NASA "has made their entire collection of images, sounds, and video available and publicly searchable online. It’s 140,000 photos and other resources available for you to see, or even download and use it any way you like"—copyright free.

Here's an article about it: https://www.diyphotography.net/nasa-makes-entire-media-library-publicly-accessible-copyright-free/?fbclid=IwAR3-2ubYay7E_BkoNy7Kxdn0WIGJcoIBoCRrdl3cJb0yqQQaVp6ydL8TfRs

Edit: Here is the page with details regarding using NASA content: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

Update I was able to finish inking it, so here's the final version.

If anyone is interested, you can see my WIP here: http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/5913/may-fauxcontest-wip-critiques-welcome. I feel like I've grown a lot with this one!

Thanks again to @jon-anderson & @gary-wilkinson for your helpful critiques!

...or so she thought.

I didn't have time to finish, but I thought I'd share what I have, since I enjoy seeing what everyone else came up with.

And here's my Final, completed with Copic Multiliner pens.

Thanks for the help & support!

Wow, that's a lot of stuff coming up! Thanks for taking the time to let everyone know what's going on and all the work & planning you've been up to lately. As with anything else, I think people are usually understanding once they know more about the challenges of a situation.

Well, I'm excited for the remake, since I haven't finished that class yet! I'll have to watch it from the beginning again when the update comes out. And I'm super excited for the "Live art crit with Will"! I feel like I learn so much from watching critiques!

I think you all are doing a great job and it's awesome to see your dedication to SVS and your students, and your commitment to providing high quality classes.

It sounds like a huge undertaking to continue developing SVS, in addition to juggling the other aspects of your careers. I agree--I feel like I am getting real, applicable information in these classes, since you all work in illustration.

I didn't know there were going to be "Videos for individual purchase only" classes. Can you tell us more about this type of class, and the reason for that format?

I have a suggestion for the list of classes--it would be nice if it could be sorted by newest to oldest (and perhaps vice-versa). That way it'd be easy for people to find the new classes.

When I saw that the theme for the Contest this month is Travel, I thought of my brother, who hates to travel! So I thought I'd try a contra-concept.

Here are my thumbnails so far. It's looking like it could be a sticker, or on a mug (or travel mug?---ha, ha).

Please let me know if you think this design works in the first place, and whether you like the first idea with words about travel & adventure, or if you like the landmark silhouettes idea, or if you think I should try something else. I was also thinking of possibly having a light background of a global map inside the circle.

I would appreciate any comments / critiques (both positive & negative)! Thanks!

@kaylahh
Making art for people you love is awesome! I know I get inspired by making something a family member would like.

Using diagonal lines in your composition will help give a more active, exciting feel to the image. Did you see Ashely Moore's entry in the Travel Contest? http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/5748/april-contest-travel/55 ( @artwithashley )

I also saw a YouTube video on this exact topic by Mark Crilley, so that could be helpful for you! (Oh, when I went to look it up, I see that it was a Godzilla drawing--close enough!) 3-Point Perspective: Worm's Eye View [Narrated Tutorial], by markcrilley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsfK2ZkrEmc

Looking at both of the above examples, you'll see that none of the horizontal or vertical lines are parallel to the edges of the page. Try printing them out and drawing over them to find the perspective lines in a few places to get ideas on different perspectives you could use to create motion in your piece. I really like how both of them chose a lower perspective to emphasize the height of the city buildings.

If your monster robot is in the foreground, maybe you could add some destruction around it, such as overturned vehicles, or a car being crushed under its feet.

@Carey-Bowden
Wow, that is pretty sad & heavy material!

If you are careful with it, it can be good for kids to see that life is rough sometimes, but you can overcome it. I agree that telling a story with animals can soften difficult subjects, and sadly, there are children who deal with this issue.

To answer the question, I agree with @Boris-Bayo. At the same time, I also think a head-butt wouldn't be too bad, since goats and sheep use head-butting in their play, and a gentle version of the same gesture would be loving. So the picture wouldn't necessarily be violent on it's own (without the context of the story). I would definitely not show the mother ewe kicking her own lamb, though. (Or any of the other sheep harming it, either.) That would be too harsh.

I think it also depends on how much of the story is spent dwelling on the herd rejecting the lamb. The more time spent on that section of the story, the less inclined I'd be to use an image that might be more disturbing.

