I submit

The perspective looks good. What if the line work was loosened up a bit on the houses so it's more natural looking? Hope you don't mind me drawing over your work just to show what I mean. Kudos on being ambitious with multiple houses on different planes!

@tessw
There is so much about this that is working and that I relate to. Firstly I'm a big Superman fan so there's that Composition is easy to read and interesting. I don't mind that there is some ambiguity in the story; meaning, is he actually a super kid or just super imaginative? I live that last line of text and how the image plays with that. Just a side note that having the boy enter from the left is a good move as it sticks to the cinematic rule of thumb that "good guys," enter from the frame from the left. If you watch star wars, Vader tends to enter from the right and Jedis from the left. Just a fun factoid Well done so far!

This is my, "Independence," submission. The flag of course is a symbol for sovereignty and independence. This happens to depict a scene from my local park where the flag guards a bench that is dedicated to the memory of a local military service member. Painted using the Procreate app.

@Dennis-Spaans I hate to be contrarian but the little guy feels crowded to the left side. If the focal point was the "tree" house alone then the change would make sense. I do think the perspective updates work. That's my two cents which is about what it's worth

@tessw Firstly, great job! I'd remove the signature for the portfolio version. Your story concept is similar to the picture book, Good Morning Superman, by Michael Dahl and Omar Lozano. There is also, Bedtime for Batman. But you could design your own kid super hero. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes would pretend to be, "Stupendous Man." To me the strength of your concept treatment is that you can explore any superpower as it relates to a kid's world. One more thing about your portfolio piece is to clean up the grammar. Instead of 'cause, use because. And just use a period instead of an exclamation point at the end of the last sentence. You'll be showing the piece potentially to some grammar sticklers so those are my suggestions for not calling negative attention to the text. Great job again and I hope you find a way to make your story idea work.

I'm Joshua. My story isn't that different from others here. I was one of the artistic kids in grade school through highschool. After a semester of fine art school I transferred to a graphic design school and completed my degree. I did some freelance work but couldn't pay the bills so I ended up in retail then went back to school and completed a degree in physical therapy assisting-which is still my day job. So over the course of a decade I slowly gave up on art. Actually I was mad at art. It had let me down. That's what I used to believe. Although I get to help a lot of people working in a hospital it doesn't fulfill my creative self. Around the time I landed my first therapist job I started following @Will-Terry and believing that maybe it wasn't too late for art. And I also started self studying writing because I'd always considered myself a creative writer (I was even in a writing club in junior high called, Power of the Pen). My son was two years old and maybe reading him picture books triggered some inspiration. So I began work on a picture book of my own and self published it last August. I got a lot of support for my book from friends and family who mostly said, "It's about time." And it's been further validation that twice as many complete strangers as family have purchased my book. So maybe it's time to up my art game for my next project, which brings me to SVS and the forums. I used to believe that art had let me down. Now I know that art requires perseverance. Art was trying to teach me all those years ago. I'm finally paying attention. I look forward to learning along side people who can relate.

@tombarrettillo That's right, an indie book should look indistinguishable from one produced by a traditional publisher. If possible with a little something extra that the traditional publishers won't do.

You could, "steal like an artist," and just grab the colors from a scheme similar to what you're going for. I grabbed a couple that might work.

@withlinesofink It makes sense to me to study cinematography since it's the ultimate form of sequential art. A picture book or comic is just a time lapse.

Fun concept, and your nickname is now, " Wild Bill."

@tessw When I turn it upside down and squint I am drawn first to the pink rug, then to the kid sitting on top of the sofa (his head against the light blue wall seems to be the greatest area of contrast). Then I go to the box head kid right in the middle of the composition and circle clockwise around the composition after that. Hope this helps. If you want to draw attention to one kid in particular it might be as simple as turning her/his head and gaze in a different direction from the others?

@tessw Really fun piece. I've seen my son assume each of those poses at some point. Thanks for posting!

@lee-white Thanks for your critique. You have some valid points and I'll kee them in mind.

This is my, "Independence," submission. The flag of course is a symbol for sovereignty and independence. This happens to depict a scene from my local park where the flag guards a bench that is dedicated to the memory of a local military service member. Painted using the Procreate app.

Wow, I had no idea Lee would get so involved in the portfolio review. Good to know.

@tessw Firstly, great job! I'd remove the signature for the portfolio version. Your story concept is similar to the picture book, Good Morning Superman, by Michael Dahl and Omar Lozano. There is also, Bedtime for Batman. But you could design your own kid super hero. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes would pretend to be, "Stupendous Man." To me the strength of your concept treatment is that you can explore any superpower as it relates to a kid's world. One more thing about your portfolio piece is to clean up the grammar. Instead of 'cause, use because. And just use a period instead of an exclamation point at the end of the last sentence. You'll be showing the piece potentially to some grammar sticklers so those are my suggestions for not calling negative attention to the text. Great job again and I hope you find a way to make your story idea work.

@tombarrettillo That's right, an indie book should look indistinguishable from one produced by a traditional publisher. If possible with a little something extra that the traditional publishers won't do.

I've self published a picture book using Createspace for the paperback and KDP for the ebook. I've focused on Amazon ads which drive traffic but have been break even at best on terms of cost. The holy grail of book marketing is a Bookbub email ad since their site has a million plus subscribers. I've submitted three times and have been turned down. They prefer authors with several books published and wide distribution. Marketing kids lit is a whole different animal compared to adult genres. Book blogs are big trust builders with parents but most won't promote a self published title. It's not impossible to get a self published book into a brick & mortar retailer but you're likely to get a lot of buy backs that didn't sell because all the prime point of sale spaces are bought by large publishers. If you want a Kickstarter campaign to succeed then you need to build a following for your project well in advance of launching the campaign. Producing a book is only half the battle. Marketing a book is a steep hill to climb. However, I'm still hopeful of cracking the code though. And it starts with producing a high quality story and pro-level illustrations.

@tessw Really shaping into a strong piece. What if you painted in clouds that directed toward the boy? I'd keep the text because the art and text play off of each other. I'd ditch the gutter.