Hey guys - I thought I'd be the first to break the news - we're getting a physical office space! In fact we've been moving in this week out here in Provo Utah - it's been a super busy time for us and the biggest reason we've been neglecting these forums...but we'll be back when life settles down a bit. Photos and videos to come! Oh yeah - and there will be an open house some time in October. (Had to leak this before @Lee-White or @Jake-Parker)

Guys, I can't tell you how rewarding it is to hear success stories from our SVS students! I get personal emails and messages from time to time where our students share the books they've sold or the books they are illustrating for clients, or the agents they've picked up, or the personal projects they've launched and funded, or even the epiphanies they've had concerning their work!

Here are a few highlights from the people we know about - if you've had success let us know - we want to brag about you

Simona Ceccarelli - has a book due out in spring 2019 that she illustrated. Check out my interview with her here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUXXWBQyQo

Joy Heyer - Sold her book and it's now on Amazon! https://amzn.to/2D55Cpz

Charlie Eve Ryan - Just sold her second book!!! You know I'll be interviewing her as well!

Shinji Fujioka - Sold his book and is currently working on the illustrations - not sure when it's due out.

Again - let us know what you have in the works - I realize you can't always talk about it until it's official - but even if you have had inquiries about your work or other illustration work we need to hear about it. It's not bragging unless you follow it with "so there"...

Hey guys,

We are always trying to think of new ways to build SVS and make it more of a valuable tool for artists worldwide. We were talking about the idea of integrating a portfolio upload option for svs subscribers. This is how it would work: Some day in the future you would login or get an email notification and see the option for you to upload your images onto the svslearn.com site. It would allow subscribers to curate their own images and share them with potential clients. It would enable us to share the portfolios with art directors at various publishing houses. Our hope is that it would be a stop for editors and art directors looking for new talent.

In addition there would be an "upvote" option on each image. Anyone logged in could see and up-vote your image(s). We could also hire software developers to create algorithms that would auto select images with the most upvotes to populate a gallery on the front of the svslearn.com page.

*PLEASE Let us know if you think this is a good idea? If you think you would use it? If you think you would NOT use it? Any thoughts are welcome. But we need to hear from you even if you do NOT think you would use this.

Thank you for weighing in!

Hi Gang,

I love you guys. I got the book yesterday and it took my breath away. I won't be able to describe the feelings I had when I realized what I was looking at. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at each page. I felt unworthy of this much love and attention - I felt in some ways it was too much...but then I realized that this is what we do for each other. We show our ultimate love and appreciation and compassion and concern by giving of ourselves - giving our time.

Your work was beautiful - each one reminding me of the love I had and have for an amazing woman named Lori. I will cherish this gift for the rest of my life. I will remember to lift others as you have lifted me in my time of need. I will try to place myself in the shoes of others to be continually worthy of your efforts.

I'm humbled and moved to my core.

Thank you doesn't quite say it but whatever is 5 notches above thank you - that's what I'm feeling.

And thank you Shannon for all your hard work and willingness to be a leader...wow!

Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know that your kind words are so comforting... I know I haven’t met most of you but I feel I know many of you too. My tears and sorrow will fade over time but I’ll never forget your kindness.

Hey Lee - I'm not entering but I was scrolling this thread and thought - what better way to spend a Sunday evening ... great prompt!

Just wanted to poke my head in and let you guys know that we do listen and we are committed to making SVS the best place online to learn the art of making children's books. I can see that some of you are disappointed in the new changes while others are excited about them.

As an artist first and a businessman at a distant second I wanted to let you all know that it has been a huge shock to Jake, Lee and I how much money it takes to make SVS a legit company making constant improvements. We have a list of 20 ideas we'd like to implement to our site but can't afford to do right now because we just don't have the money.

These changes will greatly affect the way you guys learn, the speed at which you learn, the community where you make connections with each other, and the way you find client work. Our vision for what SVS can and should be is something that doesn't currently exist but will if we make the right moves we will be able to pull it off.

We struggle over the decisions to implement these changes and realize that we will disappoint some of you with our decisions and it weighs heavily on our minds. BUT - we are a team and we think that as we roll out these changes and more scheduled later this year it will make many of you very happy.

Hi guys,

I wanted to write an open letter to all of you because we have received a few questions an I thought this might be the most efficient way to respond to them.

Questions have been centered around the release of new classes we have put on our schedule as well as critique classes, and portfolio reviews.

First I want all of you to know how thrilled the three of us (Jake, Lee, and Will) are to be able to work on this project we call SVS! We love being able to involve ourselves in this community of teaching illustration - working with students and teachers. We share an talk about a lot of your work in our meetings and in our communication daily.

There has been some confusion on when classes are being released and what will be available to subscribers. We are sorry for the confusion so we thought we would tell you a little about what we are doing now at svs to make things more clear.

