Just wanted to share some good news. I got my first major art show in London. A limited edition print The Tip of Atlantis has been selected for The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition next month. Thanks to @Jake-Parker @Lee-White and @Will-Terry for giving such excellent illustration lessons. You guys rock! All have helped me tenfold improve my drawing skills. I went back, redrew and improved my final piece that got selected. And thanks to my fellow SVS students on here that offer great advice and support in the forums.

It's my favorite all-time art show, that I've been trying to get into for a few years. Never give up on your dreams. Be stubborn and carry on when being told that you'll never make it as an artist.

SNEAK PEAK:

It got framed an hour before I had to hand it over to the RA so I only have a photo of the Artpakk bag. :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_smiling_eyes: Top tip, don't leave framing to the last week for a show entry - give it at least 10 days to 3 weeks. Unless you can frame it yourself.

The art has a hidden Mermaid in it, so I'm happy it got selected in Mermay!

If there is anyone from SVS in London during the Summer and fancy a trip to the Royal Academy, give me a shout. The show runs Monday 10 June to Monday 12 August.

My favorite place to hang out at night. Brick Lane in London. Where Dr Jekyll buys his bagels.

1984 by George Orwell. Been reading this book over the last couple of weeks. A life changing book when I read it as a teenager and still just as relevant today. Would love to make a graphic novel of 1984 set in an alternate dimension.

@Chip-Valecek for me, this is a good one for a self-portrait!

Before

After

Took on-board what @Lee-White said about my penguin scene. I appreciate and agreed with the feedback.

Made my protagonist penguin a bit more flamboyant. He's of the Macaroni ilk. Spearheading the deep ocean dive I can feel his leadership qualities (His co-stars are based on Adelie penguins). They both hang out in Antarctic waters.

I think I got carried away with drawing penguins that it was hard to lose characters. I wanted them to all get equal billing. But that made me lose sight of the story of building tension and focus for the Moment Before brief.

Happy to hear any further comments. Have others made changes to their work after listening to the feedback?

Tick Tock. Am I OK?
The tracks in the snow were unlike anything Will had ever seen before.

So I'm making a Chinese Water Dragon mixed media artwork for Slowvember. No backing out now.
I thought I'd start posting and try to keep it to weekly updates. I don't want to slack off.
It's my biggest creation to be made on a wooden panel, as it was originally meant to be a mural a few years ago.
It got cancelled due to the venue backing out when I presented the cost!
The Dragon is going on a 140 cm x 70 cm panoramic plywood panel with a metal frame that prevents the wood from warping.
The poplar plywood is primed with Golden GAC 100 to help seal the wood.

So far I have sprayed the surface using a primer layer with Signal white Molotow Belton spray paint.
But I wanted a textured under-painting so I brushed on a titanium white Non-absorbent acrylic primer (by Michael Harding).
I did leave it outside to dry but it rained and messed it up a bit! : SO.. I gave it another coat.

For me because its a large surface I thought I'd do a smaller painting first. A cross section of just the dragons head.
Always best to do a test painting I reckon. I've ended up going for 2 tests.
One finished in black ink and white paint. Now working on one in colour to match the copic marker colours and acrylics I'm using on the final piece.

I used frisk trace down to draw the dragon head onto the surface as this doesn't leave any residue when inking/painting over the top.
I make it pretty quick and rough (from a digital printed to scale sketch).
First time I messed up as I did it in graphite and this smudged loads and was difficult to paint over the top.
Best option was in red as it's easy to spot when the blues go down and easy to paint over with lighter colours.

So this is where I'm at. Here's some of my other tools with the colours I'm using.
I like these pump action brushes even though they clog up quickly, the nibs are cheap and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I use the refills as this saves money. Just hoping they play well with the Copic markers as I haven't tried them together before. I like to experiment!

Hope to have something a bit more substantial by the end of the week.

In Isolation, I have mostly been watching old films and TV shows. Then drawing pixel art all night long. The 8-bit lifestyle.
"I Can't Get No Isolation" featuring Pixel Kong.

