I learned a lesson on this one: Don't spend a week drawing fox studies for foxes that you're going to eliminate. Composition (story) comes first!

Thanks for doing these prompts and contests, guys! They really are testing my ideas and skills, and slowly, I'm building a process that has some consistency, even though the "medium" varies.

And I really hand it to all my fellow artists who came up with such creative takes on this prompt!

I just changed out my entry for a version with my name on it. I hope that's ok. It's exactly the same artwork but I keep forgetting to include my name!

Sometimes on those long car trips there was a bit too much togetherness. We did finally forgive one other, though .

Some types like to be alone. Others, not so much...

Autumn reflection

Just trying to produce more finished work so I can evaluate it and have it evaluated online. This is a waiter I saw in a (coffee) bar in a tiny mountain hamlet near Aosta, Italy. He looked fierce and eccentric and I thought he might make a good character. I am always torn, though, between whether to exaggerate for comic effect or whether to keep things relatively realistic.

I didn't have much time to be on the forums while I was taking the Backgrounds course, but now I'll try to start posting and commenting again ️.

The sole purpose of this piece was to see if I could finish something in a day, and to have fun. Yesterday I did have fun, and I thought I had finished it. But then it became evident that the legs were flipping (that is, you couldn't tell which one was in front and which in back). So today I spent most of the day redrawing it over and over until it worked, which was less fun. But I finished!

I'm very tempted to add a popsicle to that hand sticking out, but not today. Happy June!

Doing some before and after posts on Instagram after reworking old pieces. I'm going to post this one later today, though I may rework the shadow first. The original piece is rectangular and so I extended it:

Because it rains every day in November where I live, and even a little patch of color brings hope.

Thanks for inventing Slowvember, Lee!

I spent the last week doing a brick and mortar workshop at which we assembled a lot of traditional elements into a digital collage. Our assigned story was The Musicians of Bremen, and we had to choose an environment, so I choose the rural US in the early 20th century, probably because I had to choose quickly and it was so far away from where I really was.

I spent most of the week developing sketches of the characters, and I did a super quick storyboard, during which I was amused to realize that the donkey thought he was going to play the lute and told the dog to play the kettle drums, but it will never work because the donkey only has hooves! In my story, the donkey became a she, and the instruments changed as well, but during the process I got an image in my mind of when things are settled, they finally get to play, and the donkey is found out.

This JPEG loaded really green for some reason. It doesn't look that green on either my Cintiq nor on my computer monitor, so I don't know what to do about it! But the original has much more muted, almost taupe-ish greens throughout, including the donkey's skin and the drum.

I'm supposed to go see relatives the end of the week, but I really wanted to get this piece to a decent point first. I'm tired of not finishing things! I'll probably get to my relatives' house and realize I didn't pack any shoes or something...

This morning I cleaned up all my January contest "tracks in the snow" files before putting everything on an external hard drive. Honestly, I was shocked at how many changes my contest piece went through, and how late some of them happened. And yet, I think some of those last minute changes really helped.

So I thought I would write down some notes and share them with you guys. What you get out of them--or not-- will obviously depend on your needs at the moment. I'm especially working on trying to get stylistically consistent and solidify my process so I can increase productivity and up the quality of concepts and technique as well. And I would be interested in hearing how your processes work as well, because that's not something we talk about that often.

First, a huge thank you!!! Because you guys really gave great critiques, I used pretty much all of your ideas, and they made the final drawing so much better! I just hope I can eventually internalize them.

Secondly, for whatever reason, I had nine different iterations, as in photoshop files, of this piece from the time I chose my thumbnail to posting on the contest thread. I find this is about average. It would be nice if I could get the number down, but generally either I get confused by all the options or the file just gets too unwieldy and I lack the confidence to eliminate previous versions. Hmm...

A couple of things stayed pretty much the same from start to finish, and I kept them because they were fresh looking. One of them was the drawing of the dog. A lot of the drawing on the trees stayed the same as well, though I changed their positions.

