@chrisaakins @burvantill thanks guys! ☺ i'm really happy to know that you enjoy my words of encouragement. it really warms my heart. i must admit, most of the time, I really don't know what to say so all I could offer is a compliment. I'm still very new to the business. I feel I lack a lot of life experience being too young and work experience having jumped straight in illustration after college. There's still a lot I have to learn. However, I'm very happy I found SVS tho. I learned a lot from this forum. You guys and everyone in this forum has helped me mature both in art and also as an adult. This forum has done so much for me so I'll never get bored helping our fellow members out ☺ ♥

I've got two books on Amazon that I worked with an indpendent author on. They're part of a series to promote literacy in the California Central Valley.

I Read A Book: https://www.amazon.com/Read-Solving-Problems-Through-Literacy/dp/1695641388/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=i+read+a+book+susan+walsh&qid=1599767524&sr=8-1

Benny, The Librarian, and The Dog That Needed A Home: https://www.amazon.com/Benny-Librarian-That-Needed-Home/dp/B08CW9LVQ3/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=benny+the+librarian+and+the+dog+that+needed+a+home&qid=1599767568&sr=8-1

@idid definitely. 😅

@ambiirae Thank you so much! The wisps are my favorite part to paint 😂

Wow you guys, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I am so grateful for finding this community, you are all so kind, and I'm so happy that many of you found this inspirational! I really wasn't sure when I was writing this up if it was going to be helpful, so your feedback is so touching!

@djlambson I AM working on a book with the yeti! I want to do a whole series with him! But first I'm working on a book about how to draw cute art! I even have an agent for it!

I think my next steps are to get a professional portfolio review for guidance. I personally think I need to some character poses on a sheet and two separate illustrations that are a part of the same story. I also want to have a piece with a more dramatic composition.

By the way, at the moment I'm listening to some comedy while I work. If y'all haven't yet heard of Dry Bar Comedy, I just did you a favour, check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DryBarComedy

Holy Cow! You guys are a wealth of knowledge. Thanks so much for sharing your favorite watercolorist with me.

@K-Flagg Love Minnie Small! She is a long time favorite. Actually, she is the one that got me hooked on inktober and led me to the joys of Jake Parker via youtube and then the SVS crew. Her haunted house series for inktober a while back was amazing. Well, I actually had a book of Will Terry's from a book fair and how crazy is it that those two were buddies.

@Matt-Baldwin Veneta is amazing. She has intense colors! Sorta realistic, yet still uses wet on wet blends masterfully. Thanks for letting me know about her.

Ira needs her own line. Matt, you and @deboraht mentioned her. I have followed her for a while as well. I generally hate fall, but her color palette makes me love it in her work. Her trees and character design is freaking amazing too.

@demotlj and @Coley. Your artist have this city grime about their work. Alavaro Fehr's work is so dark with pops of color that are magnificent. I love how they are strategically used. Joseph's work is brighter, but still uses shadow in a clever way. I love his looseness in the watercolors as well. And of course the horses are great.

@jsnzart Andrew Tischler...That guys is CRAZY! every detail. I can't even begin to figure out how to paint like that. I think I am going to check out his podcast. Check out Tierry Duval Aqua on IG. That guy is insane for details too. He uses watercolors. I think you would like him too.

Thanks guys for giving my IG feed a few fresh faces. I can't wait to dig into the artists' work a little more. Here are some of my favorites.

Ohn Mar Win- a wonderful illustrator and licenses to boot! Not to mention she seems like a real sweet person

Sarah Voyer- She lives in Hawaii. I adore her.

Ocean Paper- I am not sure who the artist is, but their work is great and they make watercolors too.

Kirstensevig- she just had a baby, so she isn't creating as much as she used to. However, her latest project with knomes is super cute. Great illustrator too. Does notecards and all sorts of things. Her packaging is INSANE! Sorry, we are allowed to geek out about that here, right!

Esther Gili- Yall, her character design is one that makes me drool. She is an illustrator in Spain. I wish I knew Spanish. Actually, someone should tell the big guys about her. Y'all need to check her out. @Lee-White @Jake-Parker @Will-Terry - sorry, I tried not to tag you guys in the post.

True Cotton (in IG) lives in my town. She has a great style too. Quotes and flowers mostly.

Okay, I think that is all I am going to add. See, I didn't have any landscape artists on the feed. so thanks for all your help! Y'all have a lovely day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the tip. This is great!

@Geoffrey-Gordon i am so interested in this

@Julia yes I do

@idid haha You definitely use some warmer tones too so I don't think it's lacking! I also tend to prefer cooler colours so I just noticed the overall trend. If anything I think it makes all the pieces in your portfolio look very cohesive ☺

@Laurasketches thanks Laura!

Visual and interesting. I like it.

@Joanne-Roberts I'm excited to try it! I hope to start working on the ideas soon. I'm a teacher, so I haven't been able to work on my own art, and definitely feel like I've been missing out!

7 years is not really a long time. They just stopped supporting Windows XP 19 years after it released. I would absolutely say that a computer that told you to buy a new machine to run software that's 7 years old after you did an update is forced obsolescence. Most people do not have numerous iMacs and other computers lying around they can just load up different versions of the OS to run programs they need.

Thanks for the tips guys. Might need to do a few tutorials before I start messing with it on something real.

@jdubz Thanks , I already passed it up but this is something to look into for the future though. XD

I always enjoy looking at model sheets used in cartoons. And I always wanted to draw them for my own characters for fun (someday soon!). I came across this page full of character model sheets from various eras of cartoon history that I thought many of you may find useful either of interest or study.

Some are drawn so, excuse me, artistically, that I’d like to frame them.

https://conceptartempire.com/character-model-sheets-gallery/

Quick, stupid question which I assume the answer is “yes, of course, silly!”— are model sheets used in children’s book design? Reason I’m asking is I’ve always heard about model sheets being used in animation and nowhere else. I suppose it’s because many different artists would be drawing the same character whereas a children’s book would be drawn by one person (unless it’s becomes a serial over decades? 🤔). I suppose model sheets would be used in the comic books industry as well.

@fpichel Thank you for your reply - that's been very helpful as I really didn't know where to start with the marketing side of it 👌

really useful tool I did not know it existed. Thank you for sharing