Here is another Swaptember piece I got to work on. This was with my friend Jay Love. She isn't on the forums, but her Instagram is Breathingfireart. She did the sketch and I inked and colored it!
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October begins my 4th Monster Project! I'm asking any of you that might have kids that would like to describe a monster for me to participate. I will draw one monster a day using the kids descriptions. I am collecting descriptions on my Marsha Ottum Owen facebook page or you can put them here on this thread. If your kids have participated before they are welcome to do so again. Thanks!!!!!!

Here are some samples from last year (sorry, no descriptions included).

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I paid for SVS Courses for a few months and took notes for most classes but I forgot when I watched all of Jakes robot course!!

Does anyone have notes or tidbits of really useful stuff Jake went over?

Or another question is, what are the most common errors you see when noobs try to draw robots?

Ahh, Jake’s got me feeling all the feels with his story about his mom in this tutorial. 🥺

@danielerossi I saw it's on Vimeo too. So I think you can watch day 1 there if you don't have time to watch it live. I'm back in today, just watched some brilliant animation shorts. Makes me want to get stuck in and make more animations.
LINK to Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/pictoplasma

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thanks for the suggestion ..

Hey all,

Anyone else find it super relaxing to do Jake's inking practice sheets? Especially when I can't think of anything to draw I figure at least I can practice my line making and drawing from the shoulder.

I tend to keep a few copies in my desk just in case and feel it really helps as a warm up with my brush pen control to hash out parts of these 😁

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@Corlette-Douglas Hi Corlette. I also signed with my agency in June this year. I got my first project from the agency a month after.
During the first month, my agent shared helpful info like moodboards and trending topics to give the artists some inspiration/direction to create new work which they could then share with their clients.

There may also be times when the agency gets a requirement from a client which they then forward to multiple illustrators who they think will be a good fit. It is essentially an audition for the part. I've only done one such event and it was unpaid. The client then chooses who's work they like best and they get the job. But all is not lost, since the audition piece I created will still be circulated amongst other clients and can also be used in your portfolio. (The project I'm working on currently, the publisher actually referred to this particular audition piece for colors and style).

The amount of work you get from the agency can vary for every artist. In the few months that I have been a part, I've received 4 project offers (all are starting pay) out of which I've accepted 2.
I've been lucky to get 3 other book offers on my own (2 of them being trade PBs from medium-big publishers. One of the PB I received was via emailing my portfolio directly to the publisher so emails really work!) which the agency is handling for me. This will help me get leverage in demanding higher paying gigs from my agency even though I'm a new member once my current work is over.

Many initial projects received from an agent will be low pay, short timeline and a lot of work so it's a lot of hustling. You may or may not be able to live off the earnings fully depending on your living expenses. For me, the dollar/euro/pound conversion rate to rupee works to my advantage.

I did receive a few offers from self publishers after I got an agent, but none of them worked out for various reasons (budget/usage/rights etc.) But I was open to working with self publishers before I got busy. I usually would try and get an idea of the project from them to see if I'm even interested. If it looked appealing, I would forward it to my agent to try and negotiate the terms.

@carolinebautista Thanks!

You can take the cover of an unused pen to replace it. I've had the same problem you had when I bought it from a local store

@Ari-Sorokin I'm no website expert but from what you're saying, you seem to want to make an online store but instead of ready-made products, you're selling your skills. I think you can build a store on wordpress if you want but they're a bit tricky to setup. My money is still on Squarespace or Wix.

However, do you really need a store right now? Are you earning enough commissions to pay the store's upkeep? Where are your clients coming from? social media? Word of mouth? Maybe it's better to operate on instagram for now. You'll have no fees and profits all go to you. When business really gets booming, maybe that's when you should consider opening one.

@MarksByMallory it originally started as a reference as i got more comfortable with what i was doing I was able to start changing things and making it my own. It's still a WIP but I definitely know what you mean by feeling your brain expand 😂

interesting weekend with a lot of stuff to process and still a bunch of stuff to watch.
only quick negative takeaways is that zoom sucks ass and that people who use insta for lifestreams really should consider youtube/twitch instead of it.

I know the piece is done (excellent work!) but I wanted to share these because I STRUGGLE with color and this artist's demos really really helped me gain some confidence! I essentially try not to worry about the "color" as much anymore and focus more on the "values". It helped me sort of step out of my color box, and have more fun just experimenting with a variety of colors. As long as the values are correct then the colors end up looking much better together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbo6ZAuF914&list=PLS2oTl89g8i7C7gNl8xARB8ufGS2dX5wC&index=6&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJitss58XKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LhcNbFMkTw

@korilynneillo It sounds like you've had a lot more practise/experience drawing animals than humans. It will take some time, and I recommend all of the courses here that have human figures in them. Starting from the basics, and definitely the figure drawing and gesture drawing courses.
Then there's courses like, Posing Characters. I liked it, and I'll be doing it again soon.

@chrisaakins Same as above. Just keep drawing!

@ajillustrates Have you ever watched vids from Feng Zhu? If not, find his channel FZD School. There's over 100 vids to choose from, but if you type " fzd robots and mecha ", you'll find some. Grab a drink and snacks, or some drawing tools, and watch him draw from scratch.
I am also working on speeding up my process.

@PhoebeCreates No, I wouldn't categorize being new at something as a weakness. Actually, I don't like using that word, weakness. I'm sure somebody called it something else, recently. Was it Will?
My apologies to everyone! I don't mean to sound negative.

Anyway, turning something into a positive is a much better idea.
Until we find a better word, we can call it, "something I'm working on", or something along those lines.
Actually, I think you said it! 😁

I'm sure everybody can draw anything they want, in their own way/style. And then, draw that same thing again(no values or colour), but polishing up the lines. By then, we might see things we changed or want to change. Keep drawing the same thing if you want. Or if you're happy with it, try something else.

Yeah, keep getting into character design. Check out other peoples characters online.
We are allowed to emulate any artist. And then add our own spin on it.
We can go much deeper into this topic.

Yep, I have been researching and learning about style for about 20 yrs. And now I know I have a handful of styles that I can work comfortably in, with confidence. But, choosing which style to fill my portfolio with, is and has been a real headache.

For me, I don't need a portfolio for event work. I mean, realistic quick portraits, and silhouettes. My friends handle that for me. And covid-19 took everything away from us, for now.
The caricatures you see on my Artstation take more than 20 hours each, and I think the market is getting smaller.
I have a couple of styles that are better(I think) for the huge children's art market. So, I am nearly done with making a big decision.

Keep on drawing!

@Buddy-Skelton I am from Athens,Greece! Mediterranian fella!

@davidhohn unfortunately I don't know any resources in English...
Otherwise I'll just summarise (in English) the podcast episode I listened to not a long ago. The speakers were very knowledgeable and explained everything clearly... I learnt a lot!

@Ross-Cuellar-0 these are awesome and I love how well they show personality defiantly should be charging more!

Looking great! Your lines are so straight, it’s so satisfying to look at. It will look great painted - keep posting!

Hi @Gary-Wilkinson, Also using PayPal business account since it’s so easy to send and track invoices and link to business account. Fees suck, but seems like this is preferred method for transactions.