Had a blast with this one!

Just started this piece. I’ve never done anything quit like this but I’m enjoying it a lot so far!

So I had a sort of epiphany recently and I thought I would share in case it can help others as well.

So I’m often dissatisfied with my work because I feel like the skills I need for my piece to be what I want it to be are always just out of reach. I was reading a book yesterday where one of the characters say something like "she is always unhappy about the skills she has not yet learned rather than joyful for the skills she has gained". This made me realize that I think the reason I often feel like I don’t have the skills that I need is because I am constantly in the mindset of pushing myself. I am almost never in my comfort zone because I am constantly pushing myself outside of it which is great for growing and learning but because I haven’t allowed myself to settle into the skills I have conquered I have continued to make work I am unsatisfied with. So I’ve been dialing back the difficulty of my drawings, creating drawings that are easy but make me feel more accomplished than the ones that pushed me.

So for whoever needs to hear it. Take a step back. Stop pushing yourself for a bit, moderate it. The person who works non stop but never rests will not grow as much as the person who balances work and rest.

Here’s a snippet of a character I’ve been working on. Will hopefully have more of her in the future.

Can’t wait to notice all the changes I want to make the second after I post! Had a lot of fun with this. Also want to note that I am indeed a member but I’ve had wonky things happen to my membership before and not been considered a member for some reason. Just want to make sure I can count towards the final picks if I make it that far!

Cutting it close! Here is mine!

Howdy folks!

I’m hoping to create a thread where we can all list techniques we have learned that require zero skill.
Let me explain. A zero skill technique is something you learn that you do not have to practice, it is simply a tool in the form of knew knowledge. For example: having cool lights and warm shadows or warm lights and cool shadows. When I learned this I was amazed at how much it improved my paintings. It did not require any skill or practice really, it was simply a matter of having that knowledge. What are some zero skill techniques you have learned? I hope by sharing our pools of knowledge we can all help each other grow even just a little bit more. This stuff can seem pretty simple but at some point we weren’t aware of them but just having that awareness can really change ones artwork in my experience.

My list of zero skill techniques:
Cool lights and warm shadows OR warm lights and cool shadows
Making a multiply layer at a low opacity and using a dark blue or purple to creat shadows (also applies to traditional work but varies depending on medium)
Thick outlines and thinner internal lines
Atmospheric perspective
Drawing objects as less defined and/or with thinner lines the farther they are in the background
Turning off saturation so you can see tones more clearly and adjust them for better contrast ( @NessIllustration )
Looking at your piece from far away or making the image smaller to see how readable it is

I’m sure I have more that I’m forgetting, I’ll add them in if I remember.

Howdy!

Just looking for any feedback before I submit this.
Here are some things I’m wondering
-should I crop in just a bit on the right and and bottom
-Should I make the inside of the windows lighter or darker maybe (I’ve messed around with both a bit but couldn’t get something to work, let me know what solutions you might have)
-add something more to the sky? I do like how barren it is but maybe it needs just a smidge more?

Another slightly different thing. My images always post slightly blurry but when clicked on they look fine. I post in 300dpi, 5" on the longest side

That’s mostly it, let me know if there is anything else the stands out to to you that may need some attention

Here’s a piece from a series I just finished up! If you’d like to see the rest I’ll be continuing to post the rest on my Instagram

@Melissa-Bailey-0 all great feedback! Helps so much to get other’s perspectives, thanks so much!

Hey folks!

So this is my design for Hansel and Gretel’s cabin for the children’s book pro class. I’ve spent a ton of time on this, never done an interior before so there was lots of learning here. It’s basically done BUT I am not satisfied with it at all.

Normally I like to ask for feedback on something specific but I just can’t figure out why this piece feels lack luster to me, is it the lighting, the colors, the line work? I sure don’t know but if you’d like to take a stab at it I’d love to hear some feedback!

Welcome! Glad to have ya join the community

So helpful! Thank you!

So I’m working on my children’s book portfolio but I’d also really love to middle reader and YA work. Should I have a book illustration portfolio that encompasses them all or one portfolio for each?

@Tristan-Lapetz @bob-smith this is what I was going to say. Keep in mind that the brain wants to simply and break things down into recognizable shapes. Observational drawing is all about learning to push against those instinctual urges and seeing the shapes for how they truly appear to the eye.

I agree with @Larue that the limbs being so stiff can be problematic. I think the shapes of the limbs also make the character a bit less appealing balance wise. I like the core of this concept but play around with blocking in different shapes to make the body and see what else could work.

I don’t really see the depth of field as an issue, I think it’s working well so far. Sometimes it can change once lighting is placed. If it feels out of balance later on I would recommend just having the mouse a tiny bit more in focus than the background elements.

I’m looking into getting my work into magazines with spot illustrations but I have encountered one vital issue. What magazines do I contact?

I need to know what magazines I might fit into and to do that I need to look through their magazines. I went to Barnes and Noble to look through the magazines and I found nothing…literally not one single spot illustration in any of the magazines I looked through. I’ve tried looking online and some magazines show some illustrations on their sight by it’s still not giving me much to go off of.

So how do I find these magazines?

@miranda-hoover thank you! It definitely has some video game art inspiration