@Nicholas-Brink Haha!!! I'm a wannabe Grand Rapidian myself; grew up everywhere from Lyon Street to Knapp's corner and now I'm an out-of-state student!

Have you been involved with the furniture industry? Seems like the thing an Industrial Designer in GR would be plugged in to-- but I could be wrong.

Your work is super clean and structural-- I get 80's vibes from the combination of the colors and linework. At what size do you illustrate these?

@swordofodin It certainly has!

@swordofodin Well, economy typically refers to the effectiveness with which a creative makes their marks. To take a look at graphic design, cutting-edge logos these days are super economical, like this one here:

There's extremely effective minimalism in this logo, which simultaneously ends up denoting a B, headphones, direction of the head-- but bottom line is that the logo is extremely economical.

In the realm of illustration economy is even more important because you've got many complicated compositions to render, each with all sorts of texture and weight and emphasis, and yadda yadda yadda. Economy in illustration usually means representing the most with the least, which is what you have done with the textures in your DnD illustration. Your economy is super effective because it is clean, but it is simultaneously very rich in the amount of information it offers to the viewer! If all that stuff just comes naturally to you then I suppose you just have a wicked sense of economy already, but either way you did well with your visual economy. (thereby making everything nice and readable, yet very interesting and detailed)

You've got some really nice designs here, yes! As @swordofodin kinda touched on, the only problems seem to stem from this particular composition, where the silhouettes of the characters overlap and become less distinct from each other. The only thing I picked up on besides that was a small detail where the thumb-knuckle on the leftmost character seems to jut out a bit obtusely, but that's such a small thing that it's negligible. This it really good stuff! Proportions are well-done, the characters are inviting, (especially on the fingers!) and the outfits are simple enough to be easily-read, yet complex enough to be interesting-- though I'd agree with one of the earlier comments that a little trinket here or there might help add a bit more information. (whether you add some or not is totally up to you!)

I look forward to hearing how this job goes for you!

Drafting up a handful of illustrations for my Step-Brother's Christmas gift; I'll be taking three of his go-to usernames and bringing them to life Here's the first! (Divine Oranges)

@swordofodin Ah! I love so many things about the last piece! Your texture has a lot of economy-- I really appreciate that!

Thanks for asking the forum, @Art-of-B!

I think my chiefmost improvement was in color, but there has been an overall elevation in my personal ability to do good work. Here's something from earlier in the year:

I labored over this one out of passion for a lovely lady I'm privileged enough to call Girlfriend, but while the passionate side of the work made things come together fairly well, I don't think this could be called much other than a study. At the time, this was the best I had ever done in terms of color, and with all the details involved (a lot for me at the time) I'd say that it was a breakthrough, but not phenomenal. Not to mention, I didn't really know a ton about painting or brushes, so I was at a disadvantage there as well.

This illustration kinda showcases how far I've come this year. I understand color way better, I've begun to understand painting and light, and my composition skills, while not particularly revolutionary in this one, are better, most likely due to Inktober training. It's messy in spots, but I've recently begun branching my skills out again, so, for a little while, I'm alright with that.

Also, lots of the help I've needed to improve has come from the SVS community, so thank you!

Hello SVS forum!

It's been a long time since I posted here, but I'm back again for a little bit, this time looking for some advice and pointers. I'm looking to do an individual study this coming semester, during the course of which I'd like to illustrate, publish, and maybe even print a simple 16-page children's book. As of now, I'm confident enough in my illustration skills to do the amount of work required, but I'm very unclear on the publishing process and the whole printing process as well.

My question here is whether you folks would be able to share some on what the whole process looks like for publishing a Children's book; what sort of work needs to be done? Is there a specific organization I need to contact? What have your experiences looked like for self-publishing?

Anything helps!

Quickie observation: I initially read the nose of the pianist as a frown, which has an entirely new meaning, but prooobably not one you're looking for. I know you mentioned that the pianist will have a full face soon, but I couldn't help pointing that one out

Day 9:

"Ormund was quick, though for all of his witty maneuvers through the branches and undergrowth he couldn't hope to evenly match the speed of the woodland creature pursuing them. Little by little it gained traction throughout the chase, until suddenly it broke through Ormund's panicked tunnel vision with a rending swipe at his side. Ormund wasn't truly hurt by the slash- the beast was clumsy despite its undoubted familiarity with the forest land- but Ormund still cringed at the sundering of his precious vest."