Best posts made by jimsz

I've been fighting moving over to some digital creation with part of the problem not being able to get used to the slick iPad pro cover and the Apple Pencil basically sliding over the screen.

I've tried a number of screen protectors but they were all just as slick.

After a number of months I finally found a screen protector that has a little bit of tooth to it, not quite pencil on paper feel but pretty close.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016B12TSW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For $10 (2-pack) it may be worth a try for anyone that does not like the slick drawing surface.

Also, for a project that size a kill fee would not be unheard of.

Buy a copy of the society of Illustrators Pricing Guidelines. That will give you pointers on what limitations are on the pricing (number of proofs, changes requested, ownership of original artwork, rights purchased, etc).

Here is a link for the book

https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Guild-Graphic/e/B07MFZLN9N?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1559575607&sr=1-1

First Day of School

@Matt-Soson Why hide that you are looking for free work? That should have been spelled out in the original post. What's next, telling artists their work for you would make great portfolio pieces?

Artists deserve to be paid for their work and if "donations" are being asked for it should be spelled out and upfront otherwise it is disingenuous at best.

Since none were available commercially I created a set of Prismacolor pencil swatch color libraries for Procreate on iPad.

These are based on pencil rubbings of each color and converted to RGB. Unfortunately, there is no way to label the specific swatch with the pencil #.

There were a number of colors that simply do not exist in the RGB color gamut and are therefore unable to be reproduce. In total there are 137 pencil colors (I believe. I might be off a couple).

If you have a need for these you can download them from here

Download Here

I’ll keep the link active for as long as I can.

@George-Broussard

Why? If someone wants to promote their brand, there is nothing wrong with that. If Inktober can't be used commercially than there is little choice than to do something new. As for using both hashtags, why promote a competitors brand?

Just like Jake trademarking Inktober, it's not personal it's just business. Anything successful will spawn copy cats.

Put the website up - having a low number of pieces initially is of benefit. It allows you to build the website the way you wish right from the start without having to juggle dozens of image files. Content and image management done incorrectly can be overwhelming.

Get the foundation of what you want in a website correct from the start will save you hours of work later one.

Don't forget when pricing it all depends on what rights the client is acquiring and how the art will be used.

Who owns the original artwork?

Kill fee?

First rights or all rights?

Copyright?

Publication?

Changes/client alterations?

It's not just about the time and skill involved but also about future monetization as well.

@doha said in iPad question.:

Huh, I didn't know that about procreate. That does exactly encourage me to buy an iPad pro. I guess I'll look at the Surface Pro.

Are you sure you are talking the iPad 2? The iPad 2 is 7 years old (in March). If you are indeed talking about the iPad (from 2011) you will be hard pressed to find any computer 7 years old that will run the current version or OS released this year.

To answer your question - the Apple Pencil will not work with an iPad 2. The Apple Pencil will only wok with the iPad Pro series.

For older iPads there are numerous stylus available. Jot Pro & Intuos were 2 that I tried and they were OK. ( https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/ipad/best-stylus-for-ipad-ipad-pro-or-ipad-mini-3586503/ )

As for Procreate - all software eventually will no longer be updated for older devices. Processing, Ram, security, requirements are only backward compatible for a certain amount of time. However, if you have software that is doing what you want on a platform that operates well for you - you do not need to update. That's true for Mac OS, Windows, ios, etc.

Don't do work on spec or for hire. If you see those terms, run.

Do not give up all rights to your work. Sell first publication rights.

Require cover credit for the artwork.

Retain the copyright.

Good work demands good pay.

Years ago when I was creating a lot of work for a publishing company it was specified that I had to include x number whites, x number black, x number asian, etc. It was so ridiculous that they even specified hair and eye color for the various characters. My belief then (and now) if that is what the client wants it is my job to deliver it and deliver it to the best of my abilities since that is what I was hired for.

That's a different perspective from the "Own Voices" idea. Own Voices is simply a form of racism and bigotry as it segregates, separates and compartmentalize people (the artists) by race. While popular with "educators" it is wrong for the real world.

If a person is a good artist (written or drawn) their audience will recognize a white person. They will recognize a black person and they will recognize an asian, a hispanic, etc, etc, etc.

The same goes for authors. Guess what, Rowlings was never a 10 year old boy wizard yet she wrote Harry Potter. Twain was not a black slave yet "Jim" from Huck Finn is a well rounded and believable character that is from the best piece of American fiction that was ever written

What I tell my kids when they are confronted with this in school is to substitute "white or caucasian" with whatever other race you are being told and if the person telling you would have a problem with the statement using white, it is racist.

You can agree or disagree and I am fine with that.

Quality art (written or drawn) is simply quality art. It does not matter what color the person who created it is and for that to matter and make a difference is bigoted.

@Stephanie-Hider said in Own Voices:

I don't know the numbers but I believe Will Terry even mentioned this field is dominated by white males. It seems economically injustice to not allow illustrators if they are just as talented to illustrate "their stories" if that makes sense.

So, what you are saying is someone should be chosen simply because of their race? I'm sorry, I disagree.

