Inktober2016 Jake Parker's prompts, day 1 Fast, day 2 Noisy, day 3 Collect, day 4 hungry
!

Little mermaid girl dreaming about having a garden on Earth.

A bit behind the schedule., but enjoying the process.

Day 12 Worried
(BLIND-DATE, carrotcake with coffee and the bigbadwolf)

Iceskating image url)

It is a very good question. I think there are two basic ways to approach when you are depicting animals. One is using the animal's anatomy, maybe distorting it a bit or emphasizing certain body parts while simplifying certain features. It really depends on what the character's role is. What is the story about? The other approach is basically using human, or mostly human body features with an animal's head. Both are acceptable and popular. If you can take a look at @Jake-Parker 's work, you can see how he is using both on a mastery level.
For picture books, even though the animals are often highly "designed" and act like humans, illustrators often keep the animal's body features too. But it depends, and actually you can use it as a tool in your storytelling. If the story has humans too, e.g.: Goldilocks, I would keep the bears very bear like to emphasize the difference between them and the girl.
On the other hand, in comic books or books for older children animals often have human bodies, perhaps some features ( claws, tail) are kept, but basically they are standing on two legs and walking and acting like humans. To me, they rather represent a human heroes, who are acting out their "spirit animals".

Uh, rereading your lines I am not sure I have answered your question. Perhaps it referred to the technical side. I try to rephrase it:
How can a half animal half human character, or an anthropomophic animal look great and consistent? (As if all the body parts belonged together, not like somebody randomly stitched a head, a body and some limbs together? SVS learn has a fantastic "Drawing Animals" course, one of the exercises asks you to draw a real animal study, then different stylized versions. It is a not only a fun exercise but will change how you se things and a huge help to understand character design. Copying other illustrators' animal characters and trying to grasp why certain parts look as they look could be also useful .
From SVS: The Posing Characters, Heroes and Sidekicks and How to Draw Everything are fantastic sources too.
I hope it helps.

Hi Guys,
I am the Illustrator Meeting Coordinator at SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) at the SF-North and East Bay Area. I am organizing this year Illustrator Meetings and would like to ask your opinion about which topic is the most interesting to you.

1. Learning about the publishing industry (meeting agents, art directors, successful authors, illustrators)
2. Writing your own book - due to a new trend coming from publishers demanding more author-illustrators.
3. Improving art skills (visual story development, designing a book do's and dont's, sketching, colors, trends)
4. Social media and branding yourself (portfolios, connecting to your audience, dealing with clients)

Please comment here (use the numbers) or send me a direct message.
Do not worry if you are not living in the Bay Area, I am still very interested in your opinion or experience.
Do you have meeting in your area? What kind of? Which one did you enjoy and why?

Thank you.
Susan
www.brainmonsters.com

Hi Elena, Thank you very much for your answer. Although we have geographic divisions, it does not mean that you cannot come to any other chapter's SCBWI meeting. For example last spring we had Jim Hoover art director from Viking Books for a whole day workshop and a lot of people participated from San Jose to Napa.
Here is a link to your local region http://sfsouth.scbwi.org It is worth keeping an eye on the website's calendar, they might add some events too. (At the moment, ours is empty too.) I will definitely let you know when we manage to organize one and will be happy to see you there.

@lmrush Hi Lisa, thank you for your answer. I checked your website. Wow, you are a member for 10 years! Have you had a memorable meeting? Are you guys active there?
Sssh, number 3 is my secret plan, we might go for a Sketch Crawl. @eleArts Elena, what do you think? Have you seen Will Terry's video about sketching at lunch time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysZUVN5sXxg "Draw Lunch" I used to do a lot of subway sketching and always enjoyed it.

Congratulations Lisa!

It is a very good question. I think there are two basic ways to approach when you are depicting animals. One is using the animal's anatomy, maybe distorting it a bit or emphasizing certain body parts while simplifying certain features. It really depends on what the character's role is. What is the story about? The other approach is basically using human, or mostly human body features with an animal's head. Both are acceptable and popular. If you can take a look at @Jake-Parker 's work, you can see how he is using both on a mastery level.
For picture books, even though the animals are often highly "designed" and act like humans, illustrators often keep the animal's body features too. But it depends, and actually you can use it as a tool in your storytelling. If the story has humans too, e.g.: Goldilocks, I would keep the bears very bear like to emphasize the difference between them and the girl.
On the other hand, in comic books or books for older children animals often have human bodies, perhaps some features ( claws, tail) are kept, but basically they are standing on two legs and walking and acting like humans. To me, they rather represent a human heroes, who are acting out their "spirit animals".

