Hi there everybody! I'm new to the forum and this is my first submission, love all your work and I'm super exicited to be here!

Hi everyone, here is my little traveler. It turned out very different from my WIP posted earlier. Younger, more naïve and more children book-ish... I hope you enjoy it!

And here is mine. I did upload it to the website (but it is not showing yet), so I hope I don't get @AustinShurtliff a headache... and it is also nice to keep them showing in the forum.

Amazing entries everybody! Here is mine, trying out some new techniques and still a bit rough...

@PieterVanDerBeek Gefeliciteerd! Congratulations! I love your card. My daughter was born 5 days ago, so I have been also working on a announcement card. It is fun!

Thank you! @davidhohn Really awesome that you re-recorded it for us and the lecture is amazing. I have some thoughts after listening to your analysis, if someone disagrees let me know!
Beekle is Alice and Beekles journey is Alice’s journey. First of all, it is Alice who creates Beekle and draws out his story as you can see on page 34-37, she uses elements of her surrounding to create this fantasy world. The parts of the playground are turned into the island and into the journey (and not the other way round). The crown comes from the pencil box, the rainbow on the island from the rainbow she draws on the paper, etc. The tree is tricky, is the tree with beekle in it the real tree or a reprensentation of the tree Alice did draw ( the leaves have a form of a star…). Secondly, I think that she does not only makes up the story but it is also a story about her self. It is said that she had no friends, and story is about looking for a friend. And is the boy who Beekle thinks of on page 8 not the same boy who she become friends of in the end? The search for a friend in the playground on page 20 is Alice looking for a friend?
Anyway.. super interesting. I’m really curious how he wrote this. Did he start with the story of beekle and than added layers and references over time? This is a fun story for kids and literature for adults all packed in a “simple” picture book! Love it!

Hi Aska, great fun piece with a beautiful message! The thing I see is that all the colours ask for a lot of attention, because they are all very saturated. If you want to put more focus on the rainbow you can take maybe more desaturated or more neutral colours for the car and clothing.

@hayleyannececil Beautiful! I love the softness of it. Still I prefer the ones with lines, it ads a little bit more readability to it. Maybe you can tone them down even more, for instance on the left foot (also the tangent there makes it a bit less clear).
Very nice work!

@Kevin-Longueil Very very beautiful! I love how you used the lines to get color and light in.

@Katherine First of all, it looks awesome and I’m in line with Kevin and Samu, I personally very much like this style and I think there is a market for it. Maybe it has not that "cuteness" that most children books have but that does not mean that all characters have to be cute to like and bond with them (although it really helps!) I agree also what @NessIllustration said about the expression, she looks now blank to the ground, more expression in combination with gesture makes your character alive and likable. The story itself can really help with that too, but then you have to show a sequence of images and maybe a model sheet. I think children books can be very arty and abstract as long you take the reader (adult and child) into your world. Good luck!

Thank you! @davidhohn Really awesome that you re-recorded it for us and the lecture is amazing. I have some thoughts after listening to your analysis, if someone disagrees let me know!
Beekle is Alice and Beekles journey is Alice’s journey. First of all, it is Alice who creates Beekle and draws out his story as you can see on page 34-37, she uses elements of her surrounding to create this fantasy world. The parts of the playground are turned into the island and into the journey (and not the other way round). The crown comes from the pencil box, the rainbow on the island from the rainbow she draws on the paper, etc. The tree is tricky, is the tree with beekle in it the real tree or a reprensentation of the tree Alice did draw ( the leaves have a form of a star…). Secondly, I think that she does not only makes up the story but it is also a story about her self. It is said that she had no friends, and story is about looking for a friend. And is the boy who Beekle thinks of on page 8 not the same boy who she become friends of in the end? The search for a friend in the playground on page 20 is Alice looking for a friend?
Anyway.. super interesting. I’m really curious how he wrote this. Did he start with the story of beekle and than added layers and references over time? This is a fun story for kids and literature for adults all packed in a “simple” picture book! Love it!

@kylebeaudette Love it!

@LisaF Sorry to keep bothering you about this, but will the lecture be added to SVSlearn? I’m keep checking Jump into the Studio but can not find it…

@PieterVanDerBeek Gefeliciteerd! Congratulations! I love your card. My daughter was born 5 days ago, so I have been also working on a announcement card. It is fun!

Amazing entries everybody! Here is mine, trying out some new techniques and still a bit rough...

And here is mine. I did upload it to the website (but it is not showing yet), so I hope I don't get @AustinShurtliff a headache... and it is also nice to keep them showing in the forum.

Hi Miranda, very cool concept. I love it! I’m probably not the right person to help you with perspective on such a difficult organic form, but it looks like the back is a bit low in relation to the front. Maybe it helps to draw two ovals in perspective, one as a ground plane and one as the front. Sorry, maybe Im not very clear but I cannot do a drawover right now.
Secondly, have you tried to lower the horizon line so you look more up and the “building” is more imposing? Good luck!

@AustinShurtliff Hi Austin, I uploaded my image directly to the website (with use of the template:) but it is not showing, do I have to be patient or did something go wrong?
And maybe it is good to mention that space you have in the template is 1200px wide and 1100px high (before people make very lineair designs and have to fit thim in afterwards). Thanks!

Hi Julia, love the atmosphere and textures. It is very beautiful and I like the big cat especially, a lot of story there. I think the girl can be a bit clearer, het hand is confusing and she is not looking at the cat. Maybe try different poses with focus on the silhouette, can you still see that she is holding a fish and waving if she is all black? Then look at it in grayscale, is she also clearly readable from the background? The last thing I noticed are the leaves in the foreground. I like the value but maybe group them a bit more in the corners to great a stronger composition. Good luck!

Hi Aska, great fun piece with a beautiful message! The thing I see is that all the colours ask for a lot of attention, because they are all very saturated. If you want to put more focus on the rainbow you can take maybe more desaturated or more neutral colours for the car and clothing.