I think a few others and I had similar ideas I love seeing everyone's submissions, there are so many creative ideas!

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My name is Kali and I recently graduated from university with a degree in graphic design. I work as a full-time graphic designer, but I also have an interest in illustrating children's books or comics. In 2020, I'm hoping to improve my illustration by introducing more variety into my illustrations and improve upon weaker areas in my portfolio (I lack environments in a lot of my work, both interior and outdoors).

I'm looking forward to also meeting other illustrators as well. The last online art community that I recall being active in was DeviantArt pre-2010, so it's been quite awhile. Of course Instagram and Twitter exist, but it isn't quite the same as having a place solely for art.

Some of my work is below. I apologize if they end up being absolutely huge on-screen, I didn't exactly size them for web as I should have!

Some recent work! I'm a new student trying to learn more about illustrating for children's literature.

I think that I am just about done here... scared to call it finished until the end of January lol! Definitely not perfect but possibly one of my best lighting pieces so far (in my opinion, anyway)

Hey all! I started working on the January prompt. After sketching a few different sketches with different perspectives, I decided to go with the one here. That being said, I’m open to changing this one to make it more interesting, as maybe it’s a little boring as-is?

I’ve seen so many awesome WIP so far for this prompt. I’m so excited to see everyone’s finished pieces!

I started over... kinda. I wasn’t liking how it was turning out, so I went in and created some more refined Lineart. Still working on it! Definitely taking the longest out of any piece I’ve ever done, but something about it makes it mean a lot to me.

Hey all! I feel like I’m so behind on the February contest! I’ve been swamped with a large project on top of working full-time, so I’m excited to finally work on personal work. I’ve realized that I don’t have many pieces featuring kids nor large groups in my portfolio so I wanted to include a large group of kids in this piece. I played around with catching fireflies, ghost-hunting, and campfire stories, but I’m thinking that I’m going to go with treehouses! As a kid I always thought that treehouses were so cool, but never knew anybody with one. I guess I’ll have to settle with just drawing them

They’re meant to be having some large slumber party in their treehouses, to match the theme of “nightfall”. As the sun sets and the moon rises, their party assembles!

Along the strings I’d like to have the kids transporting items to each other, but haven’t really drawn it in yet. I’m excited about getting a chance to practice my perspective and painting different depths of fields!

Another update!! My Apple Pencil died during my lunch break

Kind of a silly question, perhaps! I guess this is similar to the anxiety of a blank canvas, but thumbnailing has been the hardest part of the process for me as of late. When I watch lessons about thumbnailing, people often describe it as being the most laid-back and fun part of the drawing since it's just doodling and coming up with new ideas.

I often have felt the opposite, whether it be from not having enough ideas, having too many and being unable to choose the best one, realizing that your best thumbnail doesn't work for the finished illustration, or even just being too impatient and REALLY wanting to start working on the illustration! As a result, I feel that my compositions have been uncreative and bland as of late and that I really need to work on building that creative muscle a bit more.

To be honest, I think the cure is probably just more thumbnailing and getting used to it. I'm just wondering if I'm not alone in this experience!

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Welcome to the forums, Chris! Your sketch looks wonderful so far, you've incorporated a lot of interesting shapes and the composition is great!

@chrisaakins I'm too addicted to making everything warm... maybe I just don't like cool colors but they're probably important to have in a portfolio I'll try toning things down a little. Thank you!!

@jdubz Thank you! Trying to do my best

I think it's important to not layer on top of anything that is completely black and white since you'll lose out on some saturation and you may come across a "dull-ness", which I think is what you're experiencing. Before coloring the line art, I changed the black and white values to have some color on them using a blending mode, and then painted on top of that. I hope that helps!

I personally don't like to have a black line art by the time I color just because it can be a bit harsh too, depending on the style you are working in!

I feel like now that I’ve added color it isn’t working

Adding in color! It’s getting there.

@Braden-Hallett I always look forward to seeing the new characters as you add them!! Each one is so dynamic. Really great work on these!

@Katie-Kordesh Thank you

@neschof Thank you so much! I'm getting nervous about timing since February is a short month!! However, I am determined!

Another update!! My Apple Pencil died during my lunch break