Welcome! Sounds like you have set some great creative goals. Hope that you enjoyed the SCBWI conference. I have attended our regional conference and it was so inspiring to be in a hotel full of creatively charged individuals. The first one is like a springboard... and makes the second one a lot easier. 🙂

I used old miskit and everythign I used it on turned orange! So, can you tell how I was able to get around it without starting all over again? I still have one more to go and it's due on the 15th I think! AAAHHHH!!!!

0_1470711183897_ifihadaboatmiskit.jpg

Thanks for the comments and feedback everybody. Made some minor adjustments. Need to start painting them instead of working on other stuff. 🙂

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Oh! Thanks. That's good to know.

@Leontine It really is simple isn't it, whatever the clients budget is and whatever you're prepared to work for is the going rate 😉

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen there's heaps of interesting ideas in your drawings, have fun, you've done a great job. Keep us updated x

@Jason-Bowen Hey Jason - this is from the prompt - i bolded the part that stands out for me

"This month's challenge is all about character design. Your task is to redesign 4 of the characters from The Wizard of Oz.

Content: You can use ANY 4 characters in The Wizard of Oz. It doesn’t have to be the main 4 characters. We also don’t need a background on this one, so don’t waste time there. This one is a character design challenge.

Style: You are free to explore any style you like. Don’t worry about keeping it to animation or “concept art” style, etc. I went with a print-making style of the flying monkey. Have fun with it and use a style you like. One way to really get going on this assignment is to put the characters in different times in history. Steam punk, western, cave man, futuristic, Renaissance, etc, could all be options. Be creative and try to have fun with it. Put a fresh spin on these old characters that we know so well.

What we are looking for: We are looking for a cohesive style for the work. We are looking carefully at your design and pose to convey character and emotion. Pose is extremely important for this one since you don’t have a background or scene to help tell the story."

i think that Lee is suggesting that by placing the characters in a different milieu that it might help us with the prompt and give us better success - but it is not a requirement of the prompt itself - i am doing a fairly straight interpretation myself though - so i would agree that a theme is not required by the prompt:)

@cybervaldez
https://svslearn.com/material/-Jj32attapF7bgm4r7ZF
(Painting color and light) This one is probably helpful!
have fun!

@Lee-White Thanks for getting back to me Lee, you guys are fantastic! I read somewhere that middle grade can fetch between $7000 and $12,000. I posted a new thread to see if anyone in the forum have any middle grade experience.

I've just received a portfolio request from a publisher about some middle grade images I did. Thought it might be wise to be prepared if something eventuates from it 🙂 Hopefully I'll have something valuable to contribute to the forum regarding it.

@natiwata I read the Giuseppe Castellano article - really great! Thanks for posting it!

I've been doodling around with a prompt for a scbwi Illustrators day Conference coming up. We are to do three pages illustrating part of a song. I really want to do some detailed colorful pictures in the ocean but I keep thinking that we need to vary the pages so it will be more interesting. But does it work to have all pages illustrated-no spots, not onesided pages, etc?

Hi guys! My brother and his friends just launched a Kickstarter for a game called ZynVaded. I'm plugging it because i am doing some of the art in the guides that come with, and its kind of brilliant. It's a table top miniature game, on a 1:1 scale, using household objects for terrain hehe. Check it out if you want 🙂 [/plug] lol

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/whip/zynvaded-evo

@Russ-Van-Dine Thank you! I noticed that too after I finished. Also the tone from the background to the pink bird is basically the same. Gray scale is so helpful! I plan on revisiting a lot of the work I'm doing, it really is never finished!

@Chip-Valecek Thanks for the feedback Chip! I agree about the finger - there is a classic image of the scarecrow from the movie where the scarecrow has his finger to his cheek so i had to steer clear of doing that 🙂

Thank you @Rebecca-Hirsch! I will check out Planner5D - sounds like an interesting addition to the arsenal!

@Chip-Valecek Thank you and yes good idea and @Karim-Benyagoub nicely executed!

I am actually doing punk inspired theme.

@smceccarelli Wow, thanks a ton!

Welcome!
I'm also new to working digitally, currently still working mostly with paper and ink, there's so much excellent material to help you in the classes 😃

@Lee-White Well, that changes my plans! I had been thinking of doing Oz in the future, kinda of my idea of the story continuing. My characters won't really fit in with normal Oz...maybe a bit... back to the drawing board!