PBPitch twitter party tomorrow! Are you going to participate? 🙂 Do you have more than one story ready in case editor/agent likes your tweet? I really really wanted to participate, but it looks like I'm not going to have my picture book dummy polished and ready to present on time. Also I only have one picture book dummy right now (although I have few more manuscripts finished...) So I don't know. Should I try it anyway? What are your strategies regarding this Twitter event?

I get really excited when you post and update on this thread! Thanks so much for sharing your process. I'm really learning a lot of useful tips.

@Cayleen yeah, it's really tough to find the right solution i think! When it comes to kneeling chairs and those that engage different muscles I've definitely heard it's important to switch them up regularly.

I can totally see the sense in that and it's an ideal concept to have more variety, but that's easier said than done in my case. Don't really have the space to swap between different chairs XD

I think sooner or later the standing desk is always gonna be a stand-out option.

Exporting it as a JPG is probably the most efficient way. PNG would probably be the next step up. Going into things like PDFs and TIF files will be a lot larger.

I like C and B because they hav4 action ☺️ I could see B being a spot illustration, or even A. G feels kinda lonely.

Hi team of SVS! @Will-Terry @Jake-Parker
I tried to find a class for how to design an organic environment. The course "Creative Environment Design" helped a bit, but I had to go to YouTube to find what I was looking for. As it looks like you guys are working on this topic right now for the curriculum, here is a question: Could you try to acquire Phil Dimitriadis for teaching about creating organic environments? On his YouTube channel, I've already found very good videos on drawing organics. Now, for creating a hilly forest environment I watched this: Drawing Organic Environments. Very good stuff! But I had to dig it out. There's a lot of construction going on on straight plains and with cubic or round objects, but it's so hard to find a guide to organicly shaped environment.
How's the new courses going? When can we expect them to be out?
Thank you!

@LauraA oh yeah I should post all the stuff I learned, because mind blown LOL

I love that pencil!

Gordon C. James illustrates books with expressive brushstrokes. The backgrounds get very loose and abstract. The about page says he’s inspired by impressionists and artists like “John Singer Sargent, Nicholai Fechin, Henry Ossawa Tanner.” He also has a section of his website dedicated to fine art, so he does both as his career.

Maybe I’m taking your question about “fine art” to mean “painterly style.” I think there is room for this in illustration. If not many other illustrators are working like this, it could be an advantage for your pictures to stand out!

I think the difference between fine art and illustration is not the style, but the process on the business-side. Illustrations are usually commissioned by an art director to tell a story, and fine art is more self directed art for art’s sake.

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“Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut” Gordon C. James 2017

I’m a little confused by how to start up a multi-artist collaborative drawing session but after reading through the website, I think live sessions aren’t available to users. More like communities listed on the Magma Studio website. Which I think is better 🙂

Count me in — what a beautifully designed book. I’ve only had time to read a part of the section on emails and so far gained a new perspective. I’ll be reading this weekend. And as an avid listener of the podcast, it’s also really cool to know how much this book was a dream of Will’s to make. And here it is in my iPad! Hopefully I can get a print version someday.

Any last minute revisions or suggestions? Other wise I feel that I am about set on this one ☺️

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Congrats @Katie-Kordesh!!!

@Kori-Jensen Very true 😞

@Frost-Drive yeah it’s definitely good to look at things critically like that but I don’t think art directors spend all day going to artists websites. If an art director is on my site then I have already gotten their attention in some way so they’re already there with a purpose, not just busily hunting for illustrators on the web. I can still understand how it may not be clear that there are individual galleries on the illustrations page. I just made a simple change to that page that to help that.

@Ari-Sorokin you absolutely need to be satisfied with your work. You have to make art that you are proud of before you think about or prioritize other people’s opinions about/getting a huge social media following.

Getting to the skill level you want to will take time. You’re still in high school, still discovering your passions in art. That will take time!

Allow me to give you my own story. I’ve been making art for 15 years, including my high school years. For most of my college years I was stuck at a skill level far behind most of my classmates, which resulted in me failing my portfolio review three times and changing majors. Talk about a situation that invites impatience. Now, after teaching high school digital art and animation for six years and doing my own art on the side, I have just now started to really hone my skills.

So my advice: keep practicing and practice a lot of different ways. Sketch in front of your truck, sketch in a coffee shop (if you’re in a state where dining/outdoor dining is allowed right now). Get figure drawing books, study anatomy...everything! Your job right now is to explore, absorb and discover your passions.

I hope this helps.

I’ve been feeling this way, too, but more extreme: I have their weird expectation to think up an idea for an illustration and draw it beautifully and flawlessly in 5 seconds. Not sure where that came from! Though I suspect the root comes from the “best practice” of posting frequently on Instagram.

This thread reminds me of something I’ve heard over from one artist YouTube video to another and I think also on the 3 Point Perspective podcast is “remember to have fun”. Something I keep forgetting to do.

I definitely recommend against it specifically for painting. Even Autodesk's Sketchbook, which is free, was a much better painting program. And for the same price as Affinity, you can get Clip Studio Paint which is arguably one of the best painting apps you can use.

Now, from a design standpoint, I can say Affinity programs can replace photoshop, illustrator and indesign no problem. I've completely abandoned illustrator and indesign and I haven't for one second thought "man I wish I had the adobe product". I still use photoshop because I'm working a lot with teams that also need to use PSDs, and the Affinity Photo files can get janky when you convert them into PSDs and have someone open them in PS. If you're ever in a team environment professionally, I'd say you probably still need PS. But if you're doing just photo manipulation or print materials or design work for apps or websites, Affinity is fantastic.