Using this one to experiment with style a little bit
It's very long so you might have to click to see the whole thing

So I got carried away and did this in a day...

Adding another book cover illustration to my portfolio.

Hey everyone! Just joined and this is my first time posting. Going to try and do the challenge every month

Submitting this cover again and another illustration from the story

Hey! New student for the new year Here are some of my recent portfolio pieces

It depends on where you want your focal point to be. I would keep some light on both of them, so maybe the lighter background, but make sure either your background or your foreground girl is brighter than the other, to make one stand out

@Johan-Schneider Looks cute! Love the limited colour palette.

I agree that the snail doesn't stand out and I didn't notice it at first. I don't know if there's more of a story behind the characters but if not, I think you can get rid of the snail altogether. If he's essential, then put more of a focus on him.

Also (and I'm constantly guilty of this too), your composition is very centered. It's not necessarily a bad thing but you can try moving stuff around and see if it makes the overall image more interesting. Like having the character and fire a little closer to the bottom right corner and the moon more in the top left to balance.

The texture is nice too, you can even add a paper texture as well if you want to make it look less vector

@Coley I actually haven't joined either but I probably will, especially if I'm going, since it adds a discount to the conference price

@carlianne super cute!

@miranda-hoover Cool to see the final product. Love how this one turned out!

@Brad-Newman Thanks!

@Bricz-Art Thank you!

@Eric-Droke Thanks!

@MirkaH I really like the sketchiness of the lines And the composition of the spread works really well too

Congatulations!

@Maiia Love the colours!

@Kumica-Truong-0 Hi, I think a lot of people who aren't in this industry tend to view art as just a hobby that we love doing (which it certainly can be) and as something easy and quick for us to do (which it usually isn't). So they often expect people to work for free or for exposure or for the love of it. I think the best way to explain it to them is that illustration is a skill and a job like any other. Even if you love to bake cakes, you can't open a bakery and give away cakes for free, and no one would expect you to! People don't expect free haircuts for the "exposure" that they're going to give the hairdresser. I think just explaining it like that shows people how ridiculous and disrespectful it is to ask for free work, because I genuinely think a lot of people just don't get it.

Doing a one off free illustration for a good cause is great but you can't let people take advantage of you. If she wants a full colouring book that she's planning to sell and has enough of a following that she can make good money on it, she can definitely afford to pay you! And if she won't, then it's not worth it. I did do my first children's book for very little money and gave away the copyright because I knew I couldn't use those images for anything else, and I was desperate for any published gig at that point but I wouldn't do it again.

Once you get past the random odd jobs stage and start getting "real" clients/working with actual art directors (which I'm finally just starting to do), they tend to understand the actual value of illustration and copyright and pay accordingly. It just takes some time and a few bad jobs to get there lol

@Annabishop super cute!

I love the style! Super cute characters and composition. I think people have already mentioned the only thing I would change, which is to maybe show a bit of Clyde's snout to show that he's an alligator, but I also like just the eyes peeking in so I'm torn. Definitely worth trying to see how it looks though. A TINY bit more of a snout would probably keep that balance