Just trying to do this thing - getting images from my head to paper.
So just to mix things up, I am taking some courses specific to licensing this year on Make Art that Sells. One of our first assignments was to design something suitable for kitchen fabric market plus coordinates. My mind always wants to go for a joke hence the little vignettes of wacky characters. I held back on some of my crazier ideas though 
@jason-bowen subscribed. How long did it take to get to 65k subscribers?? That’s amazing!
@burvantill thanks! I think the rabbit is my fav too - might try to develop other characters in the same style and see if I can do it on purpose this time lol
@nessillustration I hear you. if you send out your stuff and get no feedback other than silence, it is easy to fill in the blanks as to the reasons why that might be with all sorts of negative things that sound true to you. A good mentor can help give constructive feedback in that blank space and move you forward, I think.
There is also that first impression thing - one chance to make a good one and if you put out crap work in front of gatekeepers that’s the chance blown. Who knows if you’d get a second one. I think this holds a lot of people back too. Not saying it is right, but it is a consideration.
So easy to get caught up in the negative self talk especially when you are isolated from a community of like minded peers.
I think you are spot on @LauraA - there is a void out there between learning basics and portfolio review. I think mentors can help with this but finding mentors when you are already outside the art world circle (never been to art school, have no networks etc) is super tough. This online community helps but a more formalized structured relationship could be really helpful. Maybe something SVS could consider offering - could be unique in the online art class space.
Spent the last few days messing around with Procreate’s brushes and blending modes/liquify thingy. Tossed away trying to draw first and just plonked down random abstract strokes and saw what things started to emerge out of the mess. Here are a few of those weird things:
