Hi guys! This is scary for two reasons:

• First proper post on the forum, hoping it's in the right place and "the done thing"
• First time posting artwork outside the social media bubble of lovely existing fans or design-focussed communities... and in a space populated by illustrative storytelling professionals.

So hey. With that out the way, here's an illustration I did a little while ago for a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons. He needed something to represent his character - a dwarven alchemist who leaves his dusty books behind to travel the world in search of new creatures to study and dissect! He has a particular fascination with Mimics, and keeps the baby one on his belt as a pet (the little treasure chest creature). He's less about the lab and all about living life in the field, defending himself when he needs to and taking advantage of learning opportunities only found in the wild.

I'd love to know what you guys think. Did I capture the gist of the story? Are there any glaring issues with the concept or execution? I also have a process video on YouTube if anyone's interested in that kind of thing.

Wouldn't it be fun if the PS4 Spider-Man got involved? At the height of his powers with one hell of a set of gadgetry, and THAT costume :smiling_face_with_open_mouth:

Hey guys, as the new year looms into view and we all think about our projects for 2021, do you have any goals for your artistic development?

For the last couple of years I've been working on my use of colour. But next year I'm going to take a step back and work on the underpinning drawing skill and push my shapes more, as well as getting braver with solid blacks and drawn material details. I want to shift the balance from using colour to make decisions, to it simply being compliment to an already functional illustration.

That's my Art Resolution. What's yours?

Hi everyone, I'm Jim. Just joined the forum after hearing about it on the 3 Point Perspective podcast. Long time follower of Jake Parker and Will Terry via YouTube. I've been looking for a social space online dedicated to art and illustration for a while now, so here I am!

About me... I'm from the UK, specifically Newcastle in the north east of England. I draw cartoony stuff. I used to freelance full time but now I balance a full time job with some freelancing. The full story is much longer than that of course!

Anyway, hello. Nice to meet you all and I look forward to getting to know people.

This is beautiful work, it has a timeless quality to it. I'd love to see how it looks after you've dropped a couple of gradient maps on it to colour the values.

There's nothing to stop you clicking the videos and skimming through to see what the content is like, before deciding what level you need to study at.

Welcome to the forum! Loving your work, really nice stuff.

@DaveLeekArt that's a great goal. I've concentrated way too much on digitally painting details and not enough on gesture, pose, composition and storytelling. Some of my favourite work online is so simple, yet works perfectly. I want that efficiency.

Love it love it love it! You're pulling out some awesome shapes and the linework is really nice.

Hi @RJWoodworth welcome! Some fun stuff there.

Love it love it love it! You're pulling out some awesome shapes and the linework is really nice.

Yeah definitely check out any SVS courses that go into understanding light, because that will have a positive global effect on all your rendering, including shadow consistency and use of colour.

@DaveLeekArt that's a great goal. I've concentrated way too much on digitally painting details and not enough on gesture, pose, composition and storytelling. Some of my favourite work online is so simple, yet works perfectly. I want that efficiency.

@deborah-Haagenson nice, loving the idea of focusing on a different thing each month. Maybe I should consider something like that too. Using a different subject matter (landscapes, vehicles, characters, architecture etc) every month to keep things fresh while still working on the principles I mentioned earlier.

There's nothing to stop you clicking the videos and skimming through to see what the content is like, before deciding what level you need to study at.

Draftsmen is absolutely brilliant, can't recommend it enough. They're on YouTube too.

Hey guys, as the new year looms into view and we all think about our projects for 2021, do you have any goals for your artistic development?

For the last couple of years I've been working on my use of colour. But next year I'm going to take a step back and work on the underpinning drawing skill and push my shapes more, as well as getting braver with solid blacks and drawn material details. I want to shift the balance from using colour to make decisions, to it simply being compliment to an already functional illustration.

That's my Art Resolution. What's yours?

I really like the colour choices, and you've definitely got the start of something really cool design wise. It's got a nautical vibe, puts me in mind of a space yacht. I feel like more use of reference could've informed the overall shape... at first I thought the right edge was the front, until I saw the smoke trail. Seems like a lot of flat surfaces at the front would give it real trouble if it ever travelled through an atmosphere.

In terms of storytelling, go back to the reason the vehicle exists. Research. Also is the vehicle new or old? Do the researchers have a big or small budget? That could take it from looking clean, state of the art with bells and whistles, to looking beat up with patches all over the place, maybe even a dented sattelite dish. What are they researching? If it was comets and asteroids, put more dents in there from when they got too close. If it was marine life on other planets, but some alien barnicles on the underside from when they stayed on an ocean planet for a year. If they're measuring cosmic waves, maybe the ship took some damage and parts look a little burned... also it could have more aparatus on it as well as the dish. Think of the roof of the car from Ghostbusters as an example.

While I use different software, if I needed both raster and vector elements in a piece I'd go about it like this:

Do the traditional illustration work first, and scan it into the computer at high resolution as stated in your post.
Next, I'd do any raster artwork you need in GIMP. Export the image from GIMP, again, at high resolution.
Import the artwork into Inkscape and do your vector work.
Export the artwork as a PDF from Inkscape, and any vector work you have should remain vector.

I hope this is useful.

I think it's fine. As long as you're not selling it, you can do what you like. I'd like to get round to doing something like this myself with some classic fairy tales.