"What's that R2? Chewbacca is stuck in the well?!" These Droid Doggos will be your loyal friends and companions wherever you go.

In case anyone doesn't recognize that fourth one, Missy-6 is MSE-6, aka a Mouse Droid. They can be found puttering around Imperial ships, humming to themselves... at least until a Wookie gets on board and scares them away.

I came here looking for some sane conversation, and found it! Thank you! I've been upset about this whole thing, because I really like Jake, and I respect Alphonso, so it's sad seeing these accusations unfold and cause so much anger in the art community. It will end eventually - everything does - and I hope it ends well. I hope. Still, there are going to be people who irrevocably dislike Jake and boycott Inktober no matter what happens. Alphonso probably did more damage than he realized.

I also made a video about this that I hope is ok to share here. I want to be fair to both artists, though I do have a definite bias toward Jake because of how long I've been lurking around YouTube and SVS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCWSBuTKPs&lc=Ugz3ffqfJk67EKJMTkJ4AaABAg

Thanks for making this thread, Lee. I hope Jake sees all the love he's getting in here.

I love the Best 9! It's so fun to be able to look back at the year in art. Inktober got some good attention this year, as did a few drawings in a new style I'm slowly experimenting with. 2017 went pretty well on the art front. Gotta make 2018 even better!

I’m starting to make prints of my own ideas rather than focusing so much on fan art prints, and this is the first of what I hope will be a successful journey selling my own art.

I asked for feedback on a Facebook page and got good feedback. Here is the original:

And here is what I have now after fixing the facial structure and hand sizes:

But then I remembered that I’m part of these forums and have been underutilizing them as a resource for quality feedback! I haven’t been in here for years! Good gosh! So hey, SVS what feedback do you have for me before I turn this over to the printer?

Thank you!

@danielerossi Thanks for watching it! Ahaha, I got that bit from Ethan Becker, who is an excellent art YouTuber. Very funny guy and great teacher.

I would describe it as a soft, whimsical style. The backgrounds have a painterly texture the looks like watercolor, and the characters are very lively and playful.

You have a really lovely style

This is so cool! I would have adored this as a kid!

Congratulations! This is inspiring to me as I work on my first book And I love your style.

@xin-li I would time whatever illustration you’re currently working on. I know it sounds a little nuts, but it’s very useful to have this information. That way, if you do 2 hours on Monday, 1 on Thursday, and 2 on Saturday, finishing the drawing, you still know it took you 5 hours to finish. With this baseline, you can negotiate for more time if you need it. “If you want work that looks like this, you have to give me at least X hours to complete it.” I certainly don’t work the same number of hours each week on my art stuff, but I do know how long it takes to do my different kinds of art. Knowledge is power

I would describe it as a soft, whimsical style. The backgrounds have a painterly texture the looks like watercolor, and the characters are very lively and playful.

You have a really lovely style

@danielerossi Thanks for watching it! Ahaha, I got that bit from Ethan Becker, who is an excellent art YouTuber. Very funny guy and great teacher.

@George-Broussard Thanks for watching the video and for the thoughtful response! You're right, and that's a pretty daunting future no matter what happens. I hope Jake will be ok

I came here looking for some sane conversation, and found it! Thank you! I've been upset about this whole thing, because I really like Jake, and I respect Alphonso, so it's sad seeing these accusations unfold and cause so much anger in the art community. It will end eventually - everything does - and I hope it ends well. I hope. Still, there are going to be people who irrevocably dislike Jake and boycott Inktober no matter what happens. Alphonso probably did more damage than he realized.

I also made a video about this that I hope is ok to share here. I want to be fair to both artists, though I do have a definite bias toward Jake because of how long I've been lurking around YouTube and SVS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCWSBuTKPs&lc=Ugz3ffqfJk67EKJMTkJ4AaABAg

Thanks for making this thread, Lee. I hope Jake sees all the love he's getting in here.

@Jesse-Rivera This is a huge improvement from the first one! Excellent job!

@idid Thanks! My current print customers are mainly at comic conventions and span mainly women, with a chunk of them being kids in middle/high school and the other chunk being more around my age, in their 20's and 30's. I am trying to pull the age group up a little to solidly hit women in their 30's who like a little fantasy in their lives. But mainly I just want to make things that I like. As a woman in my 30's, I can only assume that there are others like me who will like what I like!

I started selling work at comic conventions, so fan art would hit people well there, but I don't like doing it. It's not fun for me to jump on trends and draw other people's characters when I have SO MANY of my own that never get to see daylight because I don't have the time for them. I personally prefer buying art with people's original characters rather than fan art, myself, so I know there are others that feel the same way. It's awesome to own something super original by a smaller creator.

@Freya-Chakour Thanks! I get what you mean! The cut-out edges are kind of random, as I just wanted a way to have a white border without being a flat line. There's not a lot of thought put into how it jives with the actual structure of the illustration. Looking at it now, I can see how much better the top and right sides look than the left side, in particular. It's easier to get objects to overlap white than it is to get a void to overlap the flowers! Hmm, I'll have to think on that one.

@LauraA Thank you! Ooh, that's a good point. I wanted to make sure I popped in some warmer tones since the shop walls are so green, but maybe I overdid it. I do want it to still have a kind of muted look overall. I can see now how the character is standing out more against the flowers behind her since she is more saturated, and I do think that desaturating the front flowers, at least the bright red parts, would help her stand out more overall.

THANK YOU ALL for the feedback! I really appreciate it!

@xin-li I would time whatever illustration you’re currently working on. I know it sounds a little nuts, but it’s very useful to have this information. That way, if you do 2 hours on Monday, 1 on Thursday, and 2 on Saturday, finishing the drawing, you still know it took you 5 hours to finish. With this baseline, you can negotiate for more time if you need it. “If you want work that looks like this, you have to give me at least X hours to complete it.” I certainly don’t work the same number of hours each week on my art stuff, but I do know how long it takes to do my different kinds of art. Knowledge is power

I’m impressed by that texture. I can’t tell it’s digital.

There are multiple factors to how long a book might take, and if you can’t control one, try adjusting with another.

For instance, if you know it takes you 10 hours to complete a single page, a 32 page book would take you 320 hours. If you work only an hour a day, that’s going to take almost a year to complete! If you work 40 hours a week like a full-time job, it will only take you 2 months.

So if you are very busy with other things, it’s just going to take longer. If you have short deadlines, you’ll have to give up some of your time on other tasks to work on the illustrations instead. Alternatively, you could change your art process or simplify your style to take less time to complete. If it took you 8 hours to complete an illustration instead of 10, and you worked 256 hours for those 32 pages, that means you’ve saved 64 hours of work total!

That’s simplified, since emails, phone calls, revisions, etc. also take your time, as the general idea. Something has to give. If you’re stuck with a short deadline then something else has to give. If you insist on detailed work that takes 20 hours per page, you are going to have to have longer deadlines for sure.

Congratulations! This is inspiring to me as I work on my first book And I love your style.