@Miriam Thanks Miriam!

@Anna-Lindsay said in Do character pose sheets belong in portfolios?:

This is just me musing... I'm thinking there's probably two different ways to approach a character design sheet. The animation geared ones often include a turnaround and a few up-close expressions. I'm thinking a children's book one should look more like a collection of spot illustrations. Mostly active full body poses and different expressions? I don't know if that helps at all?

I think this is very sound advice! Especially coupled with @Nyrryl-Cadiz's note about adding story.

Hi guys,
I am new here, about to sign up 🙂
I was wondering how do you get your corrections from each module, brief etc …?
Thanks in advance, I think it is quite helpful to be able to communicate here, but also with the tutors feedback 🙂

@demotlj I have an old dip pen from high school that will mark similar to this. With some lightly watered down ink and a jacked up (very used tip) I think you can achieve something close. On mine, the loose point on the tip of the pen makes hatching look scratchy.

@randarrington I think, and I might be wrong, that by getting an artist to create art they tie them to the scam more efficiently. If you spend time creating something that you're proud of and that you've incorporated in your dreams, I think that makes you less likely to pull back even when the red flags start flapping. So normally, if someone you don't know asks for your bank details, or asks you to return a surplus on some accidentally too large cheque, you wouldn't do it. But if you want to believe that the person asking you to send money their way is going to help your art in any way, you might chose to ignore the red flags and send money anyway. I think ths is why the commission scams are so effective...

There is also a reason why the letters are misspelled and unprofessional, but it's not because the scammers don't know how to spell. It's to weed out the least gullable people at an early stage, so that the next part of the funnel gets people in it who have displayed a willingness and a tendency to overlook red flags, which, from a pure business perspective, is a very good way to up their conversion rate and spend most of their time on people more likely to fall for the entire scam. It's cynical and disgusting all the way down.

@Bea-S That looks very nice! It seems to me what you're missing is mostly finding out which market suits you and preparing your work for that market.

@Kristen-Lango I think it depends on the signage. I think the signage has the potential to tell a story if more thoughts are put into the designs.

Is it an Old west "wanted" poster? Something quickly scribbled with marker on copy paper and taped together? A wooden sign intricately carved? Something spray painted with dripping paint? A modern billboard? So, while the word helps to scaffold understanding of the story, the visual language of the sign can also add value instead of being a "lazy" cop out.

@Griffin-McPherson research the companies you could use and see what they ask. In my experience with wedding invitations and birth cards they do ask for a spreadsheet in a certain format.

I have not attempted to get any of my graphic novel ideas out there yet but I’ve read into it a lot so you can take this all with a grain of salt. From my understanding it seems that going through a publisher via queries is the hardest way to get a graphic novel published. If you have an agent who reps graphic novelists like yourself this would be made a bit easier, still no cake walk though. Self publishing is more doable because it’s all in your hands but that’s also what makes it challenging. Writing and illustrating a graphic novel is a massive task but now you have to find a printer, figure out distribution and how you will finance all of it. Lastly is the webcomic route which seems to me to be one of the best ways to get your ideas out there. You’re doing this because you love it and want to get your story out there so a webcomic is the quickest way to do that. If people really like it it will gain traction which means you could maybe start a kickstarter. It’s also not uncommon for publishers to pick up a webcomic once it’s proven to be popular with viewers.

All of that being said, I wouldn’t worry about making those decisions until you’ve written your script. If you haven’t already I would recommend checking out Nathan Hale’s SVS course on graphic novels.

@Asyas_illos @Pamela-Fraley @Stephanie-H Thanks! I'm glad to hear your opinions/suggestions here—excited to check these out! Stephanie, good call on master studies—this seems like such a fruitful and fun thing to do, but I keep pushing it to the back of my plate.

Thank you all very much!!! I assumed that people reaching out to you like that was something odd but couldn't figure out exactly how it would help them.

I'll try and look for those other options though...I would like to expand my exposure....

I think the 4th is the clearest post but it’s less clear that he knocked over the ink. It seems like the ink is falling over and he’s reacting to it. I think just some action lines showing the path of the arm course fix this. The top two poses more clearly show the action that is happening but the poses themselves are not very readable in terms of the silhouette. I would stick with the 4th since the pose is more clear and try and make the connection between the boy and knocking over the bottle more clear.

Thanks for the suggestions and offers to help, everyone! I was going to post my thumbnails here, but eventually just come up with a brand new idea using simpler shapes. Figured that will be easier, since I'm new to creating compositions that tell a story. I might not get it done in time for the deadline today, but I'll still share it when I'm finished!!

@Isabel-Reyes-Feeney Ah, you're right. They look much better on the right side. Looking great so far.

@KevinTreaccar yeah it helped a lot. I tend to gravitate towards low saturation colors but higher saturation always ends up working better.

@Jeremiahbrown At first I liked it with the text. But now that I see it without, the image feels more engaging somehow.

I recently ran into this issue as well... doing some character avatar for client's app. It sounds like app companies prefer vector illustration even though for my client I believe their brief and target audience can be better served by a textured style illustration I normally do in Procreate.

Is there any technical reason why vector is preferred while the client have no intention for the avatars to be anywhere other than in their app and website? Normally I thought the only reason vector becomes absolutely necessary is when they intend to print large formats?

Is this another case of them not fully knowing the tech before crafting their requirements? Style wise they told me the pieces they like and they are all heavily textured stuff created in Procreate, so I am feeling the disconnect with them asking for vector which doesn't serve the general art direction.

@Lee-White Thank you for creating such an amazing podcast! 😉

@glenfx yeah, if you're not pursuing children's book illustration (picture book, middle grade, or YA), SCBWI is probably not worth it.

Just to set the record straight, SCBWI is not like Freelancer or Upwork. The acronym stands for The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators -- it's a worldwide organization for those involved in publishing for children, and great for networking. It's not a website that plays the middleman between client and freelancer. Though there is an Illustrator's Gallery, it's more to give illustrators exposure and market their skills.

So while illustrators do get work from SCBWI, that's really not the main purpose of being a member.

I’d like there to be a vanishing point in the image that goes into the distance behind the characters but I still have to draw objects that reside outside of the 3 vanishing points which would mean adding a 4th VP and making this a sort of fish eye image I think.

So my question is, how could I change my image to make 3 point perspective work? I feel like 4 point might be a bit too much to tackle. Let me know what ya think!

Here’s the thumbnail and then the sketch which is where I started to run into problems.

2E8FED09-3F40-4EBA-96B1-CAEFCC766E7A.jpeg F1DFDC23-0A1D-4D41-94EB-E0385DC319C2.jpeg