I'm trying to add some more artistic/rough texture to my render, not sure if it's working.... any tips?

@demotlj For me, a big part of drawing something with wonky perspective is making sure that the parts that are intentionally wonky are far enough off from where they should be in "correct" perspective that it looks purposeful. If it's only a little off it looks like a mistake.

The second part for me is if someone is going to make something with wonky perspective they need to exaggerate it in a way that enhances the character of the object or space.

I love the way Alisa Yufa uses wonky perspective to add energy and character to her work. In this piece with the blue shopfront she bends all the lines in a way that gives the building a bouncy energy. If she had done this in correct perspective, the repeating verticals and horizontals of the building would have provided a quiet stability but the way she's chosen to warp things conveys the sense of charm and excitement that she (or maybe the person pictured) has when coming across this little shop.

Here's another really nice one where vertically, the bend in the perspective of the room mimics the arc in the figures' legs. Horizontally, rounds forms still uniformly hold a little bit of an elipse where square forms are pushed almost completely flat. She does this to artfully harmonize the shapes in the room - the rectangular cabinets and counters, the tiles on the walls, the stove, the squareness of the man's upper body, the pattern on the table cloth.

I'm continuing to work on "Sophie opening the door on black." Here's my rough sketch and value study. Let me know if you see anything I need to work out as I refine it:

@phil-cullen I recently purchased a huion pen tablet monitor and I love it. 100% recommend. Some people complain about having driver issues but it looks like the major issue is that the huion and wacom drivers do not play nice with each other. You have to delete the wacom drivers in order for the huion ones to work, but as long as you aren't on a machine where you are going to want to switch back and fourth between different pen tablets it's a non-issue. I upgraded from an intuos3 and in terms of pen sensitivity and responsiveness I see no difference. Drawing on the screen as opposed to on a tablet while looking at the screen is a game changer and I was able to afford so much more screen real-estate with the huion than I ever would have with a wacom.

I have a day job as a print and web designer. I agree that the easiest thing to do is just to ask your client what file format they want, but in my own experience, I have always preferred when illustrators or photographers send either the original file format (a flattened .psd in most cases) or a high-res jpg. If you're sending files directly to a printer then a PDF is the way to go but if you are sending the images to someone who is then going to turn around and drop them into a layout, PDFs can be difficult to work with and if the original file was using transparencies, sometimes programs like indesign don't render them right out of an embedded PDF. If someone sends me a PDF and I need to include it in my print publication, the first thing I am going to do is drop it into photoshop and turn it into a jpg.

In the case of an illustration, I don't think that sending a jpg is unprofessional at all since jpg is an image format and that is what you are providing - an image. I think that a jpg would only come across as amateurish if you are taking your illustrations all the way to a finished layout that is intended for print, then you would want to go with PDF (a document format).

Here are some rough thumbnails I've been trying for the other two compositions, I'd love to get some feedback on which you think are working and what I need to work on:

1st row is when howl takes Sophie out into the field of flowers
2nd row shows Sophie opening the door "on black"
The last one is Sophie (bearded man) and Michael (horse) running through the streets just before the mermaid/fight scene. I know this isn't a super important moment in the story but I like how ridiculous the two of them would look running to get a view of what's happening and I think it would be a cool way to show environment and building action through the bit of sky and other people's expressions

Alright, here it is after some reworking:

@sarah-luann oh my gosh this is looking so nice!

@MissMarck @Sarah-LuAnn So maybe something a little more like this? (excuse the messy cut-apart)

I'm in the middle of my first paint for the Howl's Moving Castle contest (more info in Sarah LuAnn's thread: https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/6723/feedback-for-thumbnail-sketches-for-howl-s-moving-castle-contest) I'm still thumb-nailing for the other 2 comps so I'll upload those thumbnails once I have them but I couldn't help diving into this one. Heres the passage from the book:

"Sohpie could see it, a little white descending flame shape a few yards beyond the dark movements that were Michael the bright shape was coming down slowly now and it looked as if Michael might catch it…. It dived away from Michael’s fingers. Michael plunged for it but it was too quick for him. It swooped for the nearest marsh pool and the black water leaped into a blaze of whiteness for just an instant."

At first I had the falling star as more of a space rock but reading the text it refers to it as a white flame so I've changed it, It still needs some work and I think I want to redo the face, it needs to look more terrified.