Nice one. I remember when I got caught doing this...lol.

Can't wait to watch it! I'm sure it will be great.

Its been a bit but finally got to the next two 🙂

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@jittles I definitely have far less confidence drawing people than anything else, it's been one of my biggest weaknesses for as long as I've been an artist and definitely one that I have to work on. Right now, though, I'm working on two paintings that prominently feature people, and only one of them has a unicorn, haha!

I'll definitely work on expanding my subject matter more. Thank you so much for the great feedback!

@washu I think the angle of th ereference photo at a more 3/4 view, hels to show the depth of the room. Your is more straight on. I wonder if that's why it looks flatter? This is all very helpful for me too!

@tombarrettillo Thank you so much, that is very helpful info! I will try the ppi adjustment and also try to make sure I don't get too caught up in things that won't show up in the final image.

@will-terry This was such a great video!! The two of are so great together - any chance of a monthly chat?....or weekly 🙂

@dottyp Thank you so so much for doing this-they are very vibrant!

@rhirsch Good point! I will try that 🙂

@rhirsch as a designer I LOVE whitespace. I think it looks great, just tossing out suggestions. You've got a few more days! 🙂

@danettedraws Thank you. I joined SCBWI a couple of months ago so I need to get involved with a critique group. I wrote to my SCBWI regional advisor and we don't have a live meet up group or anything online as we are so small so I thought going to an editor would be a good choice. Thanks so much for sharing more options. I just joined the facebook group and I'll see where that leads too.

@jimsz I will look into that and see what is in my area.. As far as that goes would I just charge the markup from the cost of prints that I do? It seems like a valid option how many prints should I go with? Just one or multiple?

You could go with just an open edition where you have many prints to sell or a limited numbered edition. You could even place the image on an online site that sells artists prints and receive a cut of the selling price and people could order it there. There are many options.

@quietyell I realize this would be a crazy tonne extra work - but perhaps if you want to be more strategic about it, research which style would fit best with which imprint so that you're only sending them one style each (and maybe just the odd one send both if you think they'd lean either way).
The other thing is, even by just sending one "look", if they're interested they'll be going to your website and seeing that you have two different styles to choose from.
If you sent out both to the same art directors, it would be interesting though if there were a way to get stats on which style generated more website visits. I suppose you could use two different bit.ly links. Then it would be like A/B testing and you could determine if one style was more popular/liked than the other!

Depending on how long you want to wait this may be something to look into. http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetails/dell-canvas-kv2718d I currently use the Surface Book and it great for drawing and doing my usually 9-5 work as a web designer. I was really going to save and go with the Surface Studio at some point, but I heard the Dell Canvas may only be around $1500 when its out.

I have 4 kids (ages 12, 11, 8 and 6)... it's definitely a major concern when thinking about the future and working towards going full-time freelance... but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I've found myself getting up much earlier to get a couple hours in and I've started sketching/doing studies in the evenings on my iPad. I'm also trying to write/revise children's book manuscripts... so the challenges are many, but I also desire to be an engaged father as much as is humanly possible.

The "how do you do it?!" is certainly going to look different for everyone, but ultimately... anything worth doing is going to require sacrifice and work.

@samuel-nunez This is looking really good. I'm not very good at shadow and light, but I will say that the shadow under the kids' ball cap is bothering me. It looks too low (he should have complete line of sight to the candy) and obscures his eyes which I think should be quite the focal point. Also, given the intensity of the glow, objects on the shelves should be catching some of that light. Brighter highlights, deeper shadows. I suspect you know this already... My two cents

@katrina-fowler This turned out much different than expected! Those flying lint balls would make me nervous as well. Very cool image.

@renduin Thank you. This is very helpful.

@lee-white thanks lee, will try to catch an offering next summer 👍

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

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