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!

I'll keep an eye out! It's true that most of the ones I see on Instagram are character prompts. I did some backgrounds for Childhood Week, though.

Aside from style issues, I just listened to the SCBWI conference and many of the editors/ADs said they weren't getting their postcards at the moment anyway because of the pandemic, so to send emails. Just a thought to add to the mix...

The wolf is really cute though! I don't think there's anything unprofessional about it at all! In fact, the animal pieces are my favorites in your portfolio. I think these could sell somewhere! Have you thought about a shop?

I feel the same way. Until that part of the curriculum comes out, how about watching the perspective course and developing an interior? Then you could set characters inside it. That might seem like an intimidating way to start, but you could imagine a scene in a room and then work it out from a floor plan sketch (set design) on up, kind of like a film. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I find that if I don't get some idea of the room/floor plan/perspective, I have a hard time deciding on the angle/what to include, etc.

Of course, landscapes are a different matter, so maybe you could go with that first!

This was a particularly helpful session! I was so engaged that I stayed up past midnight (that is, 4pm MDT) writing notes on the process. Plus, with the @davidhohn and @Lee-White team it was sort of like being back in Turbocharge Your Creativity, and that's a pleasant memory. I can't wait to watch the complete book illustration class!

This is such a great topic, @Carlianne! I can see how you would tend to lose sight of your purpose when you look at art as a job. I think that's one reason Will, Jake and Lee sometimes talk about the pros and cons of having a non-art related day job. But I also realize that you are in a particular season of life right now, with small children. And hey, don't forget the pandemic!

When I think about why I make art, some of the following come to mind, not necessarily in this order:

It comes naturally and it's not like, say, picking up the violin and expecting to suddenly play the Sibelius Concerto. I've put in my 10,000 drawing hours, studied art, and while I feel like a relative beginner, it's still a go-to for me. And when I walk down the street, I people watch. I see color in the shadows.

On the other hand, It's a constant challenge with infinite room for growth. So many possibilities! And I love looking at other people's work!

If you do it well, it moves people. You can tell stories with it. If done well, my work can become part of a child's life, like it was for me a child. I love the idea of that link, of passing on the gift.

And finally, about 7 years ago I realized I really needed something that depended primarily on my own initiative. I needed something of my own. I hadn't drawn regularly in years, so it was a gradual process that finally came into focus with illustration, and then slowly developing a style. But it was important to re-start the journey, not as a precocious kid this time, but as a mature person with a personal POV.

I do hope to make enough money to live on at this some day, but I realize that at my age it's a long shot. That's okay, because of the paragraph above. But I'm going to try!

It probably wouldn't hurt to keep a journal! Or do we do better thinking in pictures? A very personal, no-holds-barred sketchbook, maybe?

Yes, this was certainly a well-deserved recognition. I am so happy for you, Xin! I think your career is about to take off in a big way! And I hope you were able to sleep late today .

And yes, SVS as a whole looked good in the showcase. I think we're doing something right here!

SVSers, you must be doing something right, because we're looking pretty good as a group in the SCBWI Portfolio showcase! Your hard work is paying off! Also, thank you, @Lee-White @Jake-Parker @Will-Terry and all you other SVS teachers and members, for all the critique arenas, classes, forum critiques, and the emphasis on readable images and storytelling .

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:

Oh fun! Please add me in! I'm a bit ahead of the time zone, so I'll be watching some things after the fact, but I'll participate when I can.

My Instagram is in my signature link. Thank you for taking this initiative!

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thanks! For now I have been working on the witch scene (and revising portfolio pieces) in order to let this one incubate, but I'll get back to it. My reason for leaning away from this one at the moment is that it's not quite the right moment in the story. But who knows? I do like that as a thumbnail and maybe I could eventually do more then one!