This one comes with a background story:
*Gary the octopus didn't feel very at home in the sea. He was rescued from the beach when he was very little and grew up in a large fish tank at the city aquarium. He met many people every day and enjoyed their smiling faces and pointing fingers on the other side of the glass.

But one day, the aquarium management decided he had recovered enough, and that he should be set free in the ocean. They scooped him up from the tank with a large fishnet. Gary had tried to cling to a piece of fake coral, but to no avail. That afternoon he was swimming in the ocean again.

Sadly, none of the other sea creatures seemed all too friendly. The fish raced away when he greeted them and others of his own kind acted like he didn't exist. Even though he enjoyed the space, it was a very lonely existence in the ocean.

'Maybe things will get better,' he thought. 'Maybe I just need to get used to things.' So he wandered around the ocean floor for another week. But he couldn't seem to make any friends. He missed all those faces and noises he was so used to. He missed being tickled by the sponge of the aquarium cleaner. He missed being acknowledged.

On a sunny afternoon, just before the sun would dissappear into the ocean, Gary swam to undeep waters and lifted himself on the beach. His long arms flapping in the sand, leaving a messy trail onto the beach. It didn't take long before he was being noticed. He recognised the words "look daddy!" - he used to hear those all the time - and saw a small child come running towards him, dragging its parent behind. In great excitement Gary started waving his arms and tried to hug the kid. But instead of being carried onto land further, he was once again scooped up and thrown back into the sea.

Didn't anyone understand that he didn't belong here?

He wasn't about to give up, and threw himself back onto the sandy beach. Wiggling himself towards the two people. He waved one of his arms, like all the children used to do to him when he was behind the glass. The little child waved back enthusiastically. Gary made a small bow, and the child bowed back. Then Gary clapped his tentacles, and so did the child with its hands.
This was so much better than the ocean!

He tried to say he wanted to come with them, but the father shook his head.
'We can't take you,' he said. 'We're not allowed.' Gary lowered his head in defeat. Maybe he did belong in the ocean after all.
'But,' the father continued. 'I may have a job for you.'

And so Gary the octopus became the first mollusc window cleaner. He had all the
freedom he'd had in the ocean, but also those smiling faces behind the glass, always fresh water on hand and his own tickling sponge.

Finally, he had found a home.*

I'm not completely happy with it yet, but I'm seeing progress in my work! It was so fun working on this challenge. My first one participating.
I used this challenge as an exercise for the Creative Composition and Mastering Perspective classes and I can see I've learned a lot! Thanks for all the great content and providing us with such fun challenges.

Thanks for the opportunity This is my most recent one. Done to practise perspective and composition (and colouring/values also a bit) after following the Mastering perspective and (halfway through) Creative composition courses. Thanks for all the amazing content! I feel like I've gotten so much better in only a month. And I'm hoping to improve much more in the future.

Currently I'm using a 13HD Cintiq with a laptop (running on Windows) that I configured myself. I don't know a lot about computer specs, but I did a lot of research and came up with a configuration that seemed alright. Then I posted that plan on an online forum for computer projects/reviews/etc and asked feedback on that plan (and mainly asking then if the setup I had in mind would work for the purpose I needed it for). They provided me with a lot of great feedback! I then had the company I bought the laptop from put it all together. The laptop cost me about €1600 and the Cintiq €600 (2nd hand but in great shape).
If I would have put all those specs into a pc rather than a laptop it would probably have cost me half the price, but I needed to bring it to school with me. It was still a lot more economical than buying a Mac with the same specs; that would've cost me around €2500.

It can also be very rewarding to look for 2nd hand pc's. I regularly see 2nd hand Alienware pc's that are more than capable to run several graphic software programs at the same time for less than €800.

Good luck with your search!

