@Chip-Valecek So many great entries!!! good luck everyone and thank you for your help!

@Chip-Valecek Out of time!! Thanks for all of the help everyone! So many great entries!

"and there stepped from behind the large rocks the strangest man the travelers had ever seen. He was quite short and stout, standing no more than three feet high and had a big, oversized head, which was smooth on the top and as flat as a hammer. The head was supported by a thick, long, fat neck full of many layers of wrinkles. But the body had no arms at all, not even stubs."

Still working on Oz portrait redo's when i can - the Hammer-Head has come a long way from the original sketch but you can still see the resemblance - there have been a few iterations before this but i think i have finally got something worth keeping with this one - i feel like this may be a new best for me - maybe work on the scarecrow next..thanks for looking!

A bunch left to do but i'm worried i will miss the deadline if i don't post now(if i get a chance before midnight i'll tweak a few things) - Thank you so much to everyone who helped me along the way!! " finished not perfect" as someone said earlier - good luck everyone

Calling the new Dorothy done - i am so glad i restarted her - Thank you all for your help! I appreciate All of the feedback i received, it has made it a better piece for sure!

I made it Finished not perfect for sure - so many great pieces here!!

Out of time Good luck everyone! so many great pieces here

so much detail lost.....

Yup...another Wizard of Oz piece ... i'm getting there though This is a work in progress - this one really gave me trouble at first but i finally hit on this composition this weekend and i'm liking it - i composed it so that they are facing to left in contrast to most of the other Oz pieces - my idea is that the crow is noticing Dorothy and crew coming toward the trees - curious if the composition is working for folks? Still lots of work to do - any feedback always appreciated

@lee-white - I think these might be the two best for me

So many incredible mermaid pieces so far!! Here is what i've come up with - calling it finished not perfect

@Meg-Clayburn Toppi… Collected volumes 1 through 5. Sergio Toppi’s line work is truly masterful and unique.

@Melissa-Bailey-0 Number one for me. I think it is the eyes and eyebrows that nail your key words. I took a minute to cut and past the eyes and eyebrows from number one onto the other three and it gave them all the bright-eyed and energetic vibe that one seems to have. I do like the head shape of one too…but they are all very good really

@Jeremy-Ross These are really good!!

@Laurel-Aylesworth-0 i just looked at the hashtag thread on twitter.... I feel much further behind the curve than i did a minute ago...super amazing work!!

@Asyas_illos Love the hair! The piece does look better to me but my thoughts were just in case it was a 2 page spread (i use procreate too - the faux gutter is just a transparent layer with a straight technical pen line down the middle with a couple quick soft airbrush passes over it..takes just a minute to make)

@Asyas_illos this is looking great - the one thing I am wondering is if this is a 2 page spread? I made a mock gutter layer for a project I’m working on - I’ve been putting it on my top layer when sorting out a composition. I applied it to your painting and to me It looks like it might be good to scoot the sand castle/buried parent over a bit if it is a 2 page spread.... but maybe it is not a 2 page spread

@Kevin-Treaccar I forgot about the comps needing to be recent. There were also gentle admonitions to be humble in your comps.. saying that your work will be the next Harry Potter or something of that nature was the example used as something to be avoided.

@HeatherBouteneff Hello Heather. What i am remembering from an incredible Storytellers Academy class titled "Submission Ready" is that including comps is super important." including something like "My book is written for children x years old who enjoy, comp title by x author, comp title by x author , and comp title by x author" is what i am remembering. The class was taught by two longtime editors from Chronicle Books. If i remember correctly, including comps shows that you understand the process and will give a hint that you might be easy to work with too. Also Editors have to pitch the books that they are interested in acquiring to other people... so having accurate comps for them is a very good start. I think i recall that including what the affect on the reader is is also something worth including in a pitch. Your pitch sounds awesome! I would read this book for sure!

@Toony-Days What is the whatness of a squirrel seems like it should be the first step in designing a squirrel - i think for any animal that there are universal ideas of what makes it unique and recognizable - incorporating these things into whatever you do seem like it would be important. I think making a visual, mental, or written list would be a good starting point...and i'm sure iv'e seen this concept in a class or two on svs and schoolism....and artschool online too maybe? anyways... My first paragraph above was saying to apply the aesthetic rules you've mentioned to the whole character and then judge its wholeness. If i look at Sandy from Spongebob she does not look very squirrelly to me... her tail tells me that she is a squirrel though.. also i do not feel that the design of her head is more successful than your drawings above... i actually love talking about aesthetics ...but i am not very experienced with character design... you are way ahead of me ..so feel free to ignore my prattling

@Toony-Days Hmmm... i feel like if we zoomed into the best composition in the world and the most successfully designed character that it would no longer read as being as being successful compositionally in the classic sense. I am thinking you could apply your small, medium, large, concept, and i think you are mentioning unity with variety in there too, to the whole drawing of the squirrel.. not just the head alone... i'm thinking the head does not need to follow All of the principles you mention. So maybe zoom out a bit before trying to get the composition to follow the rules.

I think in character design for a squirrel you would want to list the things that make a squirrel a squirrel to us... what is the squirrelness of the object. For me it is an egg shaped head with the small muzzle and that blackish shiny eye with the white around them (probably not universal)that makes a squirrel a squirrel. These would be the landmarks to work off for me i think ... just like with a successful abstract figure sculpture.. if you get the landmarks right it will really hold together whatever crazy abstractions you want to explore.