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...

@Lee-White I am still a bit confused about how this course works, especially in relation to the future, guided version of the class, and because there has been so much talk about limited spaces. (I'm still smarting a bit about not being able to participate in office hours last year because I didn't sign up right away, thinking there would be future go rounds for which I would be more prepared.)

The preview videos have done a good job of hinting at the content. Many of us are ready for it. Great!

Questions:

1. As I understand it, once you buy this class, it's yours. Thus we would be able to participate in a future guided session even if we buy it now when this guidance is not available? (And I'm assuming this guided part would at a proportional discount for those who would have already bought the class as compared to those who haven't.)

2. Like many people, I am signed up at the site, but how limited is "limited" enrollment? It sounds like it night not accommodate everyone who has preregistered. If we miss out, when will the next go round be?

3. Will the guided sessions be held this summer, also for ten weeks? Will the enrollment be similar to the live classes you used to have, i.e., about 15 students?

You guys have obviously done a great job of generating interest and reiterating the limited availability, but it seems to have reached the point where the long-time SVSers who are your primary target audience are becoming anxious and may compete excessively against each other, which isn't so desirable for community's sake. More information about future sessions and enrollment numbers might help us to plan better and thus not create a situation in which people who don't need the course just yet, but might be ready for it in a few months, trample over one another like it's some kind of mega Black Friday sale. I am exaggerating, of course, but you get the idea! Also, some of us are semi-professionals by now (or professionals in other fields) and we would like to plan how and when we can perhaps fit the course (especially the live version) into our busy schedules. This becomes even harder if we don't know whether there will be space for us to enroll.

SVS has been a huge part of my growth as an illustrator. You guys do such a great job of developing content and having continuing events such as Critique Arena and Jump into the Studio (I have particularly loved the Jump sessions!). The one area where I get a bit tripped up sometimes is not knowing what direction SVS is taking in enough detail to plan ahead. What is going on with the live classes on SVS (not the new site), the illustration track, office hours and/or portfolio reviews? We know you guys are busy and we truly appreciate the new offerings, but a bit more info on all the changes of course we only see after the fact would be very helpful, especially to long-term subscribers.

@Lisa-Clark Thank you, Lisa! I love the dogs in Narnia too--they are so doggy!

@davidhohn Thanks for your detailed reply! I feel a little more relaxed knowing that I didn't do fan art in any strict sense. Maybe I was thinking about the fact that my Lucy has a green cardigan and a bobbed haircut combed over into a barrette on one side, like Lucy in the movie. And my Susan has longer hair like the Susan in the movie. But the green was because I didn't want any one of the children's clothing to stick out too much my compositions, and those hairstyles were just very common at that time. I don't think my faces resemble those of the actors very much.

Now here's where the real irony kicks in. My husband is an IP attorney! But he is a patent attorney who now works more in international client relations, so like a typical attorney he doesn't want to give an opinion on my copyright questions .

I did three illustrations for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and posted the last one on my Instagram last week. A Narnia fan page had picked up the series with the first piece, but somehow this last one just exploded! (By my modest standards, at least.) I suddenly have a lot of new followers, many of whom are obviously Narnia fans and who post imagery from the movies.

It hadn't even occurred to me that I was doing fan art! I was just looking for a fun text to reimagine. I have liked the Narnia series since I was a kid, long before the movies came out. When I did my own illustrations I went out of the way to read the text carefully and not take my imagery either from the movies or from Pauline Baynes's lovely original illustrations. Any apparent similarity is either from the text or from my study of 1940s evacuee clothing.

So I guess I fall into Lee's second category. Let's just hope the film producers or Douglas Gresham don't decide it's theirs! I just wanted something to show consistency in my portfolio. But would it be legal to sell prints if someone asked?

@xin-li Whoa! That is one cool hack!

@xin-li I didn't even know you could post on IG from your desktop!

I agree that covering the entire gamut of illustrated books is a good idea. But since this is the only place I know of to learn how to illustrate books, I hope that remains the main focus of the art itself. But other marketing ideas to help create revenue streams never hurt!

About "what I wish I had known," I can't say, because I knew so little about book illustration per se, and the site has changed so much since I first subscribed. But I'd say that the main thing I have learned is how to focus on storytelling, as I was in a different area of art before where that wasn't the emphasis.

I was Googling the exact same thing yesterday! Twitter seems to be important if you want to be in touch with the publishing industry, and it's important for writers. But it also seems like a bit of a landmine, and the formatting is different from Instagram. If I find anything good, I'll let you know!

Hi @Lisa-F! I am really enjoying the Children's Book Pro course, and I have always known that I wanted to do the guided version as well when it comes out. Here's my dilemma:

I am behind in the current CBPro cycle because I was already 4 weeks into another intensive 6 week course when it started. I bought the CB Pro course anyway, partly because I didn't know when it would become available again, and partly because I knew it would be helpful with the other course, which I want to go back to this fall. But if I go back to the first course in September, and then the guided version comes out, I am back in the same difficulty as before--there's no way to do both justice! (I am always a bit slow anyway, but I'm working on it!)

I have always suspected that Children's Book Pro was going to take me two passes, so doing it twice is not a problem at all. But I really would like to be able to plan how to budget my time this fall so that I don't get behind again.

So, can you give us any updates? Thank you!

I don't know these books either, but I'm all for another breakdown! I do like Marla Frazee. I always wanted to live in the house that the Seven Silly Eaters lived in!

This was one of the best sessions yet! I took five pages of notes and feel turbocharged, if a bit sleep-deprived! And it fits in so well with the Children's Book Pro class. Thanks, @davidhohn!