A while ago I saw a blogpost from someone talking about the drawing from and without reference issue many artists seem to have. Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw it! But it made me realise that worrying about having to use a reference is as helpful as worrying about ... I can't really think of anything at the moment, but let's just say it isn't useful at all!
If you want to paint in a live setting with an audience watching you, yes, being able to draw without a reference would certainly be better. But most of the time illustrators draw alone or with a few fellow artists in a studio. And they all use references too. (Until now I've never met an artist who doesn't use references. Apart from some famous artist from Japan, but I didn't actually meet him.)
To speed things up it can be useful to train yourself into drawing certain things without a reference. Like faces or the human anatomy. What you'll learn to draw without a reference completely depens on what kind of things you usually draw or want to draw. You can built a visual reference sheet for those subjects. Draw the thing/being a lot and break it apart in shapes so you can remember how to build the figure later on. When you haven't drawn the subject in a while, just look back at your reference sheet and practise again.

I've still got a long way to go before being a great artist (or even a good artist) but I learned that drawing a lot and drawing consistently is the key! SVS sure helps with achieving those goals

If you're using Winidows as your OS I can recommend the XBoX screencapture program. It's standard on all Windows 10 installs I think. A very simple program but it hasn't failed me yet! (In contrast to every other screenrecording program I've tried in the past.)
You can select a window to capture (it is designed to capture game images/videos) and configure which keys you'd like to operate the start- pause, and stop recording functions with.
I'm not familiar with Mac solutions though. As for Linux; I haven't found a good program for this purpose yet.

I also use Premiere Pro for editing. And sometimes After Effects if I want it to look fancy

Hi! I'm currently working on a long-term project concerning a children's book about goats. Someone else is writing the text (little rhymes about all kinds of goats, in Dutch) and I'm doing the illustrations.
However, this is my first time illustrating a book and I'm having a hard time with the compositions. There are some things that need to be in the illustration, but I can't seem to fit it all in there and still keep it a kind of clean composition (because that's what we're going for).

Here you see the first composition I did. I felt it was a bit too static. So I did another one (see below).

I like the character, but the composition is terrible in both in my opinion. I feel like I've learned a lot during the SVS classes, but I can't seem to put it to practise.

Do you have some advice for me to make these sketches more lively and attractive composition-wise? I've been at these for weeks but I can't seem to figure it out!

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences with working with layers! I like the idea of starting out with more layers to be able to change things easily in the early stages and then merging them together later on, to give a more cohesive feel to the drawing.

@demotlj Yeah I'm also worried about messing up and layers seem like a good solution for that. But indeed, they also seem to make it very complicated to work on a piece!

@rcartwright Do you ever go back to an old version before flattening the layers? (Or do you even keep a version that isn't flattened?) I'm always terrified of flattening things xD

Hi! I've been using Krita and Photoshop for a while now to add colour to my drawings (as well as doing linework, more recently). But every time I start a drawing I can't figure out how to approach the whole layers technique thing.

I like to be able to easily make changes later on, so using a lot of layers can be very useful for that purpose. But I also notice I find it much harder to concentrate on the overall piece and cohesion when I use a new layer for every different item. (For instance, when I draw a person wearing some clothes, I put the skin, trousers, shirt, shoes, etc. all on seperate layers. As well as shading or important details.)

I'm really torn between the two techniques and I can't seem to figure out which one works best for me.

So I'd like to ask you: When you draw digitally, how do you like to use the layer system? And why?

@johanna-puhl Loving the details! And I also really like the colour scheme and the line-work. My lines always seem too harsh when the colour is added. I like how your lines sometimes have a bit of the colour of the subject in it. May I ask how you achieve that look? Do you work out the linework and then tweak the colours later or add the linework after you've finished colouring?

Anyway, I like your work! Followed you on Instagram

@gary-wilkinson Unless you are a window cleaning octupus I was talking about someone else
But thanks!

This one comes with a background story:
*Gary the octopus didn't feel very at home in the sea. He was rescued from the beach when he was very little and grew up in a large fish tank at the city aquarium. He met many people every day and enjoyed their smiling faces and pointing fingers on the other side of the glass.

