I've been exploring two related options for the January contest, I'm curious of people have a preference for one over the other? I'd also appreciate any other feedback! I'm going for something minimalist but maybe they need to be pushed farther?
Option 1:

Option 2:

This is a great thread! I just wanted to add two additional "tricks of the trade", which a friend taught me and I used for this contest:

1. Add a top level layer set to the saturation blend mode, and fill with pure white (or any unsaturated color) so you can see what your image looks like in black and white. I find toggling this layer off and on as I'm adding colors helps me control the values better and see if I'm getting off track.
2. Another trick my friend taught me is to take a painting/illustration (by yourself or another artist) where you like the value distribution, and make small black and white copy you can refer to as you work (I put it on my phone). This can also keep you grounded as to the balance of values, e.g. it can help you notice if your illustration is getting to dark overall or doesn't have enough contrast.

The Heart and The Bottle by Jeffers isn't all about loneliness per se, but I find this spread to be beautifully evocative of what it feels like to miss one person in particular

I like where it’s going so far! Question about the tracks: they look close enough to something normal that I’m not sure if I’m supposed to know what they are or not? Maybe you could push their weirdness factor?

@burvantill I just started going through the class, but I'll post what I do as I work on it. Here are my building silhouettes, this definitely didn't come naturally to me and some of them are still a bit unclear.

This is a really nice picture! One small thing: for me, having the fire in the dead center throws me off a bit...you might experiment with different crops and see if something feels right. For example, this is what it looks like if you crop a bit off the right

At least to me this makes the composition feel slightly less static? It's probably a matter of taste though...

Thanks Chip!

@burvantill thanks! It was cool to look at yours and see things I totally didn’t think of. On to trees next...

@carolinedrawing Thanks! I might try your suggestion with the deeper print. I was alternatively thinking of adding another element to suggest more of a story, or adding additional lighting, up I don’t want to ruin the minimalist quiet feel I’m going for.

@chrisaakins those are great questions. As to the story aspect, I’m imagining the kid and the owl are about to start the final stage of a long quest, so they are excited and determined. I’ll have to see if I can convey that with body language (for both characters). As for the portal, I was planning on seeing how it looks once it’s a little farther along. The two references I have in mind are the windows between worlds in His Dark Materials (which imagine as just hanging there in space without a border), and the portals in Dr Strange (which have a golden shiny ring), so I’m not sure what the right approach is. It in any case I have to move out of the sketch stage or I won’t finish in time!

Attempt at a more balanced composition

@nadyart it’s really great to watch your thought process with this image, and I love the most recent value study. For me, having the brother asleep in the background helps the story, and I think it will be possible to add enough detail as you develop the image to keep the character in the background readable , without distracting from the main focal point. I wonder if you could use a secondary light source that is cooler and dimmer in the background to illuminate sleeping character, say moonlight coming in from the window? That might be tricky but it might be fun to try it out

@smceccarelli this is all great feedback! I’ll experiment with expanding the portal and moving the castle to the left...the only reason I was hesitant to do that earlier was because I’m worried if the portal is too big i could lose the idea it being a portal at all, ie the whole thing could end up feeling purely like a night scene. I’m also pondering adding something to the day part of the painting to add more balance, although I’m not sure what it would be, maybe something here?

I’ve also been toying with the idea of adding a path...does that add to the story?

This is such a fun image! Personally, I like the smaller moon, but taking out the ladder/diving board and other characters makes the image a little less fun for me. It also feels more about that one character, as opposed to a whole story, so I suppose it depends on what you're going for from a narrative point of view.

@smceccarelli I hadn't seen "Day and Night" before you mentioned it, but I went and found it and it is amazing! So creative.

I've finally had a chance to do some more work on my thumbnail, and would be grateful for anyone's feedback. Getting a good composition is something I've struggled with in the past, so I've been iterating a lot on this one before I start making the final image.

Very cool idea! For me, the composition feels like it maybe wants to be a spiral or ‘yin’/yang’ kind of shape, a bit like The Great Wave

Just for fun I played around the warp tool on your sketch

Hopefully that makes sense?

This is a really nice picture! One small thing: for me, having the fire in the dead center throws me off a bit...you might experiment with different crops and see if something feels right. For example, this is what it looks like if you crop a bit off the right

At least to me this makes the composition feel slightly less static? It's probably a matter of taste though...

Hi guys, for the February contest I've been playing around with the idea of a 'portal' that hangs in the air and which you can go through to get to the night. I'm trying to get the composition right and also decide what elements to include...for example, should the character be opening the portal with a wand? Should there be a bat flying out of it? Any feedback on which thumbnail you prefer or other ideas would be greatly appreciated!