These pieces look great, I particularly like your style in the beanstalk one, lovely rendering and the characters are great. I'm still unsure about Jack's pose though like @NessIllustration says, is he running away scared or is he feeling smug because he's out running the giant? I couldn't really tell from his pose. If he's scared then i'd say just his facial expression needs changing, maybe also look at his arm too, it looks like it shouldn't be bending far back that way so by just adding a little shading/detail on his sleeves and his shorts should sort that out 🙂

With the second one, I'm finding the giant's foot distracting because we don't see all of it, maybe you could rework the hill so that we see all of his foot or lose the foot altogether. Maybe even by moving it a bit to the right so that it doesn't overlap the giant's hand? Absolutely LOVE your characters though, so much expression in their faces!
Fab stuff 🙂

Congratulations! Hopefully I'll be following in your footsteps before too long here! 😃 So cool!

You can purchase an external CD/DVD drive for less than $25. It’s worth the cost.

If you are running a Macintosh computer and still have the old computer you can insert the drive in he old computer and have it appear on the new computer wirelessly, it’s called disk sharing.

Hang onto CS5 and run it as long as possible it is better then renting software.

@kat I recently heard someone that said when you say yes to something you say no to something else. My point being you will always be missing out on something because you can't focus and do everything. But work on the things you are most interested in pursuing at the stage your in. I don't regret trying. This past Saturday I tried a few small creative tasks and felt at the end of the day I hadn't actually made anything complete and felt those moments partially wasted. But they weren't. Indecision and not working on anything would have been a waste.

Make goals that matter to you and keep them the best you can.

🙂

@kristin-wauson Also, thank you for the suggestion. I want to try it!

Agreed with @nyrrylcadiz ! It can take up to 2 months for those agencies to reply to you (if they reply at all, some of them don't unless they want you) so if you apply one at a time it won't be all that efficient. Good luck!!

The Third Thursday prompts used to be more story based, but they have moved away from that. There were some nice things about those prompts, but I find I personally prefer the one word prompts. Doing some of each wouldn't be a bad thing, though.

Well, today I ventured to try out my little huion tablet with clipstudio pro (neither of which I know how to use very well) but, I'm stuck inside sick and thought I'd just play around with it. I did three little sketches and then my pen stopped for whatever reason I have no idea how to fix so I turned it off for now). The two I'm going to share were the best. The third is pretty hilarous of my poor sick husband on a chair with his laptop. His body is way too small and his head is whacko but....I'll keep it around just for fun. It was like one of those contour line exercises that we have probably all done.

Anyway, I thought I'd use these other 2 for writing prompts for future poems or stories I might write.

Black Branch and Cold and Wind are the titles (I guess the titles could be used for drawing prompts too...if you can't think of anything to draw right now 🙂

0_1546557139487_black branch.jpg

0_1546557160997_cold and wind.jpg

@kathrynadebayo Worth getting a fluid head for a tripod too. The Manfrotto MVH500AH Pro Fluid Video Tripod Head with with an acratech levelling base has saved me so much time levelling shots (built in spirit level) and shooting overhead for smaller works. I have a Manfrotto 190GO! carbon fibre tripod. I like to travel light when out shooting. But if you're not travelling with it, an aluminium one will do. I like this one because I can shoot at 90 degrees with it, as the central column has two positions.

This is what I watched to choose my kit, not too expensive either VIDEO about Fluid Head best setup by Hudson Henry

@inkandspatter - Thanks for the link!! What a fun and colorful portfolio Laura has. (I haven't heard of her before, so now I have some fun new art videos to watch. Thanks!!) I think I will take your advice and group things together that make the most sense for skill and subject matter.

I need to improve my process, but what I do at the moment is use Dropbox like you 🙂 But I also have a couple external harddrives that I just copy all the files from my desktop to every month.

One hard drive is under my bed, the other is in the cupboard at work so that it's not in the same place as the computer. The one at work I bring home and update from time to time with new files 🙂

My issues are 1. trying to keep the folder structure on my pc nice and tidy so it's easier to backup and also 2. taking a few minutes to see how to update the folders on the external harddrive so it only updates the new files, I normally just copy the lot even if it already exists but it takes ages and I'm sure it's possible to do it quicker I'm just concerned it will miss something.

I used Crashplan for a few years too, which is an app (on the PC, iPhone, Android etc) that runs in the background and constantly backs up everything while you work, it can also keep external hard drive backups too. It was only about £5 a month and worked really well, but when I got a new PC I cancelled it as it does slow the pc down a little; it was cool though.

@kylebeaudette I used it for picture books - paperback with, if I remember correctly, perfect binding. It took a little bit of learning to upload the proper PDFs but they allow for custom covers and full bleeds. Here is my page with the three books (and one ebook) I did. You can’t see the inside of the books on this site but you can see the covers. (They are for sale on this site but I’ve never marketed them. I just print them for myself and friends.). Hope that link works.

https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Laurie+DeMott&type=

One nice thing about Lulu is they keep your files. I did the first one of these about 15 years ago but can still order copies from them today if I want.

I think either scaling up or simplifying them some. If you want to get SUPER technical here, your mice could be about half the size of your squirrel and still communicate as mice, so you do have some room to fudge there. I love the overall piece, though. The style and simplicity is great. It's got some Watterson vibe to it that I like quite a bit 🙂

@moonaticdestiny Interesting stuff! I hadn't seen this thread when it first came out so I read the thing from the beginning. And I feel like as you progress and become more comfortable with your style and what you can do, this becomes a non issue. When you start a piece knowing what you want to create, how you want it to look, the amount of detail you want to put in, then it doesn't matter what size your canvas is. When I was starting out I did find that if I worked in a big canvas I would tend to zoom in and overwork the illustration with too many details. But now that I'm so much more comfortable with my style and I've created so many pieces, I can start at any canvas size I want and the piece will still end up taking the same time and having just the amount of detail I want in it. Just because the canvas is bigger, you don't have to add more details or use more time, when you are in control that is.

@thiskatecreates No surpises for me this Christmas ,but I have the XP pen 22 you will love it!

@eric-castleman Huh. When I looked it practically asks for your first-born child (kidding, but seriously all the information it wants). I wonder why it asked me but not you?

@whitney-simms Merry Christmas!

@swordofodin i’ll definitely check that out. I’ve been using procreate for a year already and it’s really, really great. It does have its drawbacks though. I’m very excited with what Adobe is offering. Thanks!

If money is not a problem, i suggest getting a cintiq. My dream device is the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 16’’. If you want mobility and your budget is slightly lesser, then I suggest going with an ipad. It’s also important to note that you can’t use photoshop with it... yet. I hear adobe is working on an app for the ipad. However, it will probably be buggy in it’s first release. It will probably take a few years before we have a full-pledge adobe photoshop on the ipad. If you still have cash to spare but also need the mobility, then the surface pro would be awesome. You can use photoshop and many other pc programs — very convenient. Lastly, if the budget is really tight, you can always get a laptop/desktop and pair it with a wacom alternative. I hear Huion and XP-pen make great display tablets for affordable prices. Or you can get a refurbished/ used cintiq.