Uh, rereading your lines I am not sure I have answered your question. Perhaps it referred to the technical side. I try to rephrase it:
How can a half animal half human character, or an anthropomophic animal look great and consistent? (As if all the body parts belonged together, not like somebody randomly stitched a head, a body and some limbs together? SVS learn has a fantastic "Drawing Animals" course, one of the exercises asks you to draw a real animal study, then different stylized versions. It is a not only a fun exercise but will change how you se things and a huge help to understand character design. Copying other illustrators' animal characters and trying to grasp why certain parts look as they look could be also useful .
From SVS: The Posing Characters, Heroes and Sidekicks and How to Draw Everything are fantastic sources too.
I hope it helps.

If you live in the Bay Area and have some free time on 29th Saturday, we'd love to meet you at the Laurel bookshop in Oakland. Please, register on the SCBWI website.
Susan Szecsi
Illustrator Meeting Coordinator

@stringfellowart Your toys are adorable and not overpriced at all. They are all handmade and unique. Do not take the client's mother email into your heart. Trolls are everywhere.

Little mermaid girl dreaming about having a garden on Earth.

@lmrush Good luck to starting your Draw-Lunch! I am very curious about your experience. Once we have the Sketch-Crawl I will let you know about it too.

@smceccarelli I agree each topic can have their own conference or a series of meetings. As for the Sketch-Crawl, yes, I see the challenges. I fact, we are hesitating between the Oakland Zoo to draw animals, or perhaps some busy public place in Oakland, Berkeley or San Francisco and daw people. I am also thinking about to give more structure/schedule to this Crawl. Based on my experience, most artists are genuinely shy. In case of SCBWI skill levels are ranging from the beginners to more established illustrators. If we choose to go to the Zoo, I am putting together a handout with some advice. I identified 2 main problems why people would hesitate to do it. One is feeling intimidated by others watching you when drawing. Second is worrying because you are not sure what you are "expected" to do. I think we can address both by doing some icebreakers, demonstrations (I mean showing it) and organize some peer help. I want to ask the more experienced, more extravert participants to "help" the newbies. I imagine if you go around the zoo with your small group (3-6) it feels different. It would not be compulsory of course. However, I do not want anybody walk around bored and alone or staring their phones. My aim is to make everybody happy, enjoy drawing, discover that sketching improves your skills, it is a tons of fun and an opportunity to socialize. I have been watching @Will-Terry's videos for years and learned a lot from him. I hope I will have the courage and the talent to encourage people as much as he does.
I truly appreciate your comments. What great suggestions. It would be nice to know if there is a study or book about current trends and market preferences. Maybe approaching the librarians and teachers is a doable thing for us.
I love the Adobe Max idea a lot!

Congratulations Lisa!

@lmrush Hi Lisa, thank you for your answer. I checked your website. Wow, you are a member for 10 years! Have you had a memorable meeting? Are you guys active there?
Sssh, number 3 is my secret plan, we might go for a Sketch Crawl. @eleArts Elena, what do you think? Have you seen Will Terry's video about sketching at lunch time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysZUVN5sXxg "Draw Lunch" I used to do a lot of subway sketching and always enjoyed it.

Hi Elena, Thank you very much for your answer. Although we have geographic divisions, it does not mean that you cannot come to any other chapter's SCBWI meeting. For example last spring we had Jim Hoover art director from Viking Books for a whole day workshop and a lot of people participated from San Jose to Napa.
Here is a link to your local region http://sfsouth.scbwi.org It is worth keeping an eye on the website's calendar, they might add some events too. (At the moment, ours is empty too.) I will definitely let you know when we manage to organize one and will be happy to see you there.

Hi Guys,
I am the Illustrator Meeting Coordinator at SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) at the SF-North and East Bay Area. I am organizing this year Illustrator Meetings and would like to ask your opinion about which topic is the most interesting to you.

1. Learning about the publishing industry (meeting agents, art directors, successful authors, illustrators)
2. Writing your own book - due to a new trend coming from publishers demanding more author-illustrators.
3. Improving art skills (visual story development, designing a book do's and dont's, sketching, colors, trends)
4. Social media and branding yourself (portfolios, connecting to your audience, dealing with clients)

Please comment here (use the numbers) or send me a direct message.
Do not worry if you are not living in the Bay Area, I am still very interested in your opinion or experience.
Do you have meeting in your area? What kind of? Which one did you enjoy and why?

Thank you.
Susan
www.brainmonsters.com