@Amber-Ross-Webb oh I relate!! I’m a mom of five too. Mine are 13, 11, 10, 7 and 6. It makes for a crazy life, but it’s good. I get inspired by my kids all the time, but I also have very limited time. @Misty-McKeithen is in the same boat too. I just decided a few years ago to approach it like my husband tells people learning guitar to do it. “Five minutes a day” that’s what he always tells people. Even if that’s all you can commit to, you might do more than that on occasion, but you will improve over time. I decided that if that was all I could do, I would do it. And, I decided I was going to be ok making terrible art too. I would scribble in my sketchbook at the end of the night if that’s all the time I had. I also gave up on trying to make the perfect creative space and only working on my things when I knew I had hours and hours. It just wasn’t practical for me to try to take that much time and space. But, I take what I have. And, I have noticed a lot of improvement in my work over the past few years, so I’m keeping at it. It’s the slow plan for sure, but it’s worth it. ☺️

Here is my final submission. I learned a lot during this process. Thanks to everyone for their help!Mermaidmusic.jpg

Thanks for sharing 🙂

@animatosoor said in #draw50things - Birthday Party - Would you please critique?:

@mellebluesworld said in #draw50things - Birthday Party - Would you please critique?:

Hi Melle. Not at all! I appreciate your getting back to me with those recommendations. I actually just started watching Painting Light and Colour only after reading your message, and it's just what I need! So, thank you! I'm going to get started on taking notes and doing exercises for practice. I'll get around to the other courses as well. But man, there is so much in just this one.

You're right - the idea of the candle being burnt down would be so great to work into this illustration. Right now I know my lack of knowledge on light and colour is limiting my exploration in that regard. I'm going to see if I can give it a shot while progressing through the class I'm currently taking.

Thanks once again!

YW, I am glad I could help. And I just knew this class would be perfect for you 🙂 . I bet real soon you will be able to solve the light and colour issue in a perfect way. Looking forward to it :).

Whenever I have a big piece like this I start by penciling in a perspective grid like the blue one here. I marked out some areas where the outlines of the trucks get a bit off grid. Especially near the corners of the image, drawing in perspective can feel really strange. There is something in the brain that rebels against drawing something we know to be square with such acute angles. Hope this helps.
EE0DC770-42C2-401A-8269-0D021CBA2291.jpeg

@nyrrylcadiz this is super helpful thank you. @hannahmccaffery i know illustrator pretty good its the drawing skills i have to work on. thx... im a little aspergers so i didnt see the connection at first but i now see that if i can draw then i can apply it to any other style i want.

The other reason why i wanted to "jump" into learning this still is because i can animate in after effects, and the clean vector look works well for animations... again thanks..

@Tihara-Ezzo hi! Most of the pieces seem uniform with each other so good job on that except perhaps for that last illustration. It seems too painterly and unfinished. It doesn’t quite fit in with the rest. Aside from that I’d recommend adding more pieces to your portfolio. A good 10 new pieces would probably be enough. I wish I could help you with your jod search in Austin but I’m not from there. The only place I got freelance work from was online. I wish you all the best.

@Whitney-Simms Thanks for the info on spoonflower. I did have a go with Society6 a couple of years ago but their percentage is too low for me, considering that I was the one doing all the work. I use Contrado in the UK for POD products as the factory is just down the road to make it easy to get samples. They offer decent wholesale prices even with small orders. It's good to be able to visit the factory where the stuff is being made. I prefer the idea of licensing art to manufacturers and they do the selling. I'm not good with that side of the business. But I am improving in this area. If I didn't have a photography agent I'd be broke!

@Braden-Hallett aw thanks Braden. I couldn’t have done it without people like you on svs that do art which pushes me to keep doing it too.

I guess someone is paying attention while I a taking my classes.

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Questions I was asked? Should my house have a porch with a crawl space? Should the house be on a hill a flat line seems boring? Should I put a play set in this open space?

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Then he showed me this one. He’s carrying a cake mommy. It has a ring on top, he is going to ask someone to marry him.

All of this then makes me wonder. When did I stop telling stories in my art? When did I start over thinking and over analyzing? How can I make sure they don’t?

And when will he start letting me hang some of this in my office?

Please excuse our legs and feet!

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I like this composition. I think it needs more. There is a lot of white space. Then again, it will be on a smaller final size. Thoughts?

I am thinking about developing the areas more digitally. Then putting it together.

@Kevin-Cochran I'm relatively new to drawing, so I wonder the same thing. To limit myself from overwhelm in art stores, paper, etc., I stared with Procreate on the ipadPro. I did Inktober last fall, and limited myself to 1 brush, only different widths, same character, shading via same tool with cross-hatching and textures. I tried really hard to not allow "undo" or erase. It was a great discipline for that month-I think I succeeded about 98% of the time.

I'm not regularly so disciplined, and I struggle with wavy, shaky scratching lines. I need to go on a 30 day campaign for those. At the suggestion of the recommendation of another learning program (Drawabox) explicitly recommends starting with a fineliner and paper. I tried it-and boy it sure is different. I resist doing this-we'll see.

I'll look forward to seeing how this goes for you.

@ShannonB I'd love to see!

Just thought I would share this with everyone that is interested. It's an interview hosted by Bobby Chiu of Schoolism with childrens book illustrator Kim Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFBpFErT9ho&t=101s

There is a lot of great insight into the industry from all of the interviews he has done.

i'm a bit late here but.. way to go!!🍾

@NessIllustration sleep this one out and return the next day fully energized. You can do this. 💪

From an apple person, go to your “about this mac” in your apple logo on the menu bar and make sure it’s the right ram for your make and model. It’s a desktop right?

I've published several kids books on Amazon. But as @Chip-Valecek said, most of my sales come from self promotion and buying my books myself and then reselling them by hand.

Such great information. This is my way to follow and lurk without being too creepy. 😁

Great love and respect to Will and his loved ones.