I definitely understand how you feel I painted something a while back and had really only tried to sell it once when my mother in law called and said she knew someone’s who wanted to buy it so I have her a price, later she told me that it was her who wanted it but wanted to pay full price for it so that’s why she didn’t ask it for herself. I felt a little deceived but after swallowing some pride and then guilt I was ok with it of course I would have given her a discount if not for free. But she’s always so sweet and just wanted to be supportive.

To everyone doing pets, what's your process? Digital or traditional? Mailed original or downloadable scans?

I like the style! I wonder if it would help the composition to move the sandbox under the window and move the snowman and child to the right, then crop the right to eliminate empty space. I might even increase the height of the snowmsn then to rise a little above the fence. I know that might be too much to change at this point.

Hi @Tom-Burchell. I really like your illustrations. You have a very fun style! I like that Wix and Adobe Portfolio let you have rows of images instead of columns, something I've yet to figure out with Squarespace. I also really like that you've got the "heart" feature for you images.

A few thoughts after checking out your site.

I noticed that on each of the artwork tabs (Illustrations, Character Design and Picture Books) you have an "orphan" image at the bottom in its own row. Not a huge deal, but in my research I've found that it tends to look a little unfinished in the presentation of your portfolio. Reformatting the row so that there are no single images (or taking one image out) will make the whole illustration "block" a little more pleasing to the eye.

I like your "About" page and that it's more personal and casual (I do something similar in mine). The only thought I had while reading it is that the display font you use and is a little hard to read. That typeface is great for your tab titles, etc., but I'd consider a more readable font when typing long paragraphs, to keep the reader interested.

Other than that, it looks great! Hope this helps!
Josh

@Neha-Rawat Thanks, this is also helpful. Really like your approach of assigning panels to the story moments. Curious to see that beginner drawing skills with unknown story telling skills will result in 🙂

@chrisaakins I've been a part of 1 book and personally know about 10 people that have self published books. The most successful one was a good friend of mine that had a pretty big personal network and also utilized a friend that has something like 90,000 IG followers to push the book, and he still moved a little less than 500 books total over a years time. I think in total he made about $2,000 in profit. With your connections you might be able to squeak out more profit. I think he was buying the book for about $4 printed and selling it for $12.

I don't know if I'd count Kickstarter out - why couldn't it just be a part of the overall strategy? I feel like it's good to know what kind of demand you can even generate. And local people can support the KS as well.

There's a big initial push of activity then not much after that, so I think you want to load both barrels so to speak and get as much bang as you possibly can so you can build momentum.

Sounds exciting! I think at the very least doing it the way you're thinking would at least result in a profit even if it was a small one.

@Julia Thank you so much for this helpful link 🙂 Hope you are doing well!! Happy holidays!

@Griffin Thanks! That's not a bad idea. I'll play with it a little. Thanks for the feedback!

@erinrew My vote is for the darker lines. I must admit that I am a fan of bold linework, so it could just be a personal taste issue. I do think that they darkness in the lines of the brown trees face are perfect, and the rest could be dialed back about 50% to rest between the two options.

I think a good place to start is to ask yourself:

What do I like to draw? What am I good at drawing? What are the lucrative art markets out there? Which market will my style be good at?

@Griffin i don’t have much time so I’ll just point out the biggest issues I’m seeing.

Your illustration categories. I honestly did not know they were categories because there was no title. I thought you only had 4 images in your illustration tab. It was only when @NessIllustration mentioned them that it dawned on me that I could click on them. This could either mean I’m just that stupid or you need to make your categories more discernible.

Long Bio. I think your about me page is sweet and really thought out but if I was an art director with very little time, I won’t read it. All I want to know is if you got the skills that’s where your portfolio comes in. I don’t want to hear your life story. Your decision to make a brief bio and another more detailed one sounds like a good idea.

Domain. It’s too long. I like the suggestions @NessIllustration gave.

I know I sound very curt right now but I just want to be honest and direct to the point as much as possible. Overall, I think you have good works. I wish you all the best.

@skillydan I'm glad to hear that! 🙂

Are you sure about this lady? She told you she didn't like it and wanted you to re-do it, but she gave the proof to her friend so she clearly thought it was actually good enough to give... It sounds to me when she saw the proof she though "That's all I need right there!" and then lied about not liking it to avoid paying you. Of course, I could be wrong but I would really hope no one is truly that clueless... This sounds too stupid to believe it wasn't done on purpose.

@K-Flagg @Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson Thanks, guys! 😁 😁 😁

@LauraA said in Art history series from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Youtube:

Nathan Fowkes

Yeah. I think he is one of Lee's teachers at Art Center. I took a self-paced class with him at schoolism long time ago. He was talking about the value based paintings. But back then, I did not understand anything he was talking about 🙂

@Matthew-Oberdier Thank you Matthew. It looks great. I chickened away from going to dark, but I think deep down I know it’s what it needed.

10/10! I agree with everyone! Accessibility is very important and I'd love to see these courses expand to meet the needs of as many folks as possible!

Oh that sucks. Well at least you are giving me hope that someone will eventually look at it. I was also wondering if it might take longer because it happened during the election and I imagine the number of accounts being deactivated due to hate speech and getting reported is probably higher than normal.

hi there all its really beeen ages! but i want to get back into things now. i want to buy a cintiq, and im looking between two second hand options, a Wacom Cintiq 13HD DTK-1301 or a
Wacom Cintiq Pro DTH-1320 13" FHD. the Cintiq Pro costs approximately £100 more.
anyone have experience with a Cintiq vs a cintiq pro?

@NessIllustration your workspace is very decent! For the photo, think of an illustration.

No tangeant near the head (the space around the head needs to be clear of objects that distract the attention of the viewer from the face), maybe put a plant on the table between the screen and computer desktop to hide the plugs, put yourself a bit on the right to show more of the screen and reframe the photo to show less body (1/2 is enough) (and the wires on the floor will disappear as they'll be out of the frame).
Really, it is like building a picture for your portfolio 🙂

That said, the photo is pretty. You can leave it like that as well. The important stuff is your portfolio!