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 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.

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.

Hey SVS community,
My question is - does anyone else struggle with commitment issues as an artist. I have a plethora of ideas for books and projects I want to do, as well as having started on some of them, but inevitably I lose steam and seem to get distracted by a new shiny idea. It's not that I wasn't excited about the first idea - I'm still excited about all of them, I just get more excited about newer ideas. How do other illustrators (who aren't being paid and aren't being held accountable to someone - I'm talking personal projects) see a project from beginning to end?
I've thought about making myself a schedule and timeline and due date, but this whole concept seems beyond my executive function and I don't even know where to start so I tend to dive in impulsively which may be contributing to the problem.
Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

@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.

I think it's really nicely done. I like the composition and idea, your animals/figures are really cute and full of character, and I like the textures you've got going. My one suggestion would be to up the contrast a little (particularly darken some areas in the background like under the van and behind the animal characters) to make the firelight really pop. Additionally I might give the van a specific shadow or reduce the lighting on the bottom of the wheel or something because it's giving the impression that the van is sort of floating and not grounded.

Hey SVS community,
My question is - does anyone else struggle with commitment issues as an artist. I have a plethora of ideas for books and projects I want to do, as well as having started on some of them, but inevitably I lose steam and seem to get distracted by a new shiny idea. It's not that I wasn't excited about the first idea - I'm still excited about all of them, I just get more excited about newer ideas. How do other illustrators (who aren't being paid and aren't being held accountable to someone - I'm talking personal projects) see a project from beginning to end?
I've thought about making myself a schedule and timeline and due date, but this whole concept seems beyond my executive function and I don't even know where to start so I tend to dive in impulsively which may be contributing to the problem.
Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Hey SVS community,

I'm looking for a word to encompass the role of making illustrations to be printed on a variety of things outside of books/magazines. Think greeting cards, calendars, stationary, patterns to be printed on fabric, things being printed on home goods, etc.

I feel like there's a word to encompass this but I absolutely can't figure it out and I've been googling for hours to no avail so I'm turning to you guys. What would you call this industry of illustration?

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.