Hey everyone. Hope you're all having a good weekend. I just posted my latest piece on social media..and I remembered that I did a really similar dragon pose just over a year ago. I hadn't looked at it for ages, so I thought, hey let's just see what's changed...and I was really shocked! ...at all the anatomy, the uneven leg lengths, all sorts of things that jump out at me now, that would need fixing. I'm slightly ashamed to post it again...because I was pleased with it at the time! ..although I knew it wasn't perfect and wanted it to be better....but at the same time I can see the progress. I don't know whether to be pleased or horrified, it's an awkward mix of both. So I thought I'd share.

Here's the January 2016 piece (cropped - the full original posted here: http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/946/what-the-dragon-did-next/26

And my April 2017 piece:

Hi everyone. Sorry I've been away and not posting much...there's so much going on right now, on top of the usual Christmas preparations. We're about 80-90% of the way through building our new art studio in the garden - hopefully all will be worth it, but right now and over the last few months it's been a huge thing trying to sort it all out...our house has been full of flooring, sinks, insulation, you name it.. And there have been big deadlines/projects for work too..But I'm hoping to get back into the swing of doing personal art after Christmas.

But I thought I'd share my Christmas card design this year...not entirely satisfied with the finish, but for now it'll do.

My final version (turned the green back down a bit, not sure if that was the right decision...)

Just wanted to share something here...you see, I've always admired watercolour but it's never worked for me in the way I want it to...I love it, but it doesn't love me. It's beautiful, beguiling and mysterious...so many beautiful pieces out there, but when I try to emulate it myself, it typically doesn't work so well. Makes me feel as though I'm a man chasing after a beautiful woman who's not interested no matter how hard I try...(and maybe trying too hard is part of the problem, with watercolour).

But before Christmas I watched @Lee-White's Let It Glow class, which I found really useful.. just getting a better idea of watercolour basics and how he handles the paint, was really good. This piece doesn't glow at all, but for the first time I did something I liked. Hooray! I know it's not up there with the best, but for me, it's improvement. And I'm really excited to get better.

So, I'm hoping that the SVS watercolour class (that was being talked about in the other thread a while back), is happening too....

Here is digital painting #4…I set myself this task to put into practice the techniques in Will Terry’s Mixed Media course…being so new to digital painting I found the course really helpful, especially because I love the watercolour/pencil look, it’s what I’ve been concentrating on in my previous traditional work and I don’t want to lose that when switching digital.

So I’ve been working on this and wondering whether I should stop now and/or is there stuff to fix. Thoughts?

Since I've very nearly finished 3rd Thursday early this month, I wondered if - for once - I should have a little fun with my art, and just do some little random sketches for experimenting...because the last time I did that, it was quite good for loosening up and not worrying about it, because it's not too long spent on the piece. And I'd like to try out many different ways of combining traditional with digital, to see what processes work best.

This one is about 80% traditional with a little bit of digital on top...

Thank you @Damien-Rambacher and @Lynn-Larson for your thoughts Well here is the latest version...I didn't do anything crazy but I did try to make the grass behind Lucy just a little longer and varied colours, in a subtle way...also I shortened the ends of the tool a bit to make it look less grabby, hopefully @Russ-Van-Dine will approve of that ..and generally worked on the lighting. I'll sit on it for a day or so but hopefully it's close to being done now.

I’ve seen some great master copies posted on here recently and it’s inspired me to try one myself! Lots of reasons to do one:

1. I haven’t done one before.
2. @Lee-White recommends them as good practice.
3. @Will-Terry said in a video I watched recently, that “if you’re not doing things like master copies then you don’t really want it badly enough” - so that rather threw down the gauntlet!
4. I’d like to infuse a bit of whatever technique I learn from this into my 3rd Thursday piece.

So, this is my choice - a piece by Catherine Rayner, one of my absolute favourite children’s book illustrators, www.catherinerayner.co.uk I’ve researched her technique before because I wanted to emulate it but never done a master copy..she uses acrylic inks, screen printed backgrounds and spatters and crayons and so on to add texture. I love her combination of inkiness and graphic.

So, I drew the outline (no tracing!) and transferred onto paper. Then laid down undertones…

..This is halfway through the midtones…

Then the darkest bits and inky lines. She apparently uses a cocktail stick to pull the ink about, didn’t have one but improvised with tweezers and a dip pen. Here's the finished version:

And here's how the scans compare (fixed the eye blob digitally..)

It’s not perfect but I do think it’s helped me understand much better how she works..it feels a lot different actually trying to emulate a piece, compared to analysing it visually. So hopefully this will help in future pieces

Fantastic work everyone! Here's my entry:

Hi everyone…Thought I’d share what I’ve been working on for the last few days…I’ve been feeling frustrated about some aspects of my art in general.. and so I decided to take a break from the usual stuff and do a master copy of an artist I admire, to see if I can learn something different and get better digital skills.

