Here is my entry (not at the last minute this time!!). If you are going to treat magical creatures you have to be pretty confident

Is it past midnight PST?
Well, I'll leave mine here anyway just in case

~ Pam

"Atlantis Flight School"

Here's my submission - a halloween parade!

EDIT: I'm traveling away from home and this was the best image of the work I was able to post last night. Working in traditional media this inktober has been a great experience (frustrating at times, but I've learned a lot!).

For this one I used a limited palette of Ampersand inks and discovered sepia ink pens! I was trying to go for a more subdued palette than I usually use. Hope you enjoy!

Here we go - Leia, Wicket, Chewy, Yoda and Vader re-imagined as dog breeds.
Can you tell what breed each of them is?

(Yeah, I did 5... I couldn't resist adding Vader when one of my facebook peeps suggested the breed!)

I would love some constructive critiquing on a piece I'm working on for my portfolio called 'Accommodating Dragon'.

This is a quick digital painting I did a couple of years ago:

I love the idea and decided to rework it. Here is the new sketch with a preliminary start at a value study (though I hadn't planned to push the values quite as much as they appear here):

Before I put more hours into it and start the final rendering I'd love some feedback on the composition and what I've got started with values. I was thinking of going with a similar colour scheme as the old painting.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!!
~ Pam

I didn't even know this was a thing... cool!

Hey guys, I don't know how many of you use time tracking software - but I started using Toggl a few months ago and I'm finding it really helpful.

In the past I've worked mostly in small bits around my 'day job' and have had a hard time determining exactly how long it takes for me to get various art tasks done. Using Toggle (I just have the free version) is helping me to get a more realistic idea of how long different types of projects take, also how much time I'm spending on other work, social media posting, etc.

I just wanted to share in case anyone else might find it helpful.
www.toggl.com

~ Pam

I'd love to get some feedback on this one if it's useful to you - also, feel free to use my name.

Hey folks! I just got back from a month away from home and am now officially done with my former career...wow. I have ten million things I need to get done, but while I was away I started an illustration for the March 'Old and New' challenge. I couldn't complete it in time to submit, but I like where it is going and would really appreciate any comments and critique the community is willing to provide:

I'm a total noob here so I don't know if I should be commenting and I hope that I'm not overstepping - but this is such a gorgeous image with so much mood to it I wanted to chime in!

1. The sunset is competing with the fire for my attention - could you dampen the sun or get away with a more subtle just-post-sunset glow in the sky to increase emphasis on the fire?

2. Maybe stronger/sharper contrast on the lady's face (the man's and horse's expressions are so clear, I find it harder to see her features - unless that was your intention).

3. I think if the horse's body was turned more to the left it would read better that they are leaving (I first thought they'd just come over the hill and paused, seeing the house burning). Of course that throws off your reins and other things so maybe not as easy a change to make.

~ Pam

Thank you!

This may be a weird question, but I'm working on my own IP in the form of a graphic novel. I have found a font (one of the ones loaded in Photoshop) that I really like and am thinking I might use for the cover title (and pseudo-logo for the world I'm creating, eg on social media/etc to identify illustrations related to that project).

My understanding is that you are permitted to use the font as a typeface in static images, e.g. if I drew A cover with that font and export it as a JPG or PNG that's fine. However, I'm wondering if using it repeatedly in this sort of 'logo-ish' way would cross the line? I know that e-publishing can be an issue, and I don't know if a webcomic will eventually require those kind of export files.

(Apologies if I am massacring graphic design terminology... I really have no idea what I'm doing and trying to learn as I go).

The font I'm interested seems to be only ~$35 to purchase a license so I'm tempted to just do that and not have to worry. But I wanted to ask the community because it's an area I'd like to know more about (also, if I really don't need to spend any $ that's always better :D).

~ Pam

@jimsz and @DOTTYP Thanks for the input!!

I have checked printhead alignment and it was fine, but it might be worth looking at again. The drivers were updated not long before one of the instances but I'm going to update drivers again just in case!

Someone on another forum suggested flattening images before printing, that they've had issues with this printer series and layered PSD docs - so I'm going to pay attention to that as well just in case!

~ Pam

I just wanted to say 'hi' and echo what's been said earlier ... it's never too late!

I am 43 and can empathize.. it's hard, at this age, to make any kind of friends. Especially if you're introverted. My theory is that once you hit 39 your tolerance for people's BS drops precipitously which makes it hard to get past the first stages of meeting new people and making friends (or maybe it's just me :D).

These forums are GREAT! Filled with wonderful, supportive artists. But if you find a way to make art friends in person at our age please do share it!

Also - regarding the book turn this thread has taken, I'll toss out "War of the Flowers" by Tad Williams - it's dystopian fantasy, though his style quite different from Neil Gaiman (who I also love).

Hey guys!

I've been off the forums for a bit because I've had some paying fine-art commissions (Yay for paying work! Boo for not having time for illustration!).

I'm posting here to seek help from anyone who knows printers and may be able to troubleshoot or point me to somewhere I can get help.

