On the plus side, Lisa got a visit from the Tooth Fairy that night.

Same here. My schedule is out of wack! I am loving that line work of yours that has Pete's Dragon in it.

I'm taking a schoolism class, Nathan Fowkes Color and Light. It's taking me FOREVER to get assignment 3 done. I think I started this class several months ago. Sigh.

Worst Fear- That your dad was responsible for Bambi's mom.

I'm hoping to be able to enter the competition this month! Last month I bit off more than I could chew and then I got sick, so I wasn't able to get my piece done in time. I'm hoping a more simple concept will allow me to finish in time.

Posting my progress here to keep me accountable. Here's my idea. Still need to work on some drawing problems and play with the palette before I render it out.

Welp, it's still just 11:30 pm in my home state. That totally counts.

Oh, wow. Just want to say thank you to all of you who helped steer my illustration to what it became. I was lost with it for a while! And a big shout out to Tyson, who I know was feeling a bit down after the last competition. He makes really good work, and it paid off for him in this particular competition! Good job, Tyson!!! Congrats to the rest of the finalists and to everyone else; there were a lot of amazing pieces that I think could easily have taken 1st place right along with me.

Thank you!

Hi friends. How has everyone been lately?

Loving this contest! Fall is my favorite season when I'm in a colder climate, so I'm loving the vibe from all of the entries. Here's my contribution. I wanted to make it into project, so I pretended it was in a songbook for kids. If you want to listen to the arrangement I made for the song, I have it on my instagram.

Hi! I thought I'd post my Inktober project here. I'm following the official prompt list and doing a continuous story line. My style and execution are a bit all over the place, but learning a lot with this project. I love being apart if Inktober and seeing what everyone else is coming up with and it's cool seeing all the different styles you can achieve with ink.

To any of you who may have seen some of my Inktober stuff on Instagram, do you think the descriptions I've been adding are a good thing? Or should I just post the picture and not add to the story with words?

Mwahaha, while all of you are busy with Inktober, I shall sneak in and win this one. Just joking! Monsters are are totally out of my comfort zone. I am super pumped to see what crazy monsters people come up with. @Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen already has a head start!

@deborah-Haagenson I don't think I said 5000kb? Either way, solid advice.

@NessIllustration Yeah, I agree. I was mainly trying to call attention to the code, to pinpoint a reason why the image quality was lost once uploaded. Even though she apparently kept it under 500kb- it was still too big for the forum and it was therefore resized. But it does sound like I'm encouraging cheating the forums, so I should not have mentioned taking it out of the code.

Ok- so trying to upload your last contest piece at the same pixel dimensions, when I look at the image code, or whatever it's called, it has "resized" in the code. I don't know if that's reducing the quality or not, but I suspect it is. I think you can take out the "resized" part out of the code and it might help with the quality, but I'm not sure what that would do for loading times or if it would bog down the forums.

Clicking on your contest entry, it looks like the dimensions- width and length are quite large. 2595 X 3608 I'd consider making it to 1200 or less on the longest side and see if that helps. I don't see why you'd need to go larger than that. I don't think the judges are needing to zoom into your piece so much, and if they need a bigger size if/when you win, they'll ask for it.

I wonder if the forums are reducing the quality of your piece, to help the image load quicker, because the dimensions are so large.

These are looking great!

Do you think they both deliver a sense of "protect/care"?

I think A definitely does, though I'd consider curving the big creatures gesture into the scene a little more, instead of being so relaxed. Being in a cozy cave in winter and the overall gesture of the big creature in relation to the smaller characters hit your keywords very well.

I'm not really feeling B as is. I think it's an interesting concept, but the gesture and angle of the big monster and it's expression is deadening the fun and impact of the scene. Maybe if the legs were angled up a little and the sled is was catching air? Maybe if the smaller animals were all on the big monster's back, and the monster was in a more active position? Maybe if the smaller characters were held higher, against his chest?

Do they both look fun to kids 2-6? any suggestion to make them more fun?

Yes. I think they're both fun for this age group, and they both have a lot of potential for fun secondary details as you progress the piece.

Any suggestions compositional wise? (I'll shade them later though as they're rough sketches now)

I'd consider flipping B so it's angled the opposite way.

I agree, it's a bit busy, dark, and hard to make out. I'd play with taking out the number of shapes in the background, and maybe in the areas of the walrus where the light hits, if not all over.

It's a cool technique overall though, and it very eye catching. It reminds me of a paint by sticker craft my kid did once. If you haven't seen those, check them out, it might give you some ideas on how to simplify just a bit.

I like 8, 5, and 3

Is the fox's fur supposed to be white, or are the markings supposed to be different local values? It looks like you might be timid to put in some dark values. I do see very subtle value shifts, but the piece as a whole looks like the same value gray. Are you taking the light and shadow class right now?

No I can't help, because they all look great! #1 is such a fun treatment of the title, which I haven't seen before in a book cover. #2 is great because it's not a stereotype of the movie or book that we see often and the comp is cool. #3 is such a cool pairing of composition and text! It also hints at part of the story that's not commonly shown, but you still have the icons of Dorothy and the monkeys There's something a little stiff about title as is, though I like the placement and general idea of it.