In summary, what I learned so far:

-The boards really help!!!
-Always, always get the compositional problems worked out first!!!
-Flipping the piece horizontally helps. I have a tendency to develop a directional slant, and while I never eliminated it completely, flipping did help.
-I'm going to try something else in this style
-Reference really does help, as does working out drawing problems just after the thumbnail stage
-Making animal people is fun! I still prefer drawing realistic-ish children, but I'm also starting to loosen up a bit by trying all these different things.
-Perspective study really helps just after the thumbnail stage
-You really can produce something personally satisfying from a prompt that doesn't inspire you at first glance

If you want to see the contest threads, I think you can find two or three of them under my profile.

What have you been learning in the contests and in your recent WIPs? I'd be interested to hear!

Thanks for the details, @Lee-White! So what you're saying we need to be signed up for the new site, you mean to give our info like we have already done to receive the emails? I take it there is no actual enrollment yet, because I clicked the link and it was still asking for our info to receive updates.

And also, I understand that if we sign up, we can start working through everything on our own, and then the guided part comes later. I would like to do the guided version of the course. Right now I'm in the middle of a another rather intense course, but as I understand it, I still need to sign up right away even to do the guided version later?

Also, when you say the first go round will be limited, do you mean the drip version? And if we miss out (as I did with the office hours, and I have been regretting it ever since), will it come around again within the year? I do feel quite ready for this, and in fact would love to start next month, but just need to make sure I understand the logistics and that they are doable.

Thanks for any clarification!

@Lee-White Thanks! I appreciate that.

I received an email from Jake saying that the first six free videos would be released yesterday. Maybe it hasn't happened yet, but the link in the email just goes to site with the sign up window.

@lizardillo Hmm, that's interesting because she mentioned educational for me. But I would really be more interested in storytelling. She also said that she wasn't really a children's lit person. But it was still good to get another opinion!

@Lee-White Thanks for letting me know about this, Lee! In fact, I was on the verge of writing you guys an email because I wondered what had happened to all those options mentioned about a year ago. I have really been needing them this year! Right now I am doing a mentorship with Giuseppe Castellano, but I am definitely interested in the Children's Book Pro live option, and it's just a matter of how much stuff I can do at once. I feel like I'm almost there but the last steps require custom advice.

So, @lizardillo, how did your critique with Inky Goodness go? I just had mine today. I thought it was useful, if for no other reason than to get me used to talking to people who are evaluating my work. She actually encouraged me to start an email dialogue with publishers. The thing that surprised me the most, though, is that she asked me if I wrote my own stories, because there was obviously storytelling ability in my images. Inside, I did a silent cheer, because I do want to tell stories, but didn't realize it was coming through!

Thanks for this episode! I have had to learn how to turn things down recently because I participated in the SCBWI portfolio showcase, launched a website, and suddenly had a lot of self-published author offers. While a couple looked decent, the majority did not. I'm not entirely against self-published books, but I actually think that, as a beginner, I need an art director, and there's also the whole opportunity cost issue.

I love your ideas of starting with a short story or magazine piece to dip your toe in narrative sequencing. Great tip!

Also, Hugo Cabret and The Arrival!!

Now from the sublime to the ridiculous-- @Lee-White, you started this!--I have a whole concept called bathroom tourism. Turkish toilets and unisex facilities not withstanding, bathrooms in Europe can be very stylish, and if I'm in a public place, sometimes I take photos. Favorite touches include a glowing plastic sink (it had a light source inside it somewhere), industrial tubes for the hand driers, black toilet paper that matched the walls, all kinds of shimmery tile and modern fixture shapes, and exposed brick walls. When I travel back to the US, the contrast between the sinks at Schiphol or Charles de Gaulle (those flat sinks that elegantly drain in the back!) and those at Hartsfield-Jackson or LaGuardia is just disappointing.

Anyway, here's how one restaurant in my town handled the fact that knowing where to flush can be a bit confusing:

One day, when women architects rule the world, there will be much more toilet availability. Any woman who has ever tried to make an intermission bathroom run at a concert venue will understand how urgent this issue is and how inadequately it is addressed. Now, back to drawing!

@lizardillo In the mentorship, Giuseppe has you start new work, so once you're ready that too can add to your new portfolio.

Good luck with your evaluation as well!

@lizardillo Thanks! Just signed up for next Wednesday!

BTW, I have started meeting with Giuseppe Castellano as well (two sessions so far) and I really like working with him.

Just wanted to say that I can't wait for this, live version!