Here's my entry. My 3 year old is really into giants right now, so I had to go with Jack and the Beanstalk.

Here's my middle grade take on the Wizard of Oz.

I thought I might not make it this month! Here's my final. There is some great stuff in this thread!

Here goes nothing ...

"She buried her face in the warm comfort of the bear's icy, wet fur. It was bound to be a slow ride, but an extraordinary journey."

@Laurel-Aylesworth said in JANUARY PROMPT "BIG":

Hi guys. Thanks again for those who gave me some great suggestions to help me out. Here's my final!

This turned out so good! I love it!

Here it is with some changes.

@Kristin-Wauson Oops! I was rushing to finish this before going on vacation and now that I'm home I noted that there are some stray marks that must have appeared after I rearranged some layers. Here is the updated version. Not sure if I should go back and delete the old one.

Oh man, there is some competition in this thread. It’s going to be so hard to choose. I think this is my favorite image that I’ve ever made.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. I was given the gift of a stomach virus over Christmas and haven’t drawn anything in a couple of weeks. Feels good to be back at it, but boy do I feel rusty. Here’s my idea/rough sketch for BIG and just because I’m not sure I have added enough details at this point to make it clear, that is a beanstalk the cat has climbed. Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

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What the heck?!? Some people got a copy? Mine said it shipped and then it said there was a problem and they refunded my money. I don't want my money back, I want my book!

How have you improved this year thanks to SVSLearn
COVID has made this year difficult and discouraging. My first book project went out on submission at end end of 2019 and and by the time publishers started responding in 2020, COVID was already starting to have a negative impact on the book industry. Any interest that was shown seemed to fizzle out as meetings were being canceled and employees were being furloughed. This year, I had a hard time finding the motivation and focus to create. It felt like ... what's the point? But SVS was like the old friend I could count on to keep me grounded. When I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, SVS was there with a new class or a skill or a challenge for me to work on. When felt isolated I could turn on the 3 Point Perspective Podcast and my friends Will, Jake and Lee were there to cheer me up. If not for SVS, I would have made a lot less work this year and if you don't make work, you can't improve.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece
This is a piece I made for Folktale Week based on a story from John Bauer's Swedish Folktales book. The style I'm working in now is something I've been developing for a long time, but Will Terry is the first person who introduced me to the idea of mixing traditional and digital in his mixed media class. I still use the texture downloads he provided for the class in almost all of my work, including this one. I keep thinking I should make my own, but I worry I won't like them as much. Don't tell anyone.

@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson this is interesting. I assumed I would get comments like this but I haven’t had a single one yet. I decided early that if people were going to be negative I would just delete their comments.

@Lee-White or anybody, do we know how to preorder Jake’s book now that the direct link to it in Amazon says it’s currently unavailable? I have already preordered it, but some friends are still looking to show support if there is still a way to order it.

Congratulations! It was only a matter of time before someone picked you up. Your work is beautiful and you have worked very hard!

Hey there! Im from Austin/dripping springs. I know a couple of people from Waco who participate in the Austin SCBWI chapter. Are you an SCBWI member?

I will definitely keep this in mind! Still deciding what Im going to do.

I used to make two calendars per year (for 10 years!) for my job when I was a graphic designer. It was very tedious and they are kind of expensive to make if you go the traditional route. They were printed on an old school printing press and I designed the layouts from scratch in InDesign, but I bet there are easier ways (hopefully cheaper ways) to do it now using automatic templates and stuff and print on demand. I think Kiri Leonard Ostergaard (not sure if I spelled that right) did a unicorn calendar a while back. You could google and see if she posted any info about how she did it. If I recall she did a kickstarter to pay for it.

@Phil-Cullen good advice! Its so easy to get wrapped up in something because everyone is doing it and then you forget to evaluate if it is actually moving you forward. I had the same experience with the 100 day project only I didn't make it nearly as far as you. One of my good illustrator friends did an amazing 100 day project a few years ago that i have always been so enamored with. She recommended doing one, but emphasized that she does NOT think you need to go all the way to 100, or post every day and she said she tried to repeat it and didn’t even make it to 10. I had no idea she had started one and quit. I think we are much less aware of other peoples failures than we are of our own. To me, she just seemed better than me. Like she had some magic inside of her that made her more capable of finishing a project like that. But everyone fails at stuff. Try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try, succeed, try, fail.

@Coreyartus you hit the nail right on the head. Thanks for weighing in and for cheering everyone on!