To me the important question isn't why she did it or what she had to gain. I'm not interested in mud-slinging. That is in the past.

The important question is, as a creative who might work with an agent, what can we learn? How can we avoid getting stuck in this kind of a situation? Something on this scale might be rare, but it still bears thinking about. What, as an industry, can we do to not only support her former clients (as mentioned, people have been doing great at that) BUT ALSO to make a way for people to speak up if something like this were to happen again, or otherwise prevent it from happening again, or going on so far/so long?

I guess these are all big questions that nobody can really answer. I believe its at least good to make sure people are aware so they can make thoughtful decisions, and also discuss things as (hopeful) members of this industry and try to do things better if we can.

@heidi-ahmad Thank you! That’s super helpful, I’ll take this on board as see how I can create more depth and rethink the bee! One of my issues at the moment is showing what’s at the far end of the garden without making it too small. There’s a sort of battle going on between keeping some semblance of perspective whilst also being able to show what’s there! It’s a fun challenge tho.

I do wish I knew how to work with vectors I’m just using procreate on the iPad and wouldn’t really know where to start to do vectors. I’m also going to be painting this with acrylics for the final as they want it in my acrylic style and to hang it on the wall as well as use it for their printed visitors map.

@haroartist glad you're happy with the cintiq but I'd rather pay that money on a laptop.

btw plastic pen on plastic wacom tablet was only a little less annoying than nails on chalk board xD
I'm waiting for that day when it's normal to paint on screen with real brushes so I wouldn't have to press hard on the pen 😣 and you wouldn't need to keep your hand on the screen either 😃 no more gloves in the summer
thank you for your review 😃

@teju-abiola i agree. Brad Colbow has a lot of useful reviews featuring cintiq alternatives and just pen-display tablets in general. He also has a site where he posts his top recommended tablets.

@chip-valecek Thank you! I appreciate your help.

Hi guys, I just posted an image for the July contest. However I have just created another one and I now I am not sure, which one is more suitable? Whats your opinion? 1_1532975701770_HIDING_mugaska.jpg 0_1532975701769_HIDDEN_whale_mugaska.jpg

Sure, “just doing the work anyway” is something that can be effective if you’ve dealing with mild anxiety about not being good enough at drawing or something. But that sort of anxiety isn’t a mental illness, that’s just part of being human. 😛

What it sounds like @christopherh is asking, is: “How does someone deal with a mental illness that significantly affects their ability to function, while working fulltime as a freelancer?”

Sadly, I don’t think that’s always possible. If anyone reading this doesn’t understand why I might say that, then I’d encourage them to watch “The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive” by Stephen Fry. If you broke your hand, you wouldn’t be drawing until it healed. In a similar way, if you were experiencing a mental health crisis, your energies might be best put towards getting better.

That doesn’t mean that a having a mental illness would necessarily prevent you from creating excellent, meaningful work, or even necessarily from working as a professional. An example of someone with clinical depression who earned a living as a creative writer was Ned Vizzini, who was one of my favourite authours as a teen and sadly committed suicide in 2013.

I don’t know if I really have much advice, other than to be realistic about your limitations, and take care of yourself by working with a licensed psychologist.

Not everyone can handle the same pressures or an intense schedule. If you have a mental illness, you may need to alter your art goals to accommodate your treatment. You may need to develop your drawing skills at a slower pace, by working in bursts when you are able to do so, and taking breaks when you need to focus on your health.

A therapist would probably be able to help you deterime whether or not pursuing a freelance career would be a good idea when dealing with your specific illness.

Thank you so much for the input! I especially like the point about learning the basics before trying to digital work. That is something I had not considered.

@zombie-rhythm Very interesting! I definitely have a lot to learn. Thanks! I live in a fifth wheel and don't have much room for a photo studio but I have been looking things up on youtube. I tried the outdoor method, as shown in my post, and it still looked dark. I tried to match the view to match my colors but it seems it would have been better to oever expose and then it would have come out less dark. I think we're going to try it again. We've done it twice already and, though we increased the ISO and F stop it looked too white to me and didn't look like my art so we turned it back down. Now, it seems we should have left it as it was and it might have turned out better. I used brighten/contrast in GIMP and it looked less dark but th colors were kind of weird and I need to learn more about making adjustments in GIMP too. I have to say I am learnin ga lot with each project I try to complete. This ia a whole new area of learnign for me 🙂

These are all great ideas. I’ve been able to spend more time practicing now that I am on vacation and I’ve found that using the correct brush size and better arm movement definitely help. I’ve also started using a cheap protractor to check and tighten up some of my angles because I often end up with buildings on a slight tilt. Thanks for the help — I’ll keep at it.

@lidia-ull
I absolutely love your work! When I’m stuck or especially when I’m not satisfied with my work, I listen to a book on my audible called Do The Work by Steven Pressfield. Great inspiration and helps explain the resistance you’re feeling.

Thanks for the helpful mini review @smceccarelli ! I don’t draw in vector much at all, so it’s interesting to hear how you found it. Cute illustration, btw! Love her hair.

@laurel-aylesworth Okay, now I'm looking at number 1 and it could be lovely to really get in there and see their facial expressions. You could always do more than one 🙂

@amber-bellerjeau Thanks Amber I did not mean to imply i got placed in big art contests,it was just some small websites contests.I would say to people enter If you really want but just be aware if you see your art in a game a few years from now there is probulary nothing you can do about it

@Christina-Kal There is an app called MagicPoser by Wombat Studio, Inc. 53.8MB. It's a Pose tool for artists. You can test the whole version out 7 days free and get a lesser version for free, and pay the full price (not sure roughly 6-15$ if I recall). When I work with people, I will probably buy its entirety. It has updated (the full version) with props but its cool you can be flexible, rotate, see different lighting, and combing figures. 4.4 Star rating. I use an Ipad Mini.

Check out magicposer.com
Even their videos can really help.

🙂 Heather B.

I've been doing a little project of making post cards for some of my facebook friends. Here are what I've done so far. I am not using pencil at all so they are a bit rough. I sit down, think of something to draw and start roughing it in with water color lines, then I paint and finally do ink.

0_1531969450524_37389947_10215432232612513_7760457389303660544_o (1).jpg

0_1531970671947_37292717_10215432850027948_7436051461395447808_o.jpg

0_1531970821058_37403528_10215427339450187_2906981604217847808_o.jpg

![0_1531970856096_37264458_10215427339490188_8376942576766287872_o.jpg]

0_1531971442935_37310924_10215432232652514_5410233284724523008_o.jpg


Oh, wow, thank you for posting it here!

@amelia-bothe Hi. I know some people here are saying that is ok for your portfolio to have more pieces but I disagree. Is my opinion and I can be wrong, ok?
I se great pieces in there but another not so great. One great piece can bring you work with a lot of luck, one not so good piece take away work from you instantly. Is like a job interview, you can answer perfectly all the questions and perhaps, with a lot of luck, they can hire you, but one and only unfortunate answer and you are out of question.
If you can make great pieces, you know which they are and therefore, which they are not. My advice is to let 10, 12 pieces and take out the rest. And I'm sure that no one has to tell you which ones.
I know that there are great artists with a lot of pieces in his portfolios. First, the pieces usually are all great, and second, they are already in the market, they have work, they have reputation, they have connections, etc. in other words, they can do whatever they want, almost.
I don't really know (I was desconeced a lot of time) where we are with the domain page. Is always better to have your own, but I don't know if now is acceptable to have a Wix domain for work seeking purposes. I know that a few years ago was like a red light but times change so quickly now...
Well, great job. Congratulations!