I use a Canon Pixma Pro-100 with Photoshop and the Canon Print Studio Pro plugin. I've got it pretty well figured out and my prints are coming out nicely. HOWEVER, every once in awhile something weird will happen (see examples below). I'm not sure what triggers it which means that I have no idea how to prevent it. I work primarily with Canon Museum Etching paper and this stuff is so frigging expensive (both the paper and the amount of ink it soaks up) that today I'm terrified to attempt a big 13 x 19" print.

Here are two examples. In both of these cases the ink levels were fine, I'd followed the procedure I always use, and prints done before and after these came out perfectly with no issues. As a rough estimate I'd say this kind of thing happens maybe one out of every dozen prints:

1. 2001: A printer odyssey. The small box in the upper left is what I was printing (it was a colour sample for a bigger print). The huge, solid black area on the right is something the Canon did all on it's own.
   Screenshot of what I sent to the printer (left) and what actually printed out (right):
   

2. Got the Blues: The right edge of this one printed a series of blue lines (as you can surmise, it should have been a clean edge like the left and bottom showing in this pic). I don't remember the orientation but I THINK it was aligned with the paper feed (e.g. the bottom edge came out first, the top edge last) - but I'm not 100% sure on that.
   

I've been scouring various boards on the internet but I keep getting photography forums and so far haven't found an answer. If anyone here can help, it would be greatly appreciated!!!

I guess these are the pitfalls of trying to do self-printing when you are self-taught.

Thanks!
~ Pam

I use Wix for my website and decided to go with their built-in eCommerce platform. I have an old, dormant Etsy shop and looked a bit into some others (Red bubble, Shopify) but sticking with Wix was easiest and keeps it all in my own domain. It’s not the most robust service but I just need a platform to get started for now.

It looks like Jake Parker uses Shopify and Will Terry uses Etsy, both of which seem pretty streamlined within their websites. I can’t tell what Lee is using, but it looks kind of like my Wix shop. (I just figured if they all used a certain one that might be a good bet).

I think it doesn’t matter all that much which one you choose so long as the service is reputable and you are not trying to use the platform for exposure, but it sounded from your message like you aren’t trying to sell huge volumes of goods.

I’d check reviews of Woocommerce (I know nothing about them) and if they seem good and it’s the easiest thing to go with then do it! Especially if they integrate well with your site, as @jimsz said!

@tazzyartist it might help for you to play around with placing different vanishing points and draw your tables as boxes until you have the sizes and orientation the way you want then just erase the extra lines.

I mocked up something quick with a more horizontal horizon line which reads more as a front-view instead of top-down angle.

Not disheartening at all!!

@Gary-Wilkinson and @evilrobot thank you both! I truly appreciate you taking the time to make insightful comments, they are greatly appreciated (I'm in a 'leveling up' stage and really want good, honest feedback).

@Gary-Wilkinson I had to laugh at your comment about it being dragons - the real reason is that I like dragons. The more complicated reason is that animal and fantasy creature characters are my thing, so right now I'm working on using those elements (which I have more fun with) to create illustrations to work on my technical skills. I also play lots of D&D and the older a dragon is the more intimidating they are - so the idea of a granny dragon showing the wisdom aspect of an ancient dragon was a fun idea to play with. HOWEVER - your comment is spot on because I struggled with whether to make them play chess or some imaginary game. In the end I thought chess would be a relatable activity for 'old mentoring young' (plus I used my social media fanbase to give me the actual chess board setup - a little easter egg for those who might look closely at it). I will think more about how I can make the setting and game situation integrate with the characters being dragons.. I have a couple of ideas percolating already!

You were also spot on with the linework comment - I am really struggling with how I want to develop that. I'm drawn to line (not great at it, but drawn to it to the point that I am starting a graphic novel project to learn more) so at the moment my goal is NOT to try to retrain myself to full digital painting, but rather figure out the best way to use my linework without having the entire piece in full, lined detail. I liked the outcome for the piece below and was trying to recapture some of that feel. I think the lighting and contrast were stronger in the piece below, and the linework not as heavy handed.

And lighting. So important! So not my strong suit!
I think it's time to go redo some of the SVS courses on light and make sure I'm really doing the work and not just passively watching!

Thanks again! All further feedback is greatly appreciated!

(LOL - nobody commented on the fact that the chess pieces are all leaning a little bit to the right... which I ~just~ noticed now).

(Also - @Gary-Wilkinson I love your 'Octopus Selfie', it made me literally laugh out loud!)

I second that!

The way the SVS posts load in my browser I seem to always miss some of the art when I scroll through the thread - your slideshows let me see all the amazing entries and I REALLY appreciate that you take the time to make these slideshows!

I am definitely no perspective guru, so hopefully someone smarter will chime in, but I quickly plopped your sketch into Procreate and laid the perspective guidelines on it. I don't see your guidelines for the second vanishing point (but it looks like you are using 2 point perspective) so I used your middle table to create one.

If the tables are meant to be equal size and equally spaced then the middle table looks maybe a bit too long and the gap between the middle and right tables appears narrower than between middle and left.

One thing that I've noticed trips me up is that with sketchy lines there is enough variability in the angles that it can end up with the perspective way off. Using a clean, faint line for 'perspective important' parts of my sketch has helped me in that area as generally tend to sketch rough and loose.

Hope this helps a little!