Here’s my entry for this month’s Critique Arena. I stepped outside of my comfort zone and tried something a little different on this one. It took me a while to get started as I wasn’t sure where to take it but I have to say that I’m more than happy with the outcome. Can’t wait to see what everyone else brings to the table this month.

This was hands down my favourite critique arena challenge yet! Right up my alley, speaking to my interests at least. I’ve never actually done a full character design sheet like this so I’m glad I’ve got one to add to my portfolio now:)

I really enjoyed the prompt this month. Here’s my entry of a clever little monkey scheming his way over to a tree full of ripe oranges.

As always, best of luck to everyone and I can’t wait to see what’s brought Into the arena!

MAY CONTEST: ISOLATION

First contest entry for me. I’ve been dying to join the fun for a while now but have been too busy (aka busy making excuses) to get my stuff together and submit. I guess one of the upsides to these strange times we’re experiencing now is that I was able to find (make) time to put something together.

I just watched the critique arena for April’s contest and I LOVE the new format with 16 short list entries being whittled down to winners by SVS member votes! Great improvement and I hope to make the cut next month to see what kind of feedback I might receive.

I haven’t been as active in here as I would like but plan to make a push to get in here more frequently. Everyone here is doing such great work and the level of positivity amongst artists is very refreshing. Grateful to be a part of the team. Good luck to everyone entering this month!

Hey guys, re-posting this one with some additions. I didn’t like how my first image was going to get hit with “This doesn’t really say ‘yeti’ to me. What kind of a yeti gets to chef up some solid meals in a kitchen as fancy and modern as that?” so I made some minor alterations.

I’m not sure if the grey backdrop counts against the ‘spot illustration’ I’m going after but I wanted the outline of the daydream bubble to stand out and liked the look of the white font. We’ll see how she does.

Best of luck, as always, to everyone competing. Hopefully there are a bunch of solid portfolio pieces to come out of this one:)

Here she is, Winter the Witch.. at the 11th hour, once again Time for bed. Good luck everyone and enjoy your Inktober!

Day 1 - Ring
Francisco the Ring Traveller

Here’s my entry for this month’s critique arena contest. I’m not sure how I feel about it as it’s the first time I’ve tried to create anything without line work (just to try something different and venture outside of my comfort zone) but I’m submitting anyway.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is bringing to the table. For some reason this prompt stumped me more than expected so I’m curious how others tackled this one.

Oh, I also decided to throw some text in there for fun. It could be a big misstep but I figured I’d give it a shot anyway and see how it fared.

Good luck everyone:)

My little guy is going to be experiencing his first day of school in just about a week so this challenge was extra fun for me, thinking about all of the new experiences my son's going to gain. Hopefully he doesn't get picked to stand up and talk to the class about his favourite food like poor Albert here.. sheesh!

I'm not sure if my entry made it through to the critique arena site since I wasn't able to see any submission confirmation when I tried a couple times tonight. Wish me luck! I want to come and play with you guys again this month:)

Good luck all

@LisaF

@Diane-Gronas wow! Well done:)

@sirjana I want a Seven Decker Peanut Butter Cookie! Great work:)

Here she is, Winter the Witch.. at the 11th hour, once again Time for bed. Good luck everyone and enjoy your Inktober!

@LisaF thanks for the heads up. Hoping the link email comes through to me this time haha

@frownhub thanks a lot. I’ll check out Affinity and start learning the ropes.

Man! These are fantastic! I love your style. It reminds me of a show my kids and I watch sometimes, Hey Duggee. Very simple yet elegant. You mentioned working with vectors.. this is something I want to learn so I can scale some of my work but I’m not sure where to start. Any suggestions? I downloaded Vectornator but that’s about as far as I’ve made it haha.

Hey @chrisaakins I’m definitely joining in Inktober this year. I think this is year 4 for me if I remember correctly. I talked my daughter into doing it with me (she was 4 when she started) so she’s pumped to get cracking again this year. Not sure what I’m going to do for theme or what not, it’s looking like it’s going to be a game day decision but I must say I like your idea!

@Melissa-Bailey-0 The WORST right?! Haha. Thanks!

@notfitkid this is great. I love the texture you achieved and the way you drew the faces on all of the characters. Really good work!