I chose this piece by Benji Davies:

…if you watch 3rd Thurs live, it’s the same artist that Jake mentioned beforehand a couple of months ago, when he showed the Grandad’s Island book. This piece is from Benji’s newest book, The Dragon and The Nibblesome Knight, which is a fantastic book for bedtime for anyone who has young kids btw - fun to read out loud and lovely story too - rare combination! And it features dragons so big win-win for me.

Benji paints digitally, as far as I know, so I did the copy entirely digitally as well, no tracing or colour-picking. Here are some screen grabs of the process:

And the finished copy:

Side by-side comparison (original on the left, copy on the right):

Some observations I learnt along the way:

• Benji uses a lot of dry media brushes - I’m pretty sure he uses some Kyle brushes because I found one texture in there which looked identical to Kyle’s Pastel Palooza brush. But not all of them..there was one brush I found really difficult to emulate, the dry scratchy brush…maybe he made it himself or got it somewhere else.

• Up super close, Benji’s work has a surprisingly messy look - he doesn’t seem to worry too much about having really sharp neat edges and the process of copying his work felt very natural, like real painting - I really liked it!

• So how does he ‘get away’ with those messy edges, I was wondering? I think it’s because he really, really knows his values and the contrast is in all the right places to make it work. So it can look clean but fresh at the same time.

• This piece looks simple but it actually took a really long time to copy, many nights. There’s a lot of detail, careful shading and build up of textures that you don’t really notice full-screen. So it’s not a quick job, even though the design is quite stylised and child-friendly.

So there we go! I had fun, and I quite fancy doing another one….but I think I’ll have to get a bit further along with 3rd Thurs before I can spare the time…

I like this idea much better @NoWayMe ...the story of what she is trying to do, with the bear in pain, and the cubs watching, is all really clear even without the rendering. I think it is stronger in some ways than having the paw in the trap...because you can see even more of the story this way. And with this version you don't need to render the trap 'cleanly' yet without excessive blood/gore which might be a more realistic way of doing it, but would be less palatable for a children's book. Will be great to see the next version

I love this @Kevin-Longueil! The storytelling is great, it works so well already - love the merman with his flipper feet and the extra story you've told us in the comments - very poignant - I want to know more, and how it ends!

And - drawing is fantastic. Can't wait to see the end results!

@Lee-White I would love to sign up for a Tier 3 package, I've been looking forward to this announcement ever since you mentioned it a few months back. But I have a question about the scheduling:

If I sign up, is there a given time frame for completing the multiple online meetings? As I've just signed up for the Illustration 1 course, I've already maxed out my personal art time for the summer, and I don't want to sign up for something else if I can't give it 100%... But, I'd have more time after it finishes, say from mid-September, even October. Is that too far away to sign up for this now? Should I wait until later?

It would probably make more sense to do the portfolio review after doing Illustration 1 anyway, because I'd hope that there would be some art growth along the way.

@DOTTYP Having done a few SVS live critiques before, they are normally done with GoToMeeting software. It's free for us SVSers to use, you just download it and install it. Then when you click on the link given to you by SVS, it takes you to an online meeting where you can see the instructor's screen and watch their drawovers/listen to what they are saying about your work. If you want you can share your microphone and chat when it's your turn. The critiques are very useful, would recommend them for sure

So very glad to hear that the surgery was a success! Hope that your recovery goes just as well and that it gives the results you hope for.

@Lee-White Just following up on @Ben-Migliore's comment upthread - is it true that there's a new forum coming and if so, that our posts on the existing one will be erased? If so, would be good to have a heads up so we can save anything needed...

@Mara-P Just got back and checked the number underneath...Yes it's that same model

I have a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium, and I love it! I upgraded two years ago when I decided to try digital painting properly...my previous tablet was a small entry level 2008 Wacom Bamboo. Those are the only two I've used, so I don't have much to compare with.

I use it with my iMac (or with laptop) and it works great. Everyone's different of course, and other artists here are really happy with their own favourites. But quality-wise it's been great (both tablet and pen have been carted about a bit, when I've stayed in other places and wanted the option to draw...) it's had a lot of use and two years later it's still fine.

Hope you find something you're happy with

I love the idea of a new monthly challenge, this is great. It's great that SVS is doing something new to encourage us to post and get involved in the social media side of things...I'll try to find the time to enter this.

Love the idea that the winner of each month's contest gets to illustrate the next one too! (wondering whether you'd need to stagger it, so that each winner gets enough time to do a decent illustration...I'm sure you'll figure it out though

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan Oh my goodness - I'm so sorry to hear that you've been going through this. You come across as really strong and positive - and I'm sure that will serve you well. All fingers crossed that the surgery goes well - sending hopeful thoughts your way!