@Coley Thanks!

@NelsonYiap you are right. I think I fall into the trap of thinking I’m giving up on my dream if I don’t work at it no matter what. But, honestly, sometimes life just plows you over. And it’s not wrong to let yourself feel that. I figure I’ll become more consistent at things like Instagram when I have the space for my art to be an actual career, but I’m gonna let myself be a student for now. And, yes! I have been filling my creative bank account with books and things. And even some outside time. Though, we live in Alaska and it is COLD! I do sometimes just sit with a cuppa tea and let myself stare at the trees around our house. It is very peaceful and filling to do that.

This post was inspired by "What Are You Working on This Year?" podcast. A from what jake said I suffer from idea debt heavily... meaning I have so many ideas and i go nowhere because I don't know where to start, so nothing gets done.

I would really appreciate some solid advice, from the veterans here, please. I have been a member here for about a year. What a great and talented group to be part of. So my concern is the money-making side of art and the direction I would like to go in. I hear a lot of people trying to get an agent or want to work as an illustrator. What if you don't want any of that, what I mean is .... what if you just want to create your own books or artwork to sell. I come from being a web developer for the past 12 years and running my own business so I understand client relationships and the finance part of the business. My dream is to simply create my own stuff and sell it. I have no interest in publishers or other authors. I am rambling so I will get to the point, here is what I am thinking...

I want to sell artwork on Etsy, Red Bubble, and Society 6. I want to write and illustrate my own books, I will self publish or kickstart it. I am thinking of selling prints, stickers, custom object art sets.

My medium is inking, I am also good at vector work. Since this is a whole new area I am breaking into, I have just been inking pics of fan art and posting it on Instagram..... I get likes but no follows.

I was thinking

grow a fan base on Instagram doing fan art when it's big enough....open a website and sell art online

I am still going through the tutorials here on svs since I am not so competent digital coloring.... but learning aggressively with clip studio and a pen tablet

After that long into I have the following questions:

What are the best art product ideas to make money? Is it best to do work digital or traditional, I have to the tools to do both? Must I develop my ow art or should I do fan art? Am I going about this all wrong or any thoughts or advice? My business pays the bills so I have time to ease into this field and no pressure to earn, just want to transition out of what I am doing. This means I only have about 3-4 hours a day I use, how should I use my time? Should I develop my own style first ?

I am sure I sound like an absolute noob, but any honest feedback would be appreciated

@gavpartridge thats a great link, thx! lucky you 🙂

Several studies have been conducted and the conclusions have remained the same, that illustrations not only influence young readers to form an inclination towards stories but influences them to think out of the box as well. Several top children’s book illustration have been built to pique the interests of the young readers, helping them familiarize themselves with the world of art and literature. All avid readers started off with books that had illustrations within them. How do you personally think illustrations impact children do and their perception, can you mention a few examples?

If I tell myself I'll only spend a certain alloted amount of time on something, say 20 minutes, set a timer, and if I want to stop I'll stop and try again tomorrow (don't lose too much time that way if it's an epic fail) however if I get in the groove I'll continue! Works great for cleaning as well!

Hi guys, I haven't posted much here for a while because I'm working on an actual Illustration project- my first proper Illustration job in ages! (which I can't show much of yet unless I get permission first), but I wanted to show you some of my progress with 3D art which I started learning in 2018. I decided to learn Blender because it was free and there are lots of tutorials online.
I made lots of things last year just learning modelling skills and what the software could do.
3dwork2019christinegweb.jpg

This year I'm finally getting around to learning digital sculpting which I'm using Blender and 3D Coat to do it with. I just wrote a blog on it here: https://medium.com/the-art-squirrel/learning-digital-sculpting-from-a-2d-artists-perspective-an-introduction-b9f555d6c911
Here is a model I made last year using 3D Coat:wood mouse.jpeg
I'm working on a squirrel next. I've done a squirrel in 3D but I'm trying to improve on the last one I did.
All the best 🙂

@Jeremy-Ross I use posted notes too! You can paste them up to view them. I don't take advantage of this, because I erase as I'm creating one. Otherwise I'm thinking too fast and lose my flow. For me that works better than drawing over again for another thumbnail each time. I get into it! My imagination starts working and before you know it I feel like I've got my idea. I should then probably create more thumbnails though to focus on the values and composition.

Maybe if a SVS artist here is making donation against art, s/he could advertise here?

Everyone is making profit out of it : the artist (marketing/advertising), the buyer (he gets something tangible) and the charities (where the money is given). It does not need to be big or expensive, each penny counts!

ABC News has listed all the charities that are involved in the fire relief effort (incl. rescuing the wildlife, helping firefighters and supporting the communities).

Cheers!

@Kevin-Longueil I did not know this thanks for that information

@carolinedrawing thank you! ✌️

@NicholeMarie thank you so much

I would like to have youtube channel

@theprairiefox I saw your work on the light and shadow thread. When I took that course, I did it all digitally but as I was looking at what you have done, I was thinking that it would be great experience (and a lot harder) to try doing it traditionally, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough 🙂

@josegalue25 Nice! I totally think you should start applying. The worst that can happen is you'd get some good feedback from one of the places where you apply.

One thing I think you could do is on your website, the images are pretty small. So some of them are really hard to see. I would suggest making them a lot bigger, especially for the vis dev work.

Keep us posted as to how things go!

@mag great ideas! I'll be sharing here soon 🙂

Thank you very much!!)

@Qi In fact, I am struggling with style, but I don't think that's why I posted the article. If anything, I like too many styles, and yes, I take too long to finish a piece! But aside from that, I mostly think it's interesting how the medium and the working conditions influence the resulting images.

@robgale You make a good point. In music there are many genres, but within those genres there are fairly strict limitations and the creativity comes within them. I'm sure someone has tried crossing Irish fiddle with rap (to name two genres with fairly strict conventions), but I'm not sure the result would be recognizable! Maybe "flat style" is one genre of illustration, and there are several acceptable ones, but with so many style choices available, there is a certain homogenizing tendency within each genre in order to flourish within it. Does that make sense? In fact, when I look at the NY Times, yes, there is a lot of the flat style, but there are also others. It's more in straight graphic design that there are strict trends.

@NelsonYiap I like line a lot too, and painterly strokes. I think we have to just do what we do and find a market for it, and it's probably not either all compromise nor all stubborn individualism, but a natural mixture. In fact, the SVS guys have talked before about the danger of working too much towards a specific market. You may get hired for it and then find yourself having gone out of style! If you follow your own temperament, at least that style can mutate honestly.

@deborah-Haagenson I don't know of a specific course that would help with a tree vs. a figure, but if you follow the curriculum, you develop your skills across the board and it can't help but develop a consistent style eventually, because you have more visual vocabulary and choices.

Do you have to transition to a more cartoonish style? I think I have a little, but much less than many people, because I come from a portraiture background and I love figure drawing. I struggle more with concepts, backgrounds and style issues instead. And no, the anatomy in my figures is by no means perfect, especially as I start to exaggerate for gesture, but I find such beauty in individual people that I want some of the particulars to remain. Maybe you feel the same?

Cool Thanx!😃

@KathrynAdebayo

Straight from the monster itself 🙂

https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/refurbished/ipad/ipad-pro-12-9

There's no first gens in the canada store, but the US store may be different.