Posts made by Melissa Bailey 0

@chrisaakins congratulations! Good for you!

@Chip-Valecek aww! They're so posh! Can you keep them looking all nice and pretty? My mini prefers to be scruffy.

@alicepelot your style is beautiful! Hope that you continue working traditionally. If it helps, I prefer traditional media as well! Just didn’t have time this month so figured digital was better than not submitting.

@Isabel-Reyes-Feeney love your style! So much movement and personality in your lines. ️

@Binski love your style and the warm color palette you chose!

@Valerie-Light great edits! This is a much stronger image. Well done!

@Valerie-Light Have you illustrated a children's book before? Do you have confidence in your skills to be able to do so if hired by a publisher right now?

If you're questioning whether you're good enough or ready, why not illustrate a book? Give yourself a mock illustration job with a deadline -- see what it's like to go from start to finish illustrating a book. Or ask someone you know to be your "client" -- illustrate their "book" to see what it's like working in a situation where you're not the artistic "boss". Or you can bid on jobs on a crowdsourcing site to get some experience under your belt. (Word of caution from someone who started out freelancing on a crowdsourcing site: carefully weigh the pros and cons before jumping in.)

If you've never illustrated a book from start to finish, if you're not familiar with the entire process, how can you really know if you're ready or if this is the path for you? It's one of those situations where you won't know until you do it.

Anyway, that's what I would do in a similar situation. The first book I ever illustrated was for a client, and looking back, I wish I'd had more experience, knew what I was doing, knew what to expect. It would've made that job MUCH easier and much more rewarding, in every sense of the word!

@miranda-hoover

What a great story! Love it! Really like this limited, cohesive palette.

@holleywilliamson digging those textures! Love your color palette. Really nice stylized composition. ️

@chrisaakins thanks so much!

@neschof this is great! So funny!

@Binski congratulations! Great style!

@alicepelot thanks! ️

That would be so much fun, wouldn’t it? And soooo cozy!

@Valerie-Light you've got so much flair in this piece! Your yeti is really enthusiastic about her spaghetti!

As you're refining this spot, consider what you really need to tell the story. If you don't need an element for the story, edit it out. Do you need things hanging from the ceiling to tell the story? Do you need shelves? Do you need a window? Do you even need a circle background?

For me (and this is just one opinion), your piece would be stronger without these elements. They draw attention away from your happy yeti. The wafting aroma gets lost because it's competing for attention with the detail behind it. It even took me a minute to see the top-secret yeti spaghetti recipe, which is a fun little detail that should stay in.

If your yeti needs a background color to stand out because she's so light, consider a lighter background in an interesting, organic shape. Perhaps mimicking the movement of the aroma? That might add more dynamism to the composition.

So many ways you can go with this! Looking forward to seeing your finished entry!

@Nyrryl-Cadiz my reasons are the same as yours, and I'm also running into the same problems.

After 11 years of illustrating for clients, I found that I didn't have time to work on my own projects. So this year I'm trying to set aside time to do personal work. And I have found, like you, that it resonates more with people and I tend to like it more.

But, being a glass-half-full girl, I figure that this is a good problem to have. I can work from home and do what I love for a living!

@mollylgm you're welcome! Looking forward to seeing how you solve the composition puzzle in this piece!

@HeatherBouteneff you're so welcome!

You've got a good idea, redoing illustrations where you like the concept but don't work in that style anymore. Revisiting old work can be such a rewarding experience, to see how you've grown as an artist.

As far as style goes, you'll be a much happier illustrator if you stick to the style(s) you prefer to work in. When I first started freelancing, I thought I had to be a chameleon and work in the style my client demanded. But just because I could mimic styles didn't mean I should. My clients were happy, but my work lacked personality and emotion, and I could've delivered MUCH better work if I would've stuck to my strengths & my style(s). Now, I do work in two different styles, but I'm no longer a chameleon, and it's made my work stronger and my clients even happier.

Same goes with subjects you show in your portfolio. It's best not to show work in your portfolio that you don't want to illustrate, even if it happens to be your strongest piece. Someone will see it and hire you to illustrate that subject. For example, I used to have a cute little cat spot in my portfolio, but I don't necessarily like drawing cats -- after illustrating at least 6 picture books with cat characters, that was enough! You won't see cats in my portfolio now.

Hope this was helpful -- feel free to learn from my mistakes!

@Kevin-Longueil yep! As you'll probably guess, I really like what @chrisaakins suggests. In fact, I think if you get rid of the background altogether, the piece will read better as a spot. The focus will be directly on the characters and action, where it needs to be.

However, I understand where you're coming from, wanting a portfolio piece too. But are you asking this one little spot illo to do too much? What if you modified the composition for a spot illustration, then even further expand your original idea into a full page or even spread illustration? There's no reason why you couldn't do two versions. That could be really interesting!

@Kim-Rosenlof awww, thanks so much! ️

@hayleyannececil beautiful! Of the two, I prefer the one with lines, for the readability reason like everyone else.

But both are great -- you do you and go with the one you like best!