@demotlj Taking a step back and looking is something I forgot to do sooo often. Thanks for the reminder. I think I get super timid when it comes to my brush/ Apple Pencil strokes. I’m glad I’m not alone!

@burvantill I remembered them mentioning it which is why was trying to fix it. But didn’t really remember what they said. Thanks!

Here are the shadows I did today- I may still make them darker after I add the light and see how to contrast works. We shall see 😊

997B6F8A-CCED-438F-9BF6-D986BB9FF606.jpeg

Stumbled upon this older thread while I was searching for keywords ''character consistency'', and just to leave it here as it might help someone, it seems that Preston Blair's book ''Cartoon Animation'' is available as pdf online - https://archive.org/details/PrestonBlairCartoonAnimation

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Hello Cadiz, it's nice to see you here. I'm not sure what you mean? Are you referring to the trick-or-treater or the ghost? She's supposed to be an adult ghost that looks skinny and the torso sort of pronounces that. The trick-or-treater girl is doing a pose where her spine is slightly slung back. I derived this pose from movies like Cinderella's evil-step sisters. 08102a62-cd4f-412d-be0a-99b1d23c9c44-image.png

I just recently finished the entire painting and completely missed your comment. You can see and critique my complete piece in the forums 🙂

@Annaaronson said in Need advice on using textured brushes:

@Michael-Angelo-Go I agree with the previous two posts. I think because the rest of your painting is smooth the more subtle texture you have in the staff and in the lights on the windows works a bit better than the dress. I really like the pumpkin bucket the little girl is holding!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get work on Upwork, so good for you for making that work! Have fun experimenting with your new brushes!

@Annaaronson thank you for the support! I completely agree getting work on Upwork is completley hard. It seems like the jobs have to come to you rather than you coming to them. All my clients have approached me asking me to draw their books or logos. Although I haven't been getting any new jobs or job offers lately, so I've been drawing this entire month to build up my online profile.

@Brett I love Ralph Steadman! He's from my home city of Liverpool too. I know he uses mostly ink brushes with nibs. And gets the splats with a spray diffuser that you just pop in a pot of ink and gently blow it out through the mouthpiece. A manual airbrush for the more personal touch.

@NessIllustration Thank you for taking the time to respond. That's an excellent overview! I hadn't even considered the fact that you'd contact publishing houses every year just to remind them you're there, or show them updated work.

@Georgios-Christopoulos I agree that I like the composition of the second one better. As for readability, I think the line breaks do affect how people read it but it this case it just seems like the "pauses" make it more dramatic. So I don't feel like it takes away from the meaning. It just forces the reader to kind of feel that "slow-mo" feeling in the middle of the action scene which I think is the point

I’m putting my art snob hat on 😅 (please don’t hate me) and say Heikala is not that good with colors and values. Not all famous artist have the best art skills. That’s why this certain piece is not that strong.

It does exist, the vizualisation thing. It is called a term sheet. It summarizes in (mostly) plain English all the important terms of agreement and it usually circulates between the parties before the contract is drafted.
It is usually a couple to a handful of pages when the final contract is 120+ pages. If your contract is "only" 30 pages, I don't think the concept of term sheet exists in the illustration industry.

That said, we could definitely build our own standard term sheet (what we want in a contract and what are the points of attention).

This could be a useful guideline when reviewing a contract proposed by a publisher and help navigate the tricky clauses (what is missing,what needs to be limited, etc).

@LauraA hahaha... I can feel the struggles in your end of the screen.
My adapter seems work. BTW :-).

@Mara-Price thank yoooou!!

@TheArtBard I think this sounds great! I don't have experience with monetizing graphic novels, but to me your ideas sound good (like offering a few chapters for free, then ask for money to continue) This can be done with a Patreon where you can also offer other tiers for the other things you want to offer like portrait commissions, etc. Your next step is definitely to revamp your portfolio to focus on your sequential art. Best of luck!!

@davidhohn

Can you clarify the situation you refer to?
Do you mean you had a Work For Hire design fee that both you AND your client would have agreed to but you chose to go the license route?

It was something I did personally (we hadn't discussed the two options). Normally when I'm working with smaller companies, most of the work I'm doing is work for hire (for things like web development). I had done some logo licensing in the past where it was a lower fee but I retained the license, but more often than not these smaller companies end up getting a new logo made every 5 years or so. In the past 10 years of working, I've never actually made more money on a licensed logo because these ma and pa companies just were never going to get big and they never had much interest in their brand.

So I had switched to doing it as a work for hire because I could bill a good amount more. I do see that I could be leaving money on the table if they ever did something with it, but I just never saw any fruit from it which is why I had switched.

Maybe it depends where you are sending, for publishers in UK and Ireland I send out jpegs maybe 8 to 10 and a link to portfolio site, the jpegs are always low res low file size and quick to load.

Some publishers will specifically say on their site what they prefer, but you don't need to always totally stick to that. I sent sample jpegs to someone in random house and it specifically stated, in the directory where I got her contact, that they only accepted work through agents. But she actually got back to me with some lovely comments and expressed an interest in working with me.

Best of luck with the submissions
Phil

Update: Had a video call and I have to admit, we got on very well.

It's the client's first time doing something like this and he was very understanding & open to ideas.

I shared my thoughts on the short timelines for the scope of work & how 4-6 months is a decent time frame. He understood & agreed that he didn't want to rush anything but didn't want it to take forever as well. Quality is more important than quality. So that's good.

I also mentioned that budget was on the low end of the spectrum & 15k was industry norm and that work for hire is an expensive affair and unnecessary, as he is planning to print 1000 - 2000 books in the first run. Other questions like how many languages & countries is yet to be decided. I offered a licensing situation which he's open to look into. I'll have to share a couple of options in that regard that works best for both of us. The budget is around 3k though.

Understanding the low budget but fun project situation, we have agreed to I sending in a sample sketch of one of the character & a creature, which will be paid for, if the project doesn't work out. It will be included in the total illustration cost if project does move forward.

What is the normal cost for a line sketch of a kid character & a creature? How does 50$ sound?

@Laurel-Aylesworth my favourite : https://images.app.goo.gl/FNYWXAKM8zLohqZVA

I sell prints for kid's rooms on Etsy. I haven't put a ton of work into it but have a handful of prints that sell regularly. I'm also selling hand-painted ornaments there over the holidays. I'll second what @NessIllustration said, that you can't just throw things up there and expect them to make you a ton of money, but it is a nice extra bit of money each month and great to have something else going when I'm not doing book work. I use my own printer for the prints and prefer it that way so I can make the highest profit. I don't mind doing my own shipping and everything, it's relaxing mundane work when I don't want to be creative!

One more note--it's taken awhile to build momentum, but I get a lot of traffic my from Pinterest, so I would recommend using that as a tool if you start up a shop!

@Coley I definitely started out naive too haha! It's a steep learning curve and I had to make lots of mistakes to gain every little piece of knowledge I have now ^^''''

@danielerossi Thanks! I ended up receiving it the next day. Guess I wasn't patient enough, haha. Thanks again!

@Lovsey Thanks for your answer 🙂 Yes, it is - super annoying! I had a look on the support page and couldn't find anything. I realised it had been a while since I did an update so I'm doing that now, hopefully this might help. I'll let you know.

@silvialcg heres the link: https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/10189/featured-student-inktober-edition-2020
sorry about that!