Here's my attempt

P.S. Sorry it's blowing up so big in the forum. Not sure how to fix it.

I went with The Little Mermaid but more the dark original story instead of the Disney-fied version we all know.

Thanks so much for all the feedback guys. @ajnewman I tried to fix the tangent with adding more of a tail to that lamb.
Here's the finished piece.

If you have a subscription to any Adobe creative cloud programs then Adobe Portfolio (portfolio.adobe.com) is a great free option. You can add a custom domain name if you purchase one elsewhere and I think they look/run really smooth since they're designed for artists. Very easy to use. Here's mine for example www.juliekitzes.com

Hey guys,
So after much hesitation because I don't think it looks as sharp as having one gallery, I finally decided to make categories for my art since I do so many different things. If you have a minute I'd love a quick critique. If you think anything is lacking or miscategorized please let me know. I do plan to create some new work for the categories that are a little more sparse. I haven't been getting the response from people I was hoping for with my last site design so if it's not my website I fear it must be the quality of my art.

Thanks Everyone!

www.juliekitzes.com

I'm trying to make up my own editorial assignments for practice and this is a piece for an article about insomnia. I'd love to know how it reads and get any feedback before I actually put too much work into it.

I'm also interested in editorial illustration. It's not really the same thing as SVS learn,but there's a blog called Dear Art Director where you can anonymously ask illustration industry questions and get replies from real art directors. I've found it to be a useful resource for my editorial illustration questions. I wish I had more precise resources to share but if I ever find them I'll certainly share them here.

@Braden-Hallett Mine are a single image on one side and then on the other I have my contact info (name, website, email) on the other side and then some blank space for a hand written note. I like to personalize them for every company/art director I send them to.

@IanS I really like your original concept. It has more story telling involved than the newer version. The first one is so obvious that the man is in an ice cream cone whereas without the hungry ice cream character the concept may be lost and just look a bit more like a graphic element decision. The big thing that I don't like about the composition is that the window panes divide the illustration in half without a lot of overlap. My quick remedy would be to incorporate the arms of the ice cream character so that he's eagerly reaching into the window (either with open hands or a fist full of cash?) It would help bring both sides together into a cohesive image and add some more depth to the piece. Additionally you might kick out the leg of the man in the cone that is currently pointing down to add another point of over-lapping. In general I think it's funny and cute and is a very clever and well communicated idea.

Hi Guys.

I'm brand new to this community and this is my first post. I'm in a bit of a panic mode and could really use some advice from other illustrators and designers out there.

So something I keep hearing from everyone in the industry is that you need to know who your audience and dream clients are. My problem is that I enjoy so many different subjects, styles, and mediums, and would go crazy to limit myself to just one or two niches. I like doing realistic portraits, horrific creatures and monsters, scientific illustration, simple graphic work, cartoons and kid-friendly work, and everything in between. Therefore I have a lot of audiences and my dream job is being a freelancer who can work on this wide variety of projects for different clients.

Despite my best efforts, my portfolio and social media look like a bit of a mess and like the work was done by a bunch of different people. I currently earn some side income through a variety of things: editorial illustration, graphic design, being a part time tattoo artist, and selling my work at art festivals; but I’m nowhere near “quitting the day job” level of illustration. I worry that my all-over-the-place approach makes it seem as if I don’t have my own style (or that I have 10 different styles?) and it makes me less hire-able to prospective clients because they don’t know what they’re going to get, or if a children’s publisher visits my work and they see a demon sitting on a pile of bloody bones that it will put them off even if some of my other work is perfect for them.

Is it unrealistic to be this Jill of all trades? Should I limit myself? Should I create different websites and social media pages for the different sorts of things I make? What about when things over-lap?

I graduated with a BFA in illustration in Dec 2017 and my school experience was generally positive. I excelled in my classes and my instructor’s expressed to me that I was doing good work and told me they had no worries about me getting work and succeeding in the real world. However, since graduating I feel completely scattered and discouraged, and am constantly worrying that I’m doing everything wrong. Any advice? Does anyone else have this insecurity?

For context if interested, my website is juliekitzes.com and Instagram is @juliekitzes.

Thanks!

I look forward to pouring through these forums and getting to know everyone!

I've had a few art related injuries. One time I sliced my hand deep enough to warrant stitches because I was careless with a blade while cutting a mat. That one was really chalked up to being stupid though.

When I was in school one term I had back to back life drawing and life painting classes where I was essentially painting on an easel for 7 hours straight and would definitely get a lot of tightness and pain in my shoulder. It took being really mindful about my posture and how often I was taking breaks to get past it. I also modified my position from time to time and would abandon the easel and just paint in my lap.

Hashtags are essentially search terms so you want to find a sweetspot where you use something people might search like "inktober" "sketchbook" "[yourcity]artist" .etc, but not something so vague and overused that it will be drown out in the search results like "art" and "drawing". I'm by no means an expert but this is my understanding of it. There's also nothing wrong with using a couple really random obscure tags and seeing who else has that same random idea - it just won't lead to great visibility. I tend to hashtag my stuff a combination of things relating to the medium, subject matter, myself as an artist/my city/state, and then special interest groups that I've searched out beforehand. For instance if you're working in ink "inkedartgroup" and "inklouvre" are both moderatly popular tags to attract fellow artists. If you're illustrating a pitbull you could go with pitbull-centric tags like "pitbulllove" and "pittienation" to attract pitbull lovers that might enjoy your work. Always think of it as knowing your audience/who you want your audience to be, and what they might search for.

@zacharygephardt Ha ha, I love it

Here's my attempt

P.S. Sorry it's blowing up so big in the forum. Not sure how to fix it.

I like the look of the second one more as a composition but I appreciate the cuteness/humor of the first one more and would be inclined to pick that one.

@TessaW All good points to address. Thank you very much

@TwiggyT I totally get what you mean and it makes perfect sense. I'll be sure to address that in the revision. Thanks so much

I've received e-mails like this. Rarely do they turn into anything, but it doesn't strike me as particularly suspicious. Congrats on getting noticed.

Hi guys,

This is my first time trying to enter an SVS contest. Resurrection and ink? How could I resist. I'd love some critiques both on the narrative of the illustration and the technical aspects. I'm feeling like maybe I should do it over with a less messy inking style? Try to keep it cleaner and pay more attention to light sources? What do you think? Does the story come across clearly? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

@Paul-Burton Wow, thank you for so much for such a thorough answer to the question. I'm just curious, aside from something like copyright infringement, what are reasons an illustrator could be sued? I'm at a place where I really only make a few hundred dollars here and there so I feel like I can't justify spending money to establish an LLC right out of the gate, but I also want to be safe if there's a real risk.