I was surprised by such a unanimous answer! Personally, I didn't really find one particularly stronger than the other, they both have their appeal and I really like the contrast of B, but I will say that B needs a little more careful finessing. Some of the values/coloring of the light areas on B are looking a little muddy, almost like she's bruised. It's happening a little on A, but the contrast of the background on B emphasizes it more.

@Lee-White Lol, good one. Whew! Just imagine the heckling you'd get from them if you didn't make that first cut.

Great job chip. Something I noticed, color-wise, is that the original has a stronger warm vs cool setup on the clouds and the swing. The light areas are quite warm and the shadows are quite cool in comparison. You haven't quite pushed it that far.

@jasondmcintosh Omg, that's awful, but makes for a fantastic story.

I didn't catch that it was you, but I thought to myself "Oh, I bet Lee chooses this one as one of his favorites".

@Braden-Hallett When I think of you, I think of someone who already has a very distinct style and point of view, and very strong skills to back them up. I'm interested to see what you get out of an assignment like this.

@theprairiefox That's awesome! I'm glad you were able to get an intaglio print out of it. You were really successful in getting the digital version to have a traditional grit to it, but this latest version really has that richness you mention.

@Whitney-Simms said in 100fairysproject:

@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson I still stand by the fact you need to make patterns with your foliage. I want to see entire fabric collections from you. And the fairies, oh my gosh, they couldn’t be cuter!

I agree. A fabric line from you would be so gorgeous.

For the art trade, my partner already had a project to work on, but I didn't. We came up with a list of keywords I was interested in, and we settled on doing a piece around something spooky. I did some preliminary work along those lines, first starting with jotting down some words, looking at reference and inspiration, sketching ideas and sketching, to familiar myself with Edwardian/Victorian architecture.

Then I threw out a bunch of ideas based on my initial sketching/ research phase:

Then I did more idea exploration when we narrowed the piece being centered around a ghost and a library in an abandoned mansion.

After this round of thumbnails, we decided to make this a multiple piece project, instead of it just being one piece like we originally planned.

Now I just have a very loose story line of a kid exploring an abandoned mansion and encountering a ghost or ghosts. We've discussed the idea that I don't necessarily need to get a detailed story-line down.
I felt the need to make a piece centered around who this kid is and what he's doing, but I'm not sure if I'll end up including it or not. I did not do 50 thumbnails for this piece. I just did a few sketches. I'd say I'm 75% done with it, and I've started to do thumbnails for another piece in the project, but I'm thinking I need to take a step back and plan how the pieces will all be working together visually and how the pacing will work. I also have to figure out just exactly what a middle grade style is, and if it's even valuable to have them all in color, or if they should be in black and white.

Trying to make 50 thumbnails for the next piece:

Like many others here, inspired by @Lee-White's process and thumbnails videos, I'm trying to be better with my own process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6u_g0RPiCA&t=10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jghVE4V5FfU&t=437s

I've gotten better since I started hanging around here in 2017. Before that I didn't really understand how to do thumbnails and I'd get so discouraged with how crappy my initial sketches looked. Now I utilize some writing prompts, do a few thumbnails, and more preliminary work. I have a lot more control than I use to, but I feel like I still waste a ton of time, I'm disorganized, and unfocused.

I'm currently working on an art trade project with someone. For my side I'm exploring multiple pieces (up to 6) surrounding a story-line of a kid encountering a ghost/ghosts in an abandoned mansion. It's supposed to be targeted toward middle grade kids. I've done work on it already, but I haven't quite reigned myself in process wise, and find myself getting off track. I'm starting this thread for accountability and try to keep myself on the rails.

I'll post my process so far in the next post. Feedback or observations along the way are always welcome.