Hi guys.

I didn't get chance to enter the June competition but decided to finish my entry any way.

Hey guys.

Recently I've been drawing in more of a digital pencil style.

I'm really wanting to push this style further. Do any of you know of artists, other than our wonderful Will Terry, who use this style or something similar?

Thanks

Hi @Heather-Bouteneff looks like the values of the hedge, ground and animals are pretty close. I've turned your image black and white to demonstrate what I mean.

I took your drawing and quickly darkened the bushes and floor (with my finger on my phone so it's a bit messy). The characters aren't quite as lost within the hedge.

The focal point is the exchange of the apple between the two human characters. I'd suggest upping the contrast even more around them by lightening the sky around their heads maybe. Maybe even drop that top of the hedge down a bit so the figures are silhouetted against the sky. The line of the top of the hedge is touching the girls hand which slightly obscures the action of her throwing the apple.

Hope that helps

Hi guys.

For this month's competition I went for the moment before things get very toasty for this wandering dwarf. I was trying to push the separation of the foreground and background characters. Using cool lighter colours and lighting for the foreground and darker warmer colours for the background. I wanted to try and push the dragon back as far into the shadow as possible so that it would almost be a second read with the inner mouth glow signalling that something lay in the gloom.

The things I'm not currently sure about are whether the dwarf pops out too much that he doesn't like he's in the same room as the dragon. The more I look at it the more i feel he should have stronger shadows.

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi I'm Dan,

I'm an illustrator living in the North East of England. My goal, as I'm sure it is with a lot of people here, is to get into picture books professionally. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can from this forum, it seems like a great place!

Here are a couple of my latest portfolio pieces. If you want to tell me anything you think I might be doing wrong or right then please feel free!

Thanks a lot,
Daniel Skillcorn

Hi guys,

I've decided to jump head first into this forum and enter the competition. I've used this as an opportunity to try out some of the painting techniques in the SVS videos. I'm enjoying it as its such a huge step away from my more cartoon style but my energy is lowering the more hours I put into it.

Here is where I'm currently at with the painting. The bottom image shows my initial idea of including Peter Pan, Hook's hook and Big Ben as reflections in the different shards of glass. I'm trying to work out if that might be overdoing it though.

Any feedback on composition, colour, technique or whether the image captures the themes of Peter Pan would be great.

Thanks,
Daniel

Thanks @Durrell-Odom I was just taking a look at your portraits, they're great.

Yup, the "How to Draw Everything" and perspective classes are definitely two courses I want to jump right into.

Hi @Heather-Bouteneff, thanks for the feedback. The initial idea was summer but with creepy trees. I've quickly changed the clothing slightly to get closer to what you were saying.

Thanks for the help

Wow, fantastic. Well done!

Wow, thank you all so much for the warm welcomes.

@Coreyartus it does feel like an absolute gold mine. I'm glad I found it too.
@Raymond_Kaselau thank you for the kind words about my images and that's really nice to hear that you can see my work in bookstores. Thanks for the huge ego boost :smiling_face_with_open_mouth: lol.
@Braden-Hallett thanks, that's good advice. I'll definitely be looking for colour feedback (it's the main area I want to improve).
Hi @julian-beresford I'm from North Yorkshire (very top of the Moors). Your website says you are from South West London originally, how are you finding life in the North?
Hi @Sas, I'm looking forward to jumping right into the forums.
Thanks @Lucelfo. I used to live in Southampton and spent a fair bit of time on the Isle of Wight. Lovely place The Tiger Sanctuary was a yearly visit.

@bathyscaph thanks for the suggestion. That combination of simple shapes, limited palette and contrast in texture is so nice!

@pagurcia I love Tom Booth! I've been following him for a while on Instagram and completely fell in love with his woodcutter story. I can't wait to see what he does with it. Thanks for the encouragement!

@StudioLooong haha no worries.

Here's his instagram https://instagram.com/charlessantoso?igshid=y94s8v3pba1r

And website http://www.charlessantoso.com/

I really like their stuff. Thanks for the reference.

Thanks @StudioLooong that's exactly what I was looking for. It looks like Sean Farrell is the author and Charles Santoso is the illustrator.

Hey guys.

Recently I've been drawing in more of a digital pencil style.

I'm really wanting to push this style further. Do any of you know of artists, other than our wonderful Will Terry, who use this style or something similar?

Thanks

This is a really cool idea. There are so many variations on Magpies bringing bad luck. Im pretty sure i'm going to head down the Magpie route for my entry. The poem I always heard was to do with how many you had seen: "One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy". And, the version for warding off the bad luck, involved saluting and saying "Hello Mr Magpie" three times.

I've not actually heard the telling time version before. Maybe you could go down a more conceptual route with your character cowering behind the clock, using it as protection from the magpie.

I'm listening to an singer called Ezza Rose. Her song Ophelia is so haunting.

Hi guys.

I didn't get chance to enter the June competition but decided to finish my entry any way.

Thanks for taking the time to reply and critique @Kevin-Longueil. Really appreciate your feed back.

I know what you mean about the background. I've since viewed the image on my phone and can see it's much darker compared to my computer screen.

That's a good point about the dwarf's pose. In my initial sketches I'd had him finding gold and holding it up to the light. The eggs read better than the gold but I kept the pose. Your pose does work much better.

Thank you for doing the paint over. It has really helped me to visualise your points.

Hi guys.

For this month's competition I went for the moment before things get very toasty for this wandering dwarf. I was trying to push the separation of the foreground and background characters. Using cool lighter colours and lighting for the foreground and darker warmer colours for the background. I wanted to try and push the dragon back as far into the shadow as possible so that it would almost be a second read with the inner mouth glow signalling that something lay in the gloom.

The things I'm not currently sure about are whether the dwarf pops out too much that he doesn't like he's in the same room as the dragon. The more I look at it the more i feel he should have stronger shadows.

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi @Heather-Bouteneff, thanks for the feedback. The initial idea was summer but with creepy trees. I've quickly changed the clothing slightly to get closer to what you were saying.

Thanks for the help