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!

@Juli I like the colours! But I think it's overall a bit too dark now. If you're using Photoshop, I would try doing a quick levels adjustment while you have the black and white filter one just to try and get a little more light in key areas.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan Congrats!

Looks great! Love the composition, there's so much movement! And I think all of your new elements/characters tell the story perfectly

I think it's successful. I looked at the mice first and the firecrackers second but the concept is still clear. It might be interesting to play with different colours for the border/background around. You have a lot of midtone values so maybe think about a white or black border, or even a bright colour to match the energy of your piece

@CosmoglotJay If you like the idea of working on children's books, I'd say it's worth pursuing. Figure out what attracts you to drawing landscapes and try to apply that to characters and story elements if possible. I just completely redid my children's book portfolio in a new style and it's difficult at first if you're not as good at the new thing (ex drawing characters) as you are at what you normally do (in your case landscapes). If you've already got a good foundation, I would say to try the character design and children's book courses on SVS and just try to play around with drawing stuff in that vein, even if it's not your best work right away. A good place to start is with a story or character you're already passionate about, but don't worry if it doesn't immediately look how you pictured. I've struggled a lot in the past with shying away from certain subject matter that I felt I wasn't good at drawing, but the only way to get better is to practice That being said, it's also fine to just draw landscapes if that's what makes you happy!

I personally recommend Photoshop and a small Wacom tablet to start. While the Adobe subscription is expensive, it's much easier to try out for a bit compared to investing in an iPad Pro (there are also cracked versions of PS that you might be able to find for free). That being said, I have heard good things about Procreate and that's it's more intuitive at the beginning, but there are so many Photoshop tutorials online that I don't think it's too hard to learn.

But the biggest reason to go with Photoshop is really that it's the industry standard. If you're ever planning to get an in-house art job at a company, they'd be using Adobe programs and a lot of people you're working with in a freelance setting might also prefer you to just send them the full layered Photoshop file.

If it's just for you to use then you're probably fine either way and it depends on your personal preference/style of working

I personally think D has the most interesting angle but I also like the composition of B, even though it's a bit more static

@anya-macleod The perspective of the table might be a little off but I don't find it distracts too much, especially for a children's book illustration. It's hard to get right when the table isn't at the same angle as the floor/shelves. I think if you want to fix it, we would maybe just see a bit more of the top of the table and less from the side, and if you want to make the girl more grounded as @Braden-Hallett suggests, I would just add a cast shadow on the floor. Hope this helps! She looks cute

@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

@Geoffrey-Gordon Just curious, but what advice do you think is off the mark?

Submitting this cover again and another illustration from the story

I really like this style and I think it definitely looks professional. The fact that you think it's a different style from everything else you've seen is a good thing It makes you stand out!

I think you can try some little tweaks like everyone else suggested but other than that, they can definitely be portfolio pieces.