But one day, the aquarium management decided he had recovered enough, and that he should be set free in the ocean. They scooped him up from the tank with a large fishnet. Gary had tried to cling to a piece of fake coral, but to no avail. That afternoon he was swimming in the ocean again.

Sadly, none of the other sea creatures seemed all too friendly. The fish raced away when he greeted them and others of his own kind acted like he didn't exist. Even though he enjoyed the space, it was a very lonely existence in the ocean.

'Maybe things will get better,' he thought. 'Maybe I just need to get used to things.' So he wandered around the ocean floor for another week. But he couldn't seem to make any friends. He missed all those faces and noises he was so used to. He missed being tickled by the sponge of the aquarium cleaner. He missed being acknowledged.

On a sunny afternoon, just before the sun would dissappear into the ocean, Gary swam to undeep waters and lifted himself on the beach. His long arms flapping in the sand, leaving a messy trail onto the beach. It didn't take long before he was being noticed. He recognised the words "look daddy!" - he used to hear those all the time - and saw a small child come running towards him, dragging its parent behind. In great excitement Gary started waving his arms and tried to hug the kid. But instead of being carried onto land further, he was once again scooped up and thrown back into the sea.

Didn't anyone understand that he didn't belong here?

He wasn't about to give up, and threw himself back onto the sandy beach. Wiggling himself towards the two people. He waved one of his arms, like all the children used to do to him when he was behind the glass. The little child waved back enthusiastically. Gary made a small bow, and the child bowed back. Then Gary clapped his tentacles, and so did the child with its hands.
This was so much better than the ocean!

He tried to say he wanted to come with them, but the father shook his head.
'We can't take you,' he said. 'We're not allowed.' Gary lowered his head in defeat. Maybe he did belong in the ocean after all.
'But,' the father continued. 'I may have a job for you.'

And so Gary the octopus became the first mollusc window cleaner. He had all the
freedom he'd had in the ocean, but also those smiling faces behind the glass, always fresh water on hand and his own tickling sponge.

Finally, he had found a home.*

I'm not completely happy with it yet, but I'm seeing progress in my work! It was so fun working on this challenge. My first one participating.
I used this challenge as an exercise for the Creative Composition and Mastering Perspective classes and I can see I've learned a lot! Thanks for all the great content and providing us with such fun challenges.

@Tamisha You're dream portfolio looks amazing! I also love the pencil style (and black ink style too) and I too am struggling with colour. I recently tried a method of coloring digitally (with Krita) by first applying a value base and putting a single colour on top of that. Then I added additional colours to things that needed to stand out more. I quite like the result. Maybe I' ll try it with watercolours in the future.

Thanks for sharing your inspirations!

Thanks for the opportunity This is my most recent one. Done to practise perspective and composition (and colouring/values also a bit) after following the Mastering perspective and (halfway through) Creative composition courses. Thanks for all the amazing content! I feel like I've gotten so much better in only a month. And I'm hoping to improve much more in the future.

@boris-bayo Thanks for the clear explanation! Drawing the crosses really is a great way to place things in perspective. However, it seems a bit like cheating by adding the post after the last pre-drawn pole though What if you want to place all five of them in between the two pre-drawn poles?

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen Thanks for the tip! I came across it in the SVS Mastering Perspective video's and I've added it to my wishlist for books to buy

Hi! I was just going through some exercises from the Mastering Perspective exercises PDF but I got stuck on exercise no. 07: Spacing. It says to add 5 more posts in a drawing, where the first and last post have already been drawn in a one point perspective. I understand how to figure out where the third (and forth, and so on) post would come if you would just guess where the second posts is placed. But now you've got the last post already placed and I'm confused!
I tried dividing the space into halve and placing the third pole in the middle. And then divide the new halves into halves again and those into halves again to find out where the other four posts should be placed. But that doesn't really seem to work. I'm alright when it comes to guessing or estimating these things, but when something looks a bit off and I want to check I just can't figure it out. There being 5 posts to be added instead of 4 makes it a whole lot more complicated it seems.

Does anyone know how to handle this assignment? (Apart from just winging it. Because I know how to do that )