I was just learning some stuff on blender and this tool came up for quickly putting reference images in order.
I'm using it to make mood boards and put my thumbnails together from my sketch book.
I thought other artists would find this useful. I've been trying to organise my ref photos, as they are all over the place! It's called PureRef on windows, linux and mac. I love simple software like this. It just does one thing.
They let you choose what to pay.

https://www.pureref.com/

@Lee-White I managed 48 thumbnails on poking a collapsed drunk Cyclops in the eye with a shard of his shepherd's staff.
Buzzing. Top tips.

@Katie-Kordesh Best website I know of for artist residencies is Res Artis - https://resartis.org/ as they have a global network and updates of new residencies https://resartis.org/open-calls/
I've done an art residency in Cologne, Germany. I was funded by the British Council so it's worth contacting the culture department of your country to get funding.

@Rachel-Horne glad I could help.

@Rachel-Horne Oh yes defo install the Canon software! It works as a plug-in on photoshop (FILE>>AUTOMATE>>Canon Print Studio Pro).

Yes you are right the colours will be different on stock paper but its a good way to check for brightness.
I think the best method is using good quality postcards as they're small and don't waste a lot of ink.
If you make a few A6 postcards out of the paper stock you print on this will give you the same results.
I use the printer to print on tracing paper too. For when I want to transfer a digital drawing onto a wooden panel or for a stencil cutout.
I just break the image down into A3+ sections and tape it together after printing.

Hope you get the formula right!

@Rachel-Horne to do a calibration for printing its best to use a colorimeter device - I'd recommend a X-Rite i1 Display PRO or X-Rite i1Display Studio. I have a Spyder 5 ELITE but it's not as accurate as the X-Rite. I'll be upgrading to one of those soon. Best to have a night setting and a daylight setting.

@Rachel-Horne I have one of those printers. Are you using the automate function in photoshop for Canon's Print Studio Pro to do your printing?
A lot of the time I use the PRO mode and if it's dark I'll go into the colour settings and bump the brightness to +30.
Also make sure you select the right paper setting in here. I had issues with brightness by selecting the wrong paper for ICC and so I loaded the right one from the paper makers website.

I'll always check the levels graph setting in photoshop as this gives me a good idea of how light or dark my image is.
Also buy some cheap thick a4 paper to print onto first or postcards to save on ink and mistakes.

@Neha-Rawat I submitted one of those W-8BEN forms from the UK for my US photo agents and don't pay any taxes in America on any royalties or commission payments. I just had to supply each agent with a copy of the form for their records.

@K-Flagg This is brilliant. Great that you did it all in a month.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Nice one. I'm looking forward to slowing down and just making one piece this month. Are you making something for Slowvember?

So I'm making a Chinese Water Dragon mixed media artwork for Slowvember. No backing out now.
I thought I'd start posting and try to keep it to weekly updates. I don't want to slack off.
It's my biggest creation to be made on a wooden panel, as it was originally meant to be a mural a few years ago.
It got cancelled due to the venue backing out when I presented the cost!
The Dragon is going on a 140 cm x 70 cm panoramic plywood panel with a metal frame that prevents the wood from warping.
The poplar plywood is primed with Golden GAC 100 to help seal the wood.

So far I have sprayed the surface using a primer layer with Signal white Molotow Belton spray paint.
But I wanted a textured under-painting so I brushed on a titanium white Non-absorbent acrylic primer (by Michael Harding).
I did leave it outside to dry but it rained and messed it up a bit! : SO.. I gave it another coat.

For me because its a large surface I thought I'd do a smaller painting first. A cross section of just the dragons head.
Always best to do a test painting I reckon. I've ended up going for 2 tests.
One finished in black ink and white paint. Now working on one in colour to match the copic marker colours and acrylics I'm using on the final piece.

I used frisk trace down to draw the dragon head onto the surface as this doesn't leave any residue when inking/painting over the top.
I make it pretty quick and rough (from a digital printed to scale sketch).
First time I messed up as I did it in graphite and this smudged loads and was difficult to paint over the top.
Best option was in red as it's easy to spot when the blues go down and easy to paint over with lighter colours.

So this is where I'm at. Here's some of my other tools with the colours I'm using.
I like these pump action brushes even though they clog up quickly, the nibs are cheap and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I use the refills as this saves money. Just hoping they play well with the Copic markers as I haven't tried them together before. I like to experiment!

Hope to have something a bit more substantial by the end of the week.

This is my cup of tea. I just got started on this. I'm going make this a procrastination free month.