An AD should choose whomever they think will do the job, whomever will work as easily as possible with the staff/publisher/etc., whomever will meet the deadline with the least amount of drama.

If it is a white male, great, if it is a female person of color, great. But to choose one over the other due to their gender or color, is bigotry.

A couple of hints - if yo don't have a local backup system in place simply upgrade dropbox to 1tb plan and keep all your working/active files in the dropbox folder. The update is continuous. For $10/mo it is the best insurance you can have.

as for your old computer, even it is no longer powers up, you can pull the HD or SD drop it in a housing and access it as an external drive.

**@chenzui said in cintiq, surface, ipad pro:

This post is a bit old but note that the iPad has a pretty short lifespan, I am a digital artist . I must tell you that you could probably get 2-3 years of smooth operation out of it before it starts to slow down, if you're getting the Pro models, that's around a grand every 2-3 years.**

That’a not entirely accurate. ANY computer you buy today be it a windows/Apple based Cintiq, an iPad or Surgace tablet or something else will work slower in 3 years if you update the operating system. New operating systems require more powerful processing chips and that affects the speed. However, few people, require the latest and greatest operating system.

If you purchase a bargain basement computer the lifespan will be much shorter than a medium priced or high end system. All computers use commodity components and faster/better components simply cost more money.

If you drop a grand on a tablet at some point it will need to be replaced. That’s no difference than dropping $2k on a top of the line Cintiq and plugging into your computer which will need to be replaced.

I am still running an iPad that is 2nd generation from2011 for a specific purpose and it runs great. I have a desktop computer from 2004 still running at speeds comparable to my new computer but it is used for something specific and I don’t need to run the latest and greatest.

It’s all a matter of how you use your tools.

I would have no interest at all in a podcast about this.

Illustration is about talent and whether you can create what the client wants. It's not about your color, your gender, your nationality and making any of those an issue lessens the talent and creativity of an artist and is an insult to the artist.

I don't give a whit about who does an illustration or about "appropriation" as either the illustration works or it doesn't.

I have trouble with values myself but the only suggestion I have is to darken the shadows to make the foreground pop out more.

I had trouble seeing that the sitting bear was holding his paw as the leg and arm blended together. Same with the cat behind the small bear.

The great thing with digital is you can duplicate and keep pushing the drawing and still go back to your original.

The

@Ben-Migliore said in How to draw everyday:

Dose anyone here have any advice on what to do now? How do you draw everyday? What do you do to improve?

The way you draw every day is to simply grab your pencil and draw. If you don;t know what to draw simply start moving the pencil around and see what happens.

A while ago I realized I had become lazy and had not been drawing much at all. I set a goal of 100 days of drawing every day. Then it became 200, a year, two years. I made it to 1987 days in a row and then ended up in the hospital where I couldn't draw for a week! It crushed me because I really wanted to get to 2000 days in a row.

Since then I have taken a small break and will resume starting from Day 1 on April 1st.

You get better at anything by doing it over and over.

There are a number of issues being discussed here, though related they are quite different.

The issue of plagiarism on the layout of a book by cherry picking or accessing a couple pages is ludicrous. there are only so many ways to layout graphics and in any visual book you can find similarities. Until the entire book can be compared there is no way to say if the look and layout was copied.

As for the topic/steps/mechanics of inking, these terms, demo's/examples and tools have been universal for many lifetimes. My instructors in college were world level artists and far removed from jake. They used the same examples shown in the pages shown. It's ridiculous to think one person owns any method that has been used for generations.

The gentleman on youtube has acted out like too many on social media and online, react and attack. what happened to thought and discussion? I can't say legally who is right as I am not an attorney or expert but using common sense clarifies it in my mind.

As for sites cancelling "inktober", don't come down on them without knowing their reasons. They could just be tools who are reactionary or they may simply want to avoid any issues with using a trademarked word. trademark is far different than copyrights. A trademark owner is required to defend their trademark or risk losing it and/or having it enter public domain. While a trademark owner may be willing to accept loose enforcement and let the mark be used - attorneys and publishers are not so willing to be nice. When Inktober was trademarked the owner I am sure realized, or should have realized, not only would there be flack over registering what what others were encouraged to use but that there would be damage to that brand that would affect participation. the phrase went from being a community activity to an activity that was owned (in name only but owner nonetheless). I'm not so sure the trademark would have been granted had opposition been submitted during the filing period with clear examples of the history of the phrase.

It is disheartening to see artists, who are supposed to open and willing to explore openly attack Jake the way they are. I guess I wrongly believed that creative people were the type to not jump to conclusions.

Another Bic pen sketch on cheap paper

Just because it is not the in style does not mean you can't get published. You only need one AD to like your work.

Try writing a book of your own and approach a publisher as an author/illustrator.

Also, why stay narrowly focused on childrens book illustration? There are magazines, greeting cards, paper products, textiles, collectibles, licensing, print on demand and other publishing besides children publishing and the money for all of these spends the same once they send you a check.

SVSs focus is on childrens books but the principals are the same across all areas. Maybe SVS needs to expand on that.