Here is mine!!
Last minute critiques always welcome


Here is mine! Soft pastels on Clairefontaine Pastelmat.

Lots of amazing entry this month! Good job everyone

Here is the original pastel

Here is my Mermaid! Little Mermione It wasn't specify if fanart was accepted or not... I hope it was!

This is soft pastel and watercolor! Lot of fun to do!!

Here is mine!
I was hesitant at first to to such a sad illustration. However I just couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I decided to go with it.

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share the good news here: I have just been hired to illustrate 2 picture books that are going to be distributed in schools in Malta! Since I am working with an education department, the budget is minimal, but they agreed that the author and I keep all the copyright on our work, so we are planning to self publish them after they are done. Plus I am hoping to produce some portfolio pieces in the process.

So the first book is about (in one sentence) a little "girl" (aka hedgehog) who's really hungry after playing all day outside, comes in the kitchen, sees all sort of fruit on the counter, eats them all, and then realizes her mom was planning on making a pie with them. Is a really short story for kid around 5 y.o and they are going to print it in A3 format (so HUGE)

I started working on it this week-end, and I am rewatching @Will-Terry Illustrating Children's Book class at the same time to make sure I am following each step carefully haha!

I worked out the layout of the book, and now I am working on my main character

These are my initial sketches

And these are the finalists

I think the last one is my favorite, any thoughts ?

Thanks!!!

This is what I have so far!

I am pretty pleased with where this is going! I am glad I decided to illustrate the moment after she removes the trap, I think the story is much clearer this way. Thanks @Will-Terry for pushing me to move past my first idea!

I will still add tools floating from the toolbox and magic swirls coming from it!

Any comments/critique is appreciated!

Here is mine!

There really is some amazing work this month! Good job everyone!

@Lee-White You are so right! I was focusing so much on improving the execution that I completely forgot the first principle you guys are always focusing on " STORY!" At least is was still very rough, so not hard to change!

I reworked it this morning. Since my little explorer is wearing an aviator hat I decided to push this aspect, give him a plane and make him think he is flying!

I included long grass in the foreground, I am not sure if it works, but I want the viewer to know that the post he is on is not high, he is just imagining that his head is in the clouds.

Thanks again for the comment!

Hello again!

Here is what I have so far for my "independent" illustration. I wanted to see if anyone has any feedback before I start rendering more. (of course the trolley/objects in it will not stay all purple!)

Thanks!!


Little update!

This is what I have so far for my first mock-up cover. I would say it's 90 % finished. I am still fiddling with the final details. Any thoughts before I call it done ?!

Also, I started working on another one, this time for a slightly lesser known story called the valiant little tailor. I am at the color comp stage. Any comments/critique would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

I agree with 4! Lovely work

I think they are really good! The first one looks a little awkward, but the reference looks awkward too.

However I think with hands the trick is not to draw a few really detailed hands, but hundreds roughs sketches. It'll be much more useful if you want to pursue illustration (which is probably why you're here to be able to draw hands in any positions than to render a hand very realistically! Although there are certainly things to learn with detailed, carefully rendered drawings (and they can be fun to do!) if you want to get good at hands I would draw sketchbook pages full of hands doing various things. And even after doing that, you'll probably still find them hard to draw haha! Hands are really tuff.

But again, I think your studies are quite good!

Hello guys!

Happy New Year

I was wondering if I could get your precious feedback on a piece I am working on? I asked my agent for a portfolio review recently and she said I should: 1) add more pieces with heavily characterized characters (giants, Vikings, pirates, etc) AND 2) do mock-up book covers, using existing stories that I love.

SO, to start, I decided to combine both and do a mock-up book cover of Jack and the Beanstalk. After a few rounds of thumbnails, here is my very rough sketch!

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum!!

Another option would be to invest in an Ipad pro and apple pencil. I used to have a Cintiq and sold it after buying my Ipad. This thing is AMAZING. You can buy the procreate app for about 50 $ and honestly, with the recent updates they made, it's getting pretty damn close to photoshop.

If you want more info on the Ipad I'd be more than happy to answer questions!

Welcome again!

@Aaron-Pierce EXCELLENT! That's what I wanted to hear! Thanks!

Hello everyone!
I was in the process of cleaning up my computer and started thinking my backup process is probably not the safest/most effective. As I am doing more and more client work these days, I feel like I should have a bulletproof backup system (if it exists...)

What I currently do is keep pretty much everything on dropbox. I usually do a back up of my computer (mac) with time machine once every 1 month or so, but it doesn't back up the stuff that is only in my dropbox and not synced to my mac... When I am working on a project for I client, I usually copy everything on a USB periodically, although if dropbox would collapse in between two of these extra USB transfer, I would loose sooooooo many hours of work!

SO! How do you backup your work? How safe is dropbox? Any tips?!

Thanks!

@smceccarelli Thank for this intro to Behance Simona! I will have to look into it now! I also keep thinking I have to dive into the other platforms more. I try to share as much as possible on FB and Twitter, but my number of followers isn't going anywhere (while IG keeps slowly growing). So I guess there are some different strategies I don't understand for these platforms. Linkedln I have absolutely no idea what to do with! I don't even have an account.

One thing I am always wondering about is - if you have limited time for social media (which we all have!) is it better to focus your energy on one or 2 platforms and have them grow well or to have a presence on all the platforms but not doing good on any of them (or doing so-so)

@Bob-Crum @Art-of-B @NessIllustration @hannahmccaffery

You guys are awesome!
When you work for too long on something you kind of get a blind spot. I was really happy with my sketch but then reading your comments it felt so obvious something was missing! The main point is the foreground. It makes a huge difference I think. Also you correctly spotted the the white lab coat was way to much competing for attention. The only thing I am not sure about is the perspective on the man's face (@Bob-Crum ) Since he is looking down, I am not sure we would see up his nose... Anyone else has thoughts on this?

Finally, I am still not sure what to do with the lights/candles. I tried having several candles producing very faint lights so it would compete less with the magic bottle. What do you think?

Thanks again for the help!!