My iPad pro is on the way! I just ordered it and it will take a few weeks. I got the 12.9 inch, 256 storage and a pencil. It came with free airpods because I'm using it for SVS art classes. It'll be quite the change from a ball point pen and typing paper. Although, I have to admit, that worked just fine for my character design thumbnails this morning. Cheers!

This looks better

Hello Everyone. New kid here. I'm a writer and joined SVS to learn illustration. I have a farm in Wisconsin. Although farming takes a broad knowledge of science and certain skills, the day to day motions of moving feed into one end of an animal and out the other is not always as intellectually stimulating as one might think. As a result, I do a lot of daydreaming while I work. There's a river of words flowing through my head. It never stops and I anthropomorphize everything. So I have a stack of stories based on my goats and my skid steer, Skiddy. I've been working the lessons and exploring the site. I'm really excited to see everyone's work and learning a lot from it already. The art critiques have been, literally, eye opening. I feel blessed to be surrounded by so much talent. Cheers!

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2021/04/08/water-protector-indigenous-illustrator-wins-caldecott-medal-for-childrens-book/

I'm self employed renting out giant goat herds to eat weeds and brush. Owning a farm and animals is more than full time. There is always something that needs fixing, feeding, cleaning, training or veterinary care. There is always marketing and logistic planning. So I learned that whatever I don't finish today, it will be there for me tomorrow. Taking time to write and draw is my entertainment, my reward. I feel the weight of the farm lifting off me when I'm creating something. Unless I'm dealing with customers or something will die, I find I can just split up what I have to do and read, write, draw or dream in between chores. The nice thing about some chores is that my hands can do one thing and my mind can be elsewhere, working on stories.

American artist Richard Schmid passed away last Sunday, at 86, with his family around him. He has been mentioned by SVS instructors.

My sister, Jennifer Hunter, is a fine artist and was friends with Richard Schmid. I was privileged to attend a party at his house (the same day I had foot surgery, sporting a new cast and happily numbed on morphine), and got to see his paintings in person.

Jenny spoke highly of him. He was a great artist and a nice man.

https://www.richardschmid.com/Articles.asp?ID=254

@RachelArmington Your post reminds me, when I was a kid, only the rich kids had lunch boxes. The rest of us brown bagged it and no store bought treats either. Mom baked goodies for us. One day, out of nowhere, Mom drew a cartoon fish on my bag. She didn't know but I ripped it off the bag and kept it for years. Thanks for sparking that wonderful memory for me. Cheers!

My first time posting a picture. Weeeeee! I was having some technical difficulty with getting the photo online and was not able to access any color balance so it's a bit on the blue side. It's color pencil. Cheers!

I'm having a hard time getting this reduced to a size that is big enough to see but small enough to upload.

It seems to have disappeared

While a critique on the homework for classes would be great, it would not be as useful as a critique on a full illustration or character design. I cold see spending $250 a couple times a year on pieces that really matter but it would not be affordable for every homework piece. A critique on a couple illustrations and the book dummy from the CBPro course would be worth it and amazing.

Clarify - embed the beam in the top of the wall

Chimney pipe could be bent up like they needed to use whatever pipe they could find instead of looking new,

The perspective on the left side - the shelves and dishes especially, is a tad off. The third beam on the left side needs to be removed. It's clumsy, arguing with the top of the shelves. It's also structurally unsound as that beam would likely be in the top of the wall - also too close to the chimney pipe. Most chimney pipes bend to go through a wall not a ceiling. Embed it in the top of the wall if you want to keep it. Then give the chimney pipe a clean line through the ceiling. It will look better.

Move the canter beam a tad to the left. This will give the lantern a better vertical line to the floor too.

Lose the table between the shelves and stove. It's bridging he space between the two. You could put something smaller there.

Put more detail in the rug as it in in the foreground - looks too flat.

Distinguish the value or color between the walls and ceiling. You can use the light and shadows cast by the lantern to do this.

The glasses on the table look unfinished. Glass will bend light and change the look of things seen through it. A tiny detail that can make a big difference. Ceramic or tin cups might be more appropriate for the story.

Log ends are too bright - ad wood grain and tone them down so they stay in the background whee they belong.

Hope this helps.

To make the images interesting, consider the perspective of a child. Looking up at a combine or large tractor, it would look like a 5 story building to a small child.

UCLA is a major US university - part of the University of California system. I don't know anything about their writing courses but whatever you do, you'll need experienced people to read your work and give you feedback. There are some Youtube videos that can help like ones posted by people from Pixar. I wrote for Disney Animation when I was in college and would be happy to look at your stories for free.

I love the courses even though they don't all apply to my goals. Some courses introduced new goals for me as well. On Procreate - Will's course is using an older version of the program. I got mine last October and it does not have the same controls or even the same way to size a canvas. It might be nice for Will do do an updated version.

Never mind. I found it. This is goat migration season and I'm on the road most of the time so I only had a few minutes to check things out before. . I'm home for the night and compared things to the usual SVS and found that that had changed too. Used to be, I'd open a lesson with a list of videos on the left. Now I have to open a new window to find the list and can't have a video and the list open at the same time.

The course program doesn't give me any options. I can only watch a video once and click complete. Then it's gone and there is no way for me to see it again, unlike the other SVS courses where I can pick what videos I want to watch and watch them multiple times. So, if i click through the course videos to join the zoom meeting, I can't go back and watch the videos.

Week one worked okay but week two did not.