes. And I am not sure where you want to start out. You have a very nice sense of color and design, but there is always more to learn, no?

3rd Thursdays are great fun and promote problem solving, community building and friendship and you learn so much from other people's work and the critiques by Will, Jake and Lee. Love the wolf and the fox piece...

3 things come to mind right away after skimming through most of what everyone has told you.

1. You're JUST the illustrator. Not the art director, not the publisher, not the graphic designer, not the letterer, not the author.

What falls under your job description is the ART. That's it. Sure you do art direction, but even books with 20 pages NEED an outside art director that usually comes from either the publisher, in this case the Client doing it themselves. They're not hiring you to art direct. That is a separate job in itself, that isn't required of you as an add on. If you want to make a contract that says you will art direct your own work AFTER the fact... that requires allowing them to change everything you do, as your doing it... which yes, is fine if you're covered financially for changes. And everything will need revision especially with difficult clients, which this person is before you've even met. RED FLAG!

1. Everything is a learning experience. You can chalk this up to that, if you wanna find out just how hard this is going to be? Maybe you're made of titanium, and you can do anything, and you're attitude is bring it on!!! That's great, keep that, go in like gangbusters wanting to make a great book, and have fun doing it. I don't want to ruin your positive attitude with horror stories. So this is up to you, but go in with eyes wide open, knowing this is gonna be tough, it might even be terrible. But if you think you have what it takes, go for it.

If you had a nightmare job from Disney, would you turn it down? HELL NO!!! You'd sell your mother's favorite chair and tell her it got lost in the fire. It's Disney, it's a once in a lifetime chance, it's immortality. But this guy is not Disney. You can't go into every job thinking I'm gonna treat this like I'm working for Disney. It's a great thought, but you'd be killing yourself for something that obviously is more about the experience, than it is about the benefits. And that's fine if you wanna do that... I hear people like to backpack alone through Europe. NOT ME. I'm a city boy... I like room service, working toilets and cable TV.

Some people like to rough it. That's what this is gonna be...

1. And this is something Will said in one of his videos that has stuck with me. He does maybe 2-4 books a year, and they take a big chunk of his time, his personal family time, and he knows that going in. So he is not gonna go for a life of 10-15 books and kill himself, I mean exhaust himself every night, and ignore his family and what not. His time is important to him.

As should yours be to you. As should everyone's time be to them. Even this author. If he hasn't found the right artist, ask him why, really ask him what was wrong with all those people? What did he like, what did he out right hate? What didn't work with him personality wise? What didn't work with him as far as their work ethic, their approaches, their answers to disagreements, etc... You're going on a DATE. As far as I'm concerned this is about to be a personal relationship with a finite time period. But it's gonna be personal. You're gonna look back at it someday and say that's how I spent the summer of 2016, working with Joe Killjoy and his book, How to bore me to death volumes 1-12.

So ask yourself. Is this job, worth my time? Even if you're starting out, what are you gonna learn or take away from this job? Money is not the answer to all things. If you're working for money, you're in the wrong profession. I can name about 8 things that will get you more money in half the time, that are more enjoyable than doing this... but I am not you.

You're already entertaining the notion, so something inside you is curious. You're willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt even though you know and see the red flags everywhere. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Just kidding. But seriously if you think you've got the right stuff to do this, and the money sounds good, and you wanna know the answers to all these questions, go for it. May the wind be at your back...

In all seriousness, good luck to you, and let us know what happens.

I recommended the Artist's Market book for someone recently. In your case you would single out publishers who do science-fiction, fantasy, pretty much look at the covers of authors you like. See if you can find information on those publishers. Another thing to do is see if the cover artist's name is listed, and write to them, and ask them how they got their start in the business. Most artists I find will gladly tell you their " origin story ", and you'll start to see a pattern building. It's not all just luck.

Anyway, good hunting, love the Cthulhu piece!