Backing up a little - when we first formed SVS we decided - the three of us - that we would maintain our professional careers as freelance illustrators. None of us wanted to give up the careers we worked so hard to develop and this is the main reason we've never worked full time at a University or art school. It's no secret that students in art schools often talk about their adjunct professors as giving them the best practical advice as they are most often still working illustrators... we knew we needed to lead by example.

As you can guess however freelance projects don't often come in at the best times and create scheduling conflicts with our SVS class schedules at times. We often have to shift projects and deadlines around to make everything work in addition to appearances and show schedules.

We are also working with other teachers and trying to work around their freelance schedules to bring you classes. Sometimes we will have a teacher who has agreed to create a class with us only to back out or postpone their class due to their schedule. Often at a University or art school you find out who your teacher is the first day of class - it could be an amazing teacher or a dud. We are trying to find the best artists/teachers on the planet who have time and are willing to work under our deadlines and budgets to bring you really useful information and training. It's sometimes like herding cats - but we love these cats!

In addition to finding teachers we have been trying to learn how to run this business by hiring consultants, a manager, interns, customer support, marketing, etc. etc. etc. We often find ourselves in meetings instead of creating new classes.

We listen and talk about your comments and try to address them in our opperations and policies. One recurring comment has been the lack of quality in some of our classes - not of content but on the audio/video side of some of our first classes. For this reason we are committed to re-making some of these classes. I've been spending the last two months re-making "Creative Composition" which should be done soon. It's not exciting because in the end I'll not be able to announce a NEW class but a remake. I'm telling you this however so you'll understand that we are committed to growing SVS and increasing the quality and value that you're getting.

We aren't the best at running SVS but we want to get better every day and we're willing to learn. If you feel like it's been taking us too long to release classes you're not alone and please understand that we get it. We're working on it.

We have a really exciting schedule of new classes that will release in the subscription coming between now and the end of the year. Here's a short list from this year and we have more planned but that aren't on the list yet because we don't have all the confirmations in place just yet - but they will happen!

Live Classes
-Idea Development
-Book Covers
-Painting Textures
-Turbocharging
-Drawing Heads & Hands

Videos in subscription
-Anna Daviscourt
-Character Design w/ Jake
-The Magic of Color revamp
-Painting Textures
-Art Licensing w/ Gina Jane
-Sketchbooking w/ Jake
-Drawing Heads and Hands video version (in August)

Videos for individual purchase only
-Idea Development video version

Extras (for FREE!)
-Live art crit with Will
-4 podcast episodes

Upcoming classes (short list)
Ben Sowards: Painting
Jake Parker: Figure design and invention
Mark Pett: From Comics to Children's books
David Hohn: Drawing Heads and Hands
Will Terry: Creative Composition updated

If you have any suggestions for us we will read them in our next meeting.

Thank you!
Will

@jthomas For me it begins with making the art you want to make - it has to. You will only be enthusiastic when you're creating your best work - the work that you can't wait to get into or back to. Your audience will find you when you share that work. Then you need to keep making the work that made you and your audience happy. Think of the art you consume be it movies, music, comics, books, whatever. The creators didn't define you - they made their _________ and you found it...and now you want more. I hope this helps...

@divya-s-kumar There are some really fun things happening in your drawing...just remember that before we can really work on painting and lighting we have to get the drawing working mechanically so we can tell a clear story. Thank you for posting this!

@JoshuaDages Hi Joshua,

Just wanted to stick my head in to say that I love your piece! You have hit this assignment spot on. I did a draw over just to show that you can push it even further with the foreground and you can get even more objects in close if you wanted.

I think everything has already been answered. I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner but I've been in meetings all day. Yes, we are now sending out surveys from backerkit to collect add ons, shipping info, and shipping costs. I know that for some backers who have not experienced the separation between product purchase costs and shipping costs it's unexpected.

@chrisaakins I should have known I’d be fact checked - lol - I think you’re right about this being a fantasy story!

@Coreyartus I really wanted to do something different and much more like an actual assignment.

@Jane-Smith I don't think you have to have children' - just a love of telling stories!

@demotlj I love it!

We will record our next podcast soon and want to read your comments on the Podcast. Please let us know if you do NOT wish to have your name read with your comment. Brief comments will probably have more chance of making it to the show.

Question: In your perfect world - what would you be doing/working on with your art skills?

In other words, in your dream world would you be illustrating other author's books, writing and illustrating your own? Would you be painting murals or graphic novels? Would you sell your art in galleries? What level of fame would you have? Would celebrities collect your art? Would you be illustrating movie posters? Would you direct your own animated films like Tim Burton? How much money would you earn each year?

Thank you in advance for participating - we want to talk about artist dreams in the podcast!

Really nice seeing your work on this one! Nice job!

@burvantill I can create an image in less than half the time as when I was working traditionally...that's money in my pocket in more time to create more freelance, gallery work, and projects for crowdsourcing...yes - it was the best decision I ever made.

We will work to make sure the zoom link goes out for tomorrow to those who didn't get it!