Poor little lamb! I'm glad the story ends well for him! Good luck figuring this out!

When I saw that the theme for the Contest this month is Travel, I thought of my brother, who hates to travel!
So I thought I'd try a contra-concept. Travel? Nope.

Yes, nice job putting in the effort to take in the feedback & rework the illustration.

I'd like to see more evidence that the alligator is a machine. That was something that wasn't very clear--for sure--to me.

I really like your drawing style, color scheme, and textures!

@Lee-White & @Will-Terry
Did I miss it? I just realized I don't remember you two saying which part of the story you would have chosen to illustrate for this assignment.

Try these links:

All 'Light & Shadow' classes search:
https://courses.svslearn.com/enrollments?q=light+and+shadow&status=all

Jake's 'Light and Shadow' class:
https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/take/light-and-shadow/lessons/899044-intro

@LisaF
I tried finding Jake's 'Light and Shadow' class from 'All Classes' and didn't find it there at all either (not on the list, & no description, checked both pages). Is it just a list of classes sold individually? It seems like 'All Classes' would be all the classes on SVS.

@Griff
The female figure kneeling and leaning back (on the first page) makes kind of a triangle shape.

@Griff
Hmm, re-reading your post—it sounds like you don't have a problem drawing a character in a shape—the difficulty comes from changing the character to an expressive pose while trying to create a shape. Can you just have a bent square shape? You could make a circle with a baby reaching to grab its own toes.

I guess I'd still say—rewatch to see their examples.

Also, Carlianne posted a few days ago about taking this class, so you could check out her post & help each other out: https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/9711/gesture-class-homework

I haven't taken that class, and I'm at a very beginner level & not good at drawing people. BUT I think it might help to start with a more sketchy or cartoony style, and not a super realistic style.

Another thing to think about is the "bean" shape for the body that they talk about. Maybe you could start with that one. For a square shape, it could be a short, squat man or dwarf character. A circle could be a cubby baby. Also, I don't think they mean for the character to take up those shapes precisely. You could try drawing a light sketch of the shape, and use it as a rough outline for the character. It could be the whole character or it could be the body shape. There's also clothing and props / accessories that could help create that overall shape, so you could have a woman or girl in an A-line dress or skirt to create a triangle.

Does the class show examples of drawing from the basic shapes? If so, try rewatching that part, then try some sketches, then watch it again. I remember Lee mentioning that the classes contain the amount of info you'd get in a full college semester, so it's good to go slowly, practice, do the 'homework', and rewatch to soak it all in.

I think your characters are cute!

The dog & pillow are the same color, so it's a little hard to decipher at first glance (and it seems to me that most pillows are bigger—sure they come in all sorts of sizes, but if you use the standard size, it makes for a quicker / easier read). The light spot on the dog's nose / mouth looks unintentional, but the rest of your colors look good. I especially like the blending on the girl's face & hair, and on the dog's body & spots. The variation in the 'white' colors is nice--and something I would forget to do!

If you are enjoying this style, I think you should keep going with it. (I have no idea what is selling in the illustration industry, but that's my opinion as a viewer!)

That is awesome! Congratulations & well done!

@Geoffrey-Gordon
Affinity Photo is $50 for Mac / PC, & $20 for iPad.
(You can get a free trial for the Mac / PC version.)

@kritmo
I recently bought all of the Affinity programs (I got them on sale!) & I really like them so far. I've used Photoshop & Illustrator in the past—not to the extent you have—but as far as my experience and knowledge goes, Affinity is very similar to Adobe programs. I have run into one or two things that have been different (and therefore frustrating), such as: you can't just flip a selection—you have to copy & paste it as a separate layer first. And having to switch to the selection mode (or whatever it's called). But I think it's mainly just getting used to the program & tools.

I wouldn't really say Affinity Designer is a Photoshop alternative. The Affinity programs seem to align with Adobe's, so Affinity Photo is most like Photoshop, & Affinity Designer is more like Illustrator (and Affinity Publisher is similar to InDesign). (But maybe that's what you meant?) Something that looks very cool in Affinity Designer that does make it a little more like Photoshop, though—is you can apply raster effects on your vector graphics. So if you like to work in vector, and you're into effects like textures, this is very exciting.

The Sketchboard Pro does look pretty nice. If you